would be paid in during the year 1881, but I think it safe to estimate that ten per cent. of the amount of these contracts will be forfeited to the State, which will reduce the amount of interest (approximately) to $19,000.

The interest paid on contracts for the two years ending December 31, 1880, amounted to $23,557 42, and I think that on account of the rapidly increasing number of contracts the amout to be derived from interest on contracts for the next two years may be estimated at from $40,000 to $45,000.

THE LAND OFFICE SELF-SUSTAINING.

It will be seen that were the expenses of the office paid out of the annually accruing interest on contracts there would remain a considerable sum in excess of current expenses to be placed to the credit of the School Fund.

The question as to whether all the interest paid on contracts should not be covered into the distributive School Fund has recently been decided in the affirmative by the Attorney General.

GRANTS OF LAND BY THE UNITED STATES TO THE STATE OF NEVADA.

THEIR HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS.

There have been granted by the United States to the State of Nevada, at different times, lands to the amount of 661,680 acres, exclusive of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, and lands granted in lieu thereof.

Of this amount there have been selected and approved to the State 614,530 25 acres, leaving due the State a balance of 47,1497 acres. Most of this land has already been selected, and will in part be approved. Many selections will be canceled by reason of claims to the land dating prior to State selections, alleged mineral character of the land, and for other causes. There has been much delay in the matter of approval of selections by the General Government, no lists having been certified on these grants since March, 1877.

THE SIXTEENTH AND THIRTY-SIXTH SECTIONS GRANT.

The Act of Congress, approved March 21st, 1864, appropriated sections numbered sixteen (16) and thirty-six (36), in each township in the State of Nevada, amounting to about 3,925,000 acres, to school purposes. Of this quantity the State authorities had sold prior to June 16th, 1880, 61,967 acres, or about 1 per cent. of the whole amount in sixteen years.

By relinquishing to the United States all sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections remaining unsold, on the 16th day of June, 1880, the State

of Nevada on that date secured a grant of 2,000,000 acres of land, to be chosen from any unappropriated non-mineral public land in this State, and to be disposed of under such laws, rules, and regulations as may be prescribed by the Legislature of the State of Nevada. See 2,000,000 grant.

THE INDEMNITY OR "LIEU LAND" GRANT.

The Act of Congress, approved February 26th, 1859, permits States to select lands as indemnity for sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections lost "in place" to the State. "Where settlements with a view to preemption have been made before the survey of the lands in the field, which are found to have been made on sections sixteen or thirty-six, those sections shall be subject to the pre-emption claim of such settler, and if they, or either of them have been, or shall be reserved, or pledged for the use of schools or colleges in the State or Territory in which the lands lie, other lands of like quantity are appropriated in lieu of such as may be patented by pre-emptors, and other lands are also appropriated to compensate deficiencies for school purposes. Where sections sixteen or thirty-six are fractional in quantity, or where one or both are wanting by reason of the township being frac tional, or from any natural cause whatever."

100

Under this law the State of Nevada has selected as indemnity for losses 12,708 62 acres of land. Of these selections 9,2286 acres have been approved, leaving claims for 3,480 acres to be adjusted. Three thousand two hundred acres of this class of lands were approved to the State in the month of December, 1880.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT GRANT-FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND ACRES.

Acts of Congress, approved September 4th, 1841, and March 21st, 1864, grant to the State of Nevada 500,000 acres of land for purposes of internal improvement.

An Act of Congress, approved July 4th, 1866, provides "That the appropriation by the Constitution of the State of Nevada, to educational purposes, of the 500,000 acres of land granted to said State by the law of September 4th, 1841, for purposes of internal improvement, is hereby approved and confirmed.

Under the terms of this grant the State of Nevada has selected and received 473,29418 acres of land, leaving a balance due the State of 26,705 acres, already in part selected.

67

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE GRANT-NINETY THOUSAND ACRES.

By the Act of Congress, approved July 2nd, 1862, 30,000 acres of land for each Senator and Representative in Congress in each State is donated for the establishment of an agricultural college therein.

Section 4 of this Act provides "That all the moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid by the State to which the lands are apportioned, shall be invested in stocks of the United States, or of the States, or some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five per

centum upon the par value of said stocks; and that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished (except so far as may be provided in Section 5 of this Act), and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated by each State which may take and claim the benefit of this Act to the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading, object shall be-without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics-to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislature of the State may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.

Section 5 provides:

First-That the grant of land hereby authorized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well as to the provisions hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several States shall be signified by legislative Acts: If any portion of the fund invested as provided by the foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall by any action or contingency be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished; and the annual interest shall be regularly applied, without diminution, to the purposes mentioned in the fourth section of this Act, except that a sum not exceeding ten per centum upon the amount received by any State under the provisions of this Act may be expended for the purchase of lands for sites, or experimental farms, whenever authorized by the respective Legislatures of said States."

Second-"No portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall be applied directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings.

Third- Any State which may take and claim the benefit of the provisions of this Act shall provide, within five years, at least not less than one college as prescribed in the fourth section of this Act, or the grant to such State shall cease, and said State shall be bound to pay to the United States the amount received of any lands previously sold, and that the title to purchasers under the State shall be valid.'

