are on appeal to the United States Supreme Court: 1 case is on motion for rehearing and 22 cases are still pending on survey; 10 of said grants have surveys executed, leaving approximately 19 grants in this district still to be surveyed. The work in this office in connection with the survey of these grants will create a large amount of labor. Eleven private land claims have been surveyed under decrees of approval and confirmation by the Court of Private Land Claims during the said fiscal year, and 4 grant surveys have been corrected, as follows: There have been 4,489 small holding claims filed in this office under the provisions of section 16 and 17 of the act of March 3, 1891, as amended, for tracts of land not exceeding 160 acres each. Contracts have been awarded for the survey of some 1,200 to 1,500 small holding claims. Said filings cover, in a majority of instances, from two to six tracts, and a conservative estimate of the number of tracts embraced in these small holding applications still to be surveyed is 9,200. Where such tracts are embraced in townships to be surveyed, the surveys of such small holding claims situate therein are executed at the time of extending the lines of public surveys over such townships, and where they are situate in townships heretofore surveyed, per diem contracts for such surveys are awarded. The time limit within which such small holding filings could be filed in this office expired with March 3, 1901. The platting of these small holding claims is very complicated, and aside from showing the same on the township plats, small holding plats on an enlarged scale are made in triplicate, showing sometimes only one or two sections, which often necessitates the making of 27 to 30 small holding plats for one township. When small holding claims are situate in townships to be surveyed, the minimum rate of mileage only is allowed the deputies for establishing the boundaries of such claims, and connecting the same to corners of public surveys. These small tracts entail a vast amount of labor in the hauling of stone for monuments, setting and marking corners for all angles of such irregular tracts, and payment is allowed for one boundary only if the same is a common boundary with an adjoining small holding claim, surveyed by the same deputy; and by reason of having to write the field notes complete for each tract, setting and marking the corners for same, and connecting two corners thereof to a corner of the public survey, the deputies complain that they cannot make living wages at the low mileage rates now paid, and are loth to accept contracts for this class of work. The law in this case should be changed to allow the awarding of contracts for all small holding surveys at per diem rates, whether the same be in townships heretofore surveyed, or in townships to be surveyed, and this embarrassment removed. Sections 16 and 17 of the act of March 3, 1891, amended February 21, 1893, and again amended June 27, 1898, work an injustice to claimants in that, under section 16 of said act, small holding claimants are only required to show twenty years' actual continuous adverse possession next preceding the date of the survey of their claims, which are required to be surveyed at the time of the extension of the lines of public surveys over the townships in which these claims are located; while section 17 of said act requires claimants to show twenty years actual, continuous, adverse possession next preceding the date of the survey of the township in which their claims are located. This law is clearly unjust, when claimants under one section can secure title to their lands by showing twenty years' possession and, under section 17, claimants are required to show thirty, forty, or fifty years' possession to secure title. I therefore, have the honor to again recommend that said section be amended so as to read, "for twenty years next preceding the date of the survey of such tracts,” which amendment will place claimants for lands under both sections practically in the same position. Payment for the execution of small holding surveys is made from the appropriation for the survey and resurvey of public lands, and for that reason the amount of the appropriation to be apportioned to the Territory of New Mexico should be increased. EXAMINATIONS. Under authority granted under the provision of the fifth subdivision of section 2223, United States Revised Statutes, I have had field examinations made of the surveys of the following named grants: Bartolome Sanchez grant (P. L. C. docket No. 264), situate in Rio Arriba County, N. Mex., as surveyed by William McKean, deputy surveyor, under contract No. 346. Cañon de Carnue grant (Reported No. 150. P. L. C. docket No. 74); San Antonio de las Huertas grant (Reported No. 144, P. L. C. docket Nos. 90 and 269), both situate in Bernalillo County, N. Mex.. and the Alamitos or Juan Salas grant (Reported No. 69, P. L. C. docket Nos. 91 and 183), situate in Santa Fe County, N. Mex., all of which were surveyed by Levi S. Preston, deputy surveyor, under contract No. 345. Antonio Gutierres and Joaquin Sedillo grant (P. L. C. docket Nos. 274 and 275), situate in Valencia County, N. Mex., as surveyed by Levi S. Preston, deputy surveyor, under contract No. 347. Alexander Valle grant (Reported No. 18), situate in San Miguel County, N. Mex. (Special examination ordered by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.) There were also reexaminations made of the following grant surveys, which have been corrected by the deputies, viz: Antonio Sedillo grant (Reported No. 50, P. L. C. docket No. 15). Nicolas Duran de Chaves grant (Reported No. 155, P. L. C. docket No. 57). Field examinations have been made of the public surveys under the