Imperial Valley press., 1909-05-08
Land Office Makes a Mess of Attempts 10 Solve Survey
 Problems
Shall Claim Other Mems Farms and That Only the Courts Have Power to Decide.

The present status of the school section question in Imperial Valley, as determined by land office rulings, ap- pears to be this:
 The land office holds that there was no actual survey in 1856, but as survey was paid for, approved and treated by the government as an ac- complished fact, the state acquired ti- tie by patent to sections 16 and 36 and those sections were sold as school lands. The Imperial Land Company attempted to relocate the sections ill accordance with the officially recog- government resurvey the school sec tions were plated as vacant lands where the Imperial Land Go. survey placed them, regardless of relation to other sections. The resuryey has been accepted and approved without pro- test, but the work of surveyors In the field, relocating school sections according to the reestablished lines of 1856, has been rejected, and the land office declares sections 16 and 36 of the repudiated Imperial Land Co.'S. survey to be school lands. An of ficial survey of sections 16 and 36 will be made later.
 If anyone can see anything coher- ent, logical, legal, equitable or com mon sensible in that statement of the situation, which is plain translation of land office rulings, he will confer favor upon settlers by pointing it out. The land office rejects the of- ficial resurvey of school sections and in the same breath recognizes pri- vate survey that it has declared to be no survey at all.
 If there was no survey In 1856, there never were any school sections. But the government recognized the 1856 survey and patented sections 16 to 36 to the State. It Is not within the province of the Land Commission CT to determine the questions of law ard of fact involved. although persons holding that office have attempted sH to do and have made inconsistent and contradictory rulings. The truth about the survey of 1856 probably Is that it was "faked" on the ground and that only few stakes actually were set. Of the $500 stakes required only three have been found, and those are doubtful.
 Apparently the general land office misunderstands the situation in the matter of school sections, assumes that the settlers and reclaimers of land designated as 16 and 36 by the Im- perial Land Go. survey hold title from the State as purchasers of school land, and thinks it is protecting them by recognizing their holdings as school lands. In many cases the very re- verse is the fact.
 Wilsie and Whiting, for instance, selected their land as desert entries because they were assured that the llUDGIlCll l<clAlu NOs NCy Noo oO widely div ergent from the govern ment survey that their claims could not possibly be declared school land. Sections 16 and 36 might be located, by final reestablishment of govern ment lines. anywhere except where shown by the unauthorized, erroneous and repudiated private survey. and the safest course conceivable was to make desert entry of an I. l.. Go. school section. And now the land of. flee slaps a school section doWu right over Wilsie's farm under the delu- sion that by so doing 1t protects him, The owner of that piece of school land does not want and does not claim Wilsie's ranch. He selected his sec ton according to the Henderson re- tracement of the survey of 1856, knows where it Is and is satisfied to retain it. but the land office insists that he locate by an erroneous, unrecog- nized survey and contend with Wilsie i for possession of Wilsie's home.
 In other cases the land office has confirmed school locations by the 1856 survey, because the owners have re- claimed and improved and are in ac- tual possession of the land. That Is light But why does the land office dnsist that speculative Rprchasers of sehool sections shall be gB en presud