The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-12
CLAIM STATE LANDS
INDIVIDUALS IN CONTROVERSY
 OVER 33O,0O0 ACRES.
AGent Mccain Makes Report to Cover nor of Efforts to Locate Tracts
 fn Dispute--Asks for
 Legislation.

John R. Mccain, who has held the position Of State land agent of Ala bana for the past five years, yesterday oubmitted his report to Governor Jelks upon his efforts to locate and secure Tor the State the large amount of lands which the records show belong to the State. but which are claimed by private Individuals. The efforts of MT. Me- Cain resulted In locating about sS0,000 4cres of such lands over which there was controversy.
 Tn some Instances. although the rec ords for many years past show the lands still remain in the name of the State. never having been patented. pri- wRte claims dating back for many years exist. Many of the tracts have been claimed for so long that the stat ute of Limitations has operated to de- Prfve the State of it's rights, and, MT. Mccain states in his report the State has lost very heavily in these lands in < that manner.
 The agent. since his appointment, has endeavored to get list of these lands upon which there was a claim adverse to that of the State, and he recounts his efforts along that line, with the att fendant effort to secure the title in the State, in his report, the text of which follows.
 "Since have received the honor and courtesy of the appointment to the po- sitfon of State Land Agent by you, In November. 1901. have, under your d. rection, had charge of the State lands, under the limited powers granted me by an act of the Legislature, approved February 2s, 1888.
 ssI began at once to ascertain, after an examination of the tract books or the several counties, in the office or the Secretarysaf State, what lands real ly belonged to the State. found that uuite deal of trust lands, or Sixteenth Section lands were shown upon the to be unpatented, the presumption be- Ing that said lands were still held in trust by the State for schools.
 q made a list of all such unpatented school landsy as shown by the tract books, and sent the list. showing sec tions. townships, ranges and sub-di- visions, to the eatax assessors of the re- spectiye counties, under authority of Section of the law under which have been serving, and asked them to fill in from the records of their offices, on the blank furnished. the names and Sad- dresses to whom, if any one, said lands were assessed, how long they had been held and the value thereof.
 'Tn most every case reasonably prompt return was made, and the blanks partially filled out, but in many counties, the records had not been kept well. or had been destro@ed by fire or otherwise, and in most. cases a full re- port was not obtained by that method
 After the return of these lists from all the counties but about three. found after summing up. that something like 330.O00 acres of these trust lands shown to be unpatented on the tract ' books, were claimed by different par ties in the counties.
 "Copies of these lists were then made and sent to the county superintendent of education, whose duty it is under the law. to make investigations, and if possible, bring suit in the name o1 fhe State to recover these lands wher ever they are illegally held. Tn this way, we have endeavored to reach eacf individual case as nearly as possible but the county superintendent of edu- cation receives no extra compensation for this work, and in many cases wt have not been able to accomplish any $ thing like what we desired in reaching the facts in the many cases in eacf County.
 .sThe law under which have acted allows only $1 per day for expenses and this will not rermit the State lanC agent to travel very extensively ant make personal investigations of thu merits and demerits of the claims bS which these trust lands are held. Tho correspondence of the office has beer