Land commission

“ There shall be allotted to each citizen one hundred and sixty acres of land boundaries to conform to the government survey-which may be selected by him so as to include improvements which belong to him.' While citizens were thus permitted to make their selections for the purpose of retaining improvements, it seems clear that in case any citizen failed to avail himself of this right, it was permissible for the Commission to make the allotment. ”

“ All levels of government shall institute a process to progressively develop and amend the relevant laws to incorporate customary laws, practices, local heritage and international trends and practices.
National Land Commission 187 (1) Without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the courts, there shall be established a National Land Commission that shall have the following functions:
(a) arbitrate between willing contending parties on claims over land,
(b) entertain claims, at its discretion, in respect of land, be they against the relevant government or other parties interested in the land. ”

“ As this movement proceeds, the codification of our land laws, as well as proper legislation to regulate the disposition of public lands, become of more pressing necessity, and I therefore invite the consideration of Congress to the report and the accompanying draft of a bill made by the Public Lands Commission, which were communicated by me to Congress at the last session. Early action upon this important subject is highly desirable. ”

“ The land which is embraced in the map recorded is the land which is condemned conditionally. Then it is provided that if the said commission shall be unable, by agreement with the respective owners, to purchase the land so selected and condemned within thirty days, it shall be the duty of said commission to make application to the supreme court of the District, on petition for an appraisement of the values of such land as it has been unable to purchase,-that is, such land as has been conditionally taken, which is the land embraced in this recorded plat. ”

“ Under the Inclosure Act of 1845 provision was made for the allotment of a part of the land to be inclosed for field gardens for the labouring Rural commons. poor, and for recreation. But those who were interested in effecting an inclosure often convinced the inclosure commissioners that for some reason such allotments would be useless. To such an extent did the reservation of such allotments become discredited that, in 1869, the commission proposed to parliament the inclosure of 13,000 acres, with the reservation of only one acre for recreation, and none at all for field gardens. ”

“ It shall be the duty of the State board of land commissioners to provide for the location, protection, sale or rental of all the lands heretofore, or which may hereafter be granted to the State by the General Government, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and in such manner as will secure the maximum possible amount therefor; provided that no school lands shall be sold for less than ten ($10) dollars per acre. ”

“ His grantees carried on the contest, but not in their own names, against the location and survey of the tract confirmed before the interior department, and in every possible way sought to defeat its action and secure such a survey as would leave the lands claimed by them without the limits of the pueblo. The interest which the plain tiffs below, the United Land Association and Clinton C. Tripp, had or claimed in the premises covered by the patent to the city of San Francisco, was founded upon these conveyances of the tide-land commissioners. ”

“ The state urges that the United States is estopped to assert any claim to the lands as against it by statements made by a Special Assistant Attorney General in a conversation between him and members of the board of land commissioners in 1907, when he delivered to them a copy of the bill of complaint in the first suit. ”

“ To maintain peace with the Indian, let the frontier settler treat him with humanity, and railroad directors see to it that he is not shot down by employees in wanton cruelty. In short, if settlers and railroad men will treat Indians as they would treat whites under similar circumstances, we apprehend but little trouble will exist. They must acquaint themselves with the treaty obligations of the government, and respect them as the highest law of the land. Instead of regarding the Indian as an enemy, let them regard him as a friend, and they will almost surely receive his friendship and esteem. ”

“ The power of supervision possessed by the commissioner of the general land-office over the acts of the register and receiver of the local land-offices, in the disposition of the public lands, undoubtedly authorizes him to correct and annul entries of land allowed by them, where the lands are not subject to entry, or the parties do not possess the qualifications required, or have previously entered all that the law permits. ”

“ Judge Christian's allusion to the Land Act is most noteworthy, for he said:—
'The property of the country is confided to the discretion of certain roving commissioners without any fixed rules to guide and direct them. In fact, we have reverted to the primitive state of society, where men make and administer the laws in the same breath.'
Reverting to the Harenc estate, a rather amusing account was once perpetrated by a Special Commissioner. ”

“ The public parks are under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, which is also in charge of public buildings and grounds. The water supply is under an Army engineer officer, designated the district engineer, but the distribution of the water is under the jurisdiction of the commissioners. The zoning of private property as to height of building, use of building, area of ground to be built upon, is handled by a zoning commission, of which the three commissioners are members and, in addition thereto, the Architect of the Capitol and the Director of the National Park Service. ”

