OCR Text |
Show tun a Oilice Decision. Washington, 4. The secretary of the interior has announced for the guidance of local land officers the lollowing important rulings: First a homesteader who makes his entrv' m good faith has six months in which to -stabhsh his residence, and the tract embraced in such entry is excepted from the yrant to a railroad definitely definite-ly located during said six month even it the homestead is afterwards abandoned; 2d, a tract included in a cash preemption entry cancelled because be-cause it embraced more than 160 acres, and nut included in a subsequent subse-quent entry, dees not inure to a railroad rail-road which was definitely located after af-ter the first entry was made and prior to cancellation thereof. The secretary ot the interior affirms the following rulings of the geueral land office: The time a homestead claimant was in the United States ! military service in the late rebellion should be taken as part of the five years in wliieli o ,.t. t filth section of the homestead act could be commenced, and if mch period when added to the lime of actual act-ual residence and cultivation was more than five years before the content con-tent commenced, the contest ahoulu be aij-mii'sed. Commissioner Burdett decides that the testimony in homestead contests may be taken before any officer authorized to administer oaths and iisiuc a ;at upon proper notice to defendant. |