The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-01-19

OF the land.
The bill provides also that when
lands are opened up for homestead pur.
poses, they may be disposed of either
by auction or by drawing, and that af-
ter they have once been opened up and
everybody has been given chance, it
will not be necessary TO advertise over
again If there are few lots that have
not been sold or if purchaser surren-
ders or forfeits his lot; in such
cases the Commissioner of Public
Lands is permitted to dispose of those
lots when a settler comes along and
wants one--dispose of them in some
method provided by law of course and
at the appraised value-without putting
the government to the expense of adj
vertising again-perhaps for one or two
lots-and without putting the person
to the trouble of waiting thirty days
to see whether he viii get his lot or not.
Forest Proclamations.
There are number of provisions here
designed to simplify the administration
of the land laws and to remove uncer-
tainties For instance, under the pres
ent laws of the Territory, forest pro-
clamations are made by the Governor
It is a serious question whether the
Governor can do it or whether the law
which has been passed by our Legisla-
ture is not invalid as being in conflict
with the Organic Act, that is, whether
the Commissioner of Public Lands is not
the one to set aside lands for forestry
purposes. This removes the doubt by
placing it with the Governor. as the
Legislature has enacted it should be. Or
again, the Legislature has provided that
lands when set aside for forestry pur-
poses shall be under the control of the
Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry.
There is question whether that is
valid and whether such lands must not
remain under the Superintendent of
Public Works in pursuance of the terms
of the Organic Act. This places that
beyond a question by leaving it to our
legislature to say who shall have the
control-whether the Bureau of Agri-
culture and Forestry or the Superin-
tendent of Public Works. Again, at the
present time our public lands are under
three or four departments of the govs'
eminent, any one of which may sell,
lease, or otherwise dispose of the lands,
and it is often difficult to say under
| land is, because the laws say in general
/ terms that certain classes Shall be IN.
| der one department and other classes
under another. 1t is often very hard to
say under which class particular piece
of land falls. Then again, the Super.
! intendent of Public Works may make a
sale and patent is issued in the Pub
| lie Works Department. The Commits
sioner of Public Lands does the same.
If person wants to look up a title, he
has to run to the Land Department, the
Public Works Department, the School
Department and perhaps to the Bureau
of Agriculture and Forestry. We ought
| to have the titles of our lands all in
| one place and have one series of pat
| ents. This act is intended to provide
| for this to provide that sales and
leases, etc, shall take place under the
| Land Department, and that lands shall
be managed by other departments only
in so far as they are set aside for the
use of those>other departments and by
| direct proclamation, so as to have no
uncertainty as to which department. any
particular piece of land is under. and
so that there will be one department
where all titles can be found.
Land Exchanges.
There are number of other minor
changes that perhaps, owing to the
| shortness of the time, it will hardly be
necessary to refer to. I want to call
attention to -one provision however,
which is not in the printed form, but
which | have submitted to the commit
tees. 1t is ON the subject of land ex-
changes, a subject which has stirred
up the people at various times to a
greater or less extent. The provision
is that no land shall be conveyed by
| the Territory of greater area than ten
acres or of a greater value than $4,000
without the approval of two-thirds of
board to be provided by the legisla
| ture. 1t may be that ten acres is too
small. [ rather think it should be a
| little larger. The idea is that when
| any exchange on a large scale is made,
| it shouldn t be simply at the discretion
| of one or two executive officers, but
there shall be board to whom the
matter may be submitted. Small ex,
! changes. however. such as the straight.
ening out of streets and all sorts of
| things, which constitute the bulk of the
exchanges, can be made without going
through that process.
The section repeats a number of pro-
visions in the land laws of Hawaii
which are either inconsistent with the
provisions in this bill or are covered
by them.
| No High Sheriff.
| Section 6 of the act repeats section
70 of the Organic Act. That is the
section which provides that there shall
be high sheriff. The object of this
amendment is not necessarily to abol-
ish the office of high sheriff, for that
is created by Territorial laws, but it
leaves it in the power of the Legis-
lature to abolish that office, if it is
found desirable, for the simplifcation
of the machinery of government and
for economy. Now that we have coun-
ty sheriffs, it may be found that we
do not need high sheriff. 1t may be
sufficient to have simply a prison war
den, that is what the high sheriff is
now largely 1t simply gives the Ter
ritory the power TO abolish that Office
if it so desires.
Judicial Offices.
Section T amends section 80 of the