“ The scheme, when approved by the committee, comes before the House for confirmation. It may prove unfortunate that agents originally selected to administer an Act having for its main object inclosure—i.e. the dividing of the land among separate owners—should have been chosen to carry out one specially intended, as Mr. Cross explained, to facilitate regulation—i.e. the preserving of the land open for the use of all. ”

“ In general there can be no doubt that a State has power to add more land that shares the benefit of a scheme, to the lawfully constituted district that has to pay for it, and to do so against the will of the owner. ”

“ I do not think that much complaint can be made with regard to the administration of the Enclosure Acts since 1876 by the Board of Agriculture. By the provision of adequate allotment grounds and recreation grounds compensation is made to those villagers who can claim no specific rights of common; and though no doubt many of the owners of single common rights are dissatisfied with the plots of land assigned to them, there seems to be no reason for doubting that the Commissioners appointed have endeavoured to deal with rich and poor with equal fairness. ”

“ That the respective claimants shall give in their claims to the said commissioners, on or before the 1st day of April 1784, and, if approved and allowed, shall pay down to the commissioners, one dollar for every hundred acres of land, such claim, to enable them to survey and apportion the said lands. The said commissioners shall appoint a principal surveyor, who shall have power to appoint his deputies, to be approved by the said commissioners, and to contract with him for his fees. ”

“ It seems to us that our duty, as marked out in the act, is sufficiently plain and simple. The first section of the act provides that a tract of land, the limits of which are described in general terms, shall be secured as hereinafter set out, and be perpetually dedicated and set apart as a public park, pleasure ground, etc. It has a proviso as to the quantity of land, and the cost to be incurred. There are four steps to be taken in the process of securing the land, which are ordained by the body of the statute. The first one is the selection of the land by certain commissioners. ”

“ The courts can neither correct nor make surveys. The power to do so is reposed in the political department of the government, and the Land Department, charged with the duty of surveying the public domain, must primarily determine what are public lands subject to survey and disposal under the public land laws. Possessed of the power, in general, its exercise of jurisdiction cannot be questioned by the courts before it has taken final action. ”

“ And if the settler has kinsmen and friends willing to join with him, he can claim for himself and each of them 100 acres of land, and pay for it by the work of road-making in the new country, so that in four years, if the work set by the Commissioners be executed, each man who has been one year resident and has brought ten acres into cultivation, becomes, ipso facto, owner of the whole lot of 100 acres. ”

“ As agent for this Government, that I know desires to deal fairly with this people, now I ask and urge that a commissioner may be appointed to come here and settle all land titles, give these people from ten to twenty acres of available land with water for homes, tools to work with, and enforce attendance in school until every child has secured a common English education. In this way we can soon make some return for the lands we have driven them from, and make them self-supporting, intelligent, local citizens. ”

“ But questions of fact upon which its jurisdiction rests are never so regarded. Thus, whether a tract of public land be swamp, mineral, or agricultural, may be finally determined by the Department; but whether a tract is public land is not so determined, and in all the multitude of cases that have been presented to this court it has never even been suggested that a ruling of the Department that a tract was public land was conclusive unless it appeared that the Land Department was guilty of some abuse of its discretion or powers. ”

“ Nothing can be more apparent than the intention of the legislature to order their commissioners to make the allotment, and to give the land when allotted to General Greene.
The 11th section authorizes the commissioners to appoint surveyors, for the purpose of surveying the lands given by the preceding sections of the law.
In pursuance of the directions of this act, the commissioners allotted 25,000 acres of land to General Greene, and caused the tract to be surveyed. The survey was returned to the office of the legislature, on the 11th of March, in the year 1783. ”

“ Shortly after the adoption of the conservation law, the deputy chairman of the State Committee for Construction, Architecture, and Systematization published an article in which he stated that mere administrative regulations by the committee and the Superior Council of Agriculture could not ensure the proper use of land, particularly on the collective farms. ”

“ I never for one moment dreamed that your Board would be forced by the Local Government Board to keep 150 men on one hundred acres of land, it being obvious to me then, as now, that neither men nor staff could have a chance in such conditions. ”

“ Those acts also provide that when, in the opinion of the president, 'a departure from the ordinary method of surveying land on any river, lake, bayou or watercourse, would promote the public interest,' the land may be surveyed, and sold in tracts of 2 acres in width, fronting on any such water, and running back the depth of 40 acres. ”