Show l i 8 oregary Sirkwoods Repent Washington 22 The annual report re-port of the Secretary of the Interior calls special attention to that portion por-tion of the report of the commissioner of the general land office which relates to private land claims in New Mexico Arizona Ari-zona and California + Seeretary Kirk wood adds The uncertainty existing exist-ing as to the validity of the claims and their extent make the title to them of merely speculative value and retards the sales and settlement greatly to the injury of the sections in which these claims are situated The present system for settlemeut of these claims appears to be wholly inadequate and some more efficient system should be speedily provided Secretary Kirkwoods annual report re-port contains the following passage concerning the San Carlos Indian reservations It is asserted however how-ever that on the southern part of the reservation there are extensive exten-sive deposits of coal Fuel is scarce in the territory of Arizona in which this reservation lies and hence the coal deposits are supposed to be very valuable Parties have sought to contract with the Indians for the privilege of mining the coal and during last summer a contract of this kind was submitted to the department for approval The contract con-tract was disapproved as neither the Indians nor the department had lawful authority to make or approve such contracts I consider this matter mat-ter of sufficient importance to call it to your especial attention The reservation is a large one and might perhaps be so lessened without injury in-jury to the Indians as to exclude the deposits of coal 01 if this cannot can-not be done it may be enlarged to a I corresponding extent elsewhere and the coal bearing portion be withdrawn from the reservation The coal is and will be needed for the proper development of Arizona but in providing for the sale of the land care should be taken that the coal is not monopolized by a few parties to the injury of the territory terri-tory P |