Section 3, of an Act of Congress concerning certain lands granted to the State of Nevada, approved July 4th, 1866, provides: "That the grant made by law of the 2d day of July, 1862, to each State, of land equal to 30,000 acres, for each of its Senators and Representatives in Congress, is extended to the State of Nevada; and the diversion of the proceeds of these lands in Nevada, from the teaching of agriculture and mechanic arts to that of the theory and practice of mining, is allowed and authorized without causing a forfeiture of said grant.

An Act of Congress, approved March 16th, 1872, provides : "That the grant made to the State of Nevada, under Section 3 of the Act of July 4th, 1866, entitled 'An Act concerning certain lands granted to the State of Nevada,' shall not cease by reason of the failure of the said State to provide at least one college, as required by the several Acts of Congress as a condition of said grant, but the same shall continue in full force; provided, that all the conditions of law be complied with prior to the 10th of May, 1877."

From the foregoing it would appear that the State of Nevada has, by non-compliance with the terms of this grant, and of the several Acts concerning the same subsequently passed, forfeited all claim and right to the benefit of its provisions, and that although the title of purchasers of these lands through the State is confirmed, all sums of money derived from the sale of these lands (except interest) must revert to the General Government, unless Congress shall, at the request of the Legislature, provide otherwise.

Of the 90,000 acres of land donated in this grant, 85,472 25 acres have been approved to the State, leaving due the State a balance of 4,52775 acres.

UNIVERSITY GRANT-FORTY-SIX THOUSAND AND EIGHTY ACRES.

An Act of Congress, approved July 4th, 1866, provides "That land equal in amount to seventy-two entire sections for the establishment and maintenance of a University in said State is hereby granted to the State of Nevada.'

60

Of the 46,080 acres of land donated in this grant the State of Nevada has selected and received 30,685 50% acres, leaving due the State a balance of 15,394 40 acres. 100

PUBLIC BUILDING GRANT-TWELVE THOUSAND AND EIGHT HUNDRED ACRES.

An Act of Congress, approved March 21st, 1864, donates twenty entire sections of land to the State of Nevada for the purpose of erecting public buildings at the Capital of said State for legislative and judicial purposes.

Of this grant of 12,800 acres, 12,704976 acres have been selected and received by the State, leaving due the State a balance of 95%

acres.

STATE PRISON GRANT-TWELVE THOUSAND AND EIGHT HUNDRED ACRES.

An Act of Congress, approved March 21st, 1864, donates twenty entire section of land for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for a penitentiary or State Prison.

Of this grant of 12,800 acres, the State has selected and received 12,37340 acres, leaving due the State a balance of 42660 acres.

THE TWO MILLION ACRE GRANT.

In 1841 Congress granted to all public land States the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of land in each township, the proceeds of which were to be placed in a fund, the interest only of which should be used for school purposes. The Act of March 21, 1864, enabling the Territory of Nevada to form a State Government carried this grant to the State of Nevada. The sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections aggregate one-eighteenth part of the State, or 3,925,333 acres. The topography of the State is such that a large proportion, probably two-thirds, of these sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections would fall in barren mountains and desert wastes, and would be utterly unavailable to the State. These facts having been brought to the notice of the Legislature at almost every session for several years past, have induced the passage by it of several memorials asking for 1,000,000 acres in lieu of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections. But for some reason Congress paid no attention to the request until definite action was taken by the Legislature in 1879.

Being of the opinion that Congress would consent to take back all the sixteenth and thirty-sixth section grant and give half as much land, to be selected by the State, in return, and that it needed more definite action on the part of the State than mere memorializing, I made a draft of a bill, proposing the terms of exchange. This bill, introduced by Senator King, of Lyon County, passed the Legislature and became a law.

Captain John Mullan, State Land Agent for Nevada at Washington, having received a copy of the bill, added to it in express terms the consent of Congress to make the exchange. The bill thus framed, forming a compact on the part of the State and the United States, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Hon. R. M. Daggett, and by him vigorously pressed to its final passage in both Houses of Congress. The bill was signed by the President on June 6th, 1880, when it became a law.

The bill, being short, is here given in full :

AN ACT to grant the State of Nevada lands in lieu of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in said State.

WHEREAS, The Legislature of the State of Nevada, on March 8, 1879, passed an Act accepting from the United States a grant of two millions or more acres of land in lieu of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections therein, and relinquishing to the United States all such sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in said State as have not been heretofore sold or disposed of by said State, and which Act of said State is in words as follows, to wit: "AN ACT accepting from the United States a grant of two millions or more acres of land in lieu of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, and relinquishing to the United States all such sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections as have not been sold or disposed of by the State.

The people of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact us follows:

"SECTION 1. The State of Nevada hereby accepts from the United States not less than two millions of acres of land in the State of Nevada, in lieu of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections heretofore granted to the State of Nevada by the United States; provided, that the title of the State and its grantees to such sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections as may have been sold or disposed of by the State prior to the enactment of any such law of Congress granting such two millions or more acres of land to the State, shall not be changed