following contracts, viz; Contracts Nos. 336 and 340. Field examinations have also been made of the reestablishment of public land lines vnder special instructions to deputies in connection with contracts for grant surveys, and to reestablish boundaries of old grants, found necessary to be reestablished in order to show proper connections and areas to be excluded. Field examinations are yet to be made of surveys and corrected surveys of grants, as follows: Doña Ana Bend Colony grant (Reported No. 85, P. L. C. docket No. 24). Santo Tomas de Yturbide Colony grant (Reported No. 139, P. L. C. docket No. 137). Mesilla Civil Colony grant (Reported No. 86. P. L. C. docket No. 151). Jose Manuel Sanchez Baca grant (Reported No. 128, P. L. C. docket No. 138). Nuestra Señora de la Luz de las Lagunitas grant (Reported No. 101, P. L. C. docket No. 7). Examination of numerous other grant surveys will have to be made in the near future, when such surveys are returned to this office on the outstanding contracts awarded. Field inspection will also have to be made of public surveys now completed or to be completed during the ensuing fiscal year. NECESSARY APPROPRIATIONS. By office letter of May 3, 1901, I transmitted to you, in duplicate, the annual estimate for public and small holding claim surveys, for private land claim sur 6852-01-16 veys in this district, and also for the expenditures of this office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, as follows: For the survey of public lands and small holding claims filed under the act For the survey of private land claims $20.000 20.000 3.000 For salaries of clerical force in office of the United States surveyor-general. 13,000 For contingent expenses Total.... 1.800 57.000 As stated in the annual estimate, settlers are locating on the unsurveyed lands in this district, and by reason of the building of new lines of railroad, reservoirs, and other projects, there will be a greater demand for public land surveys in the near future than there has been in the past. Large tracts of public domain have been released by the rejection of numerous private land claims, and the large number of small holding claims on file in this office will make an increased demand for the survey of public lands and of small holding claims. There will also be an increased amount of public surveys required on account of the selections of donations of public lands to educational, benevolent, and charitable institutions of this Territory, as per act of June 21, 1898, and I therefore estimate that the amount of $20.000 will be fully required for the survey of public lands and small holding claims in New Mexico. In view of the number of grants still to be surveyed, it is estimated that the amount of $20,000 will be fully required for their survey, examinations in the field, advertising, and office work. By reason of the class, amount, and character of the work to be performed in this office, which includes a character of work performed by no other surveyorgeneral's office, the appropriations for clerical assistance should be maintained, and the estimate submitted is quite conservative. The appropriation of $1.000 annually made for contingent expenses of this office is insufficient to meet the demands of good service, and such appropriation should be increased to not less than $1,500 to enable this office to meet necessary and essential demands. In view of the great amount of labor and increased responsibility connected with this office, the salary of the surveyor-general of this Territory should be paid at the rate of $3,000 per annum, which is but a reasonable and just compensation, and is the salary fixed by law when the office was created and established. SPANISH ARCHIVES. These thousands of old Spanish archives require the constant attention of one clerk, who has charge of this department. Everything is arranged with regularity, order, and neatness. Many of these documents are being copied and translated in order to insure their better preservation. These papers are used daily by the Court of Private Land Claims. This department is in excellent condition. GRANT PATENTS. In all instances where private land claim surveys have been approved, the descriptive notes for patents have been prepared, and where the grants have not been patented, such data is lying in this office awaiting the deposit of the amount of the cost of survey, or one-half the cost of survey, as the law may provide. Some measure should be adopted to compel claimants of private land claims to take out their patents by paying to the Government the necessary amount in connection with the cost of surveying, platting, etc., as required by law. There are 19 of these grants confirmed by acts of Congress, the cost of survey of which amounts to $14,904.61, and 39 grants confirmed by the Court of Private Land Claims, the cost of surveying same amounting to $21,152.07, a total of $36,056.68. The enforcement of the law for the collection of these costs due to the Government on all completed grant surveys would not only reimburse it, but take title out of the United States and make it possible for the Territorial authorities to assess and collect taxes on 58 land grants embracing large areas of land from which no revenue has been derived by taxation, for the reason that title still remains in the Government. Speedy action should be taken by the Department to divest itself of all interest in these grants by the collection of these costs and the passing of title to the claimants so that the burden of taxation may be shared by all citizens alike. MISCELLANEOUS. This office has been handicapped in the awarding of contracts to competent ty surveyors by reason of the low rates of mileage paid in this district as |