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Show !f IN TIE UNHfflCE (joy, Richards Rashes Business. , Wyoming Man Has Shaken Up Dry Bones in the Bureau. Offico. Is Nowv Abreast of Current Business -for. First Timo . in Years. Special to The Tribune. WASHINGTON. July 11. W. A. Richards, Commissioner of the General Land office, since his Incumbency, has succeeded in accomplishing wonders. In methods of expediting various clashes of land cases which are before Ills bureau. bu-reau. There has been a decided rattling rat-tling of dry bone9 since- he came into office, with' the result that more business busi-ness has been pushed through during tho past fiscal year and moss-grown cases have been dug up and adjudicated. adjudi-cated. In fact, the office of the Land Commissioner has gotten almost abreast of current business within tho space Reorganized the Force. When Mr. Richards took charge of the Land office cases were in many Instances In-stances fully three years behind, and. through red-tape conditions formerly obtaining, there seemed no way out of the wilderness. He. however, reorganized reorgan-ized his force, with the result that moro business has been disposed of within the past twelve months than during any previous year for a decade. Mineral Patents iEsued. During the fiscal year ended June 30 there were .issued 2501 mineral patents, an Increase of 1400 over the previous year. This Item alone will be of great Interest to mineral land claimants In Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, .Washington, Oregon. Idaho"; and In fact, 'the entire Rocky .mountain, region A year ago the mineral division of the Land office was eighteen months be-, 'hind, In Its work. It has, by constant spurring on lljo part of Commissioner RichardB, now become only six months In arrears, and this arrearage will be caught up with. before the new year. Forest Lien Patents Issued. During the year closed June 30 ln3t 2G12 forest lien ac-etion patents have been granted, which is an lncreao in this division of the Land office of 1870 cases over the preceding year. There were only 7-12 patents Issued during tho fiscal year eloslng June 30. 1903. Public Lands Division. In tho public lands division there has been a great Increase in the work performed per-formed during the past fiscal year. The work of this division Is along lines of homestead entry, and 6S.3R7 enscs havo been adjudicated for patenting, an Increase In-crease of 1B.C22 cases over tho precod-ing precod-ing year. 1 |
