Show money to be refunded to utah land purchasers salt lake april 8 A special to the tribune from washington says senator kearns lias succeeded in efforts to have the secretary of the interior refund the moneys paid by utah citizens for land which it was afterward discovered was not subject to entry the ease in question is far reaching as it involves a great many thousands of dollars it was called to the attention of the senator by some of his constituents at brigham city it jeenii a number of persons paid into the salt lake land office 25 cents an acre for certain land under the desert land act and took the receipt of the land offices who stated that when they had complied with the act and paid 1 more per acre they would be entitled to a patent before the time came around for final settlement the secretary of the interior discovered that the salt lake land office had made a mistake in all basea where the location was made within the railroad limits because the government price for such land is per acre in most of these cases the had made improvements which according to the ruling of the interior department were declared null and void and tho citizens refused the land for they had paid not only this but they could not recover the money they had paid in moreover they had exceeded their rights to make another entry many of the c had small hold ings and a great many were being unnecessarily punished by the red tape of the department when senator kearnes ss attention was called to the matter he immediately set about an investigation and it bore fruit today in an order from tho attorney general to the eucce that alie secretary of the interior had a right to pay these claims without recourse to an act of congress this will be welcome news to a large number of people who are interested in the subject regarding alic matter of the issuance of scrip to homesteaders your correspondent spon dent called on the commissioner of the general land and received ane information that any officer soldier seaman or marine who served for not less than ninety days in the army or navy of the united states during the lle bellion who had prior to june 22 1874 the date of the approval of the revised statutes made a homestead entry of less than acres could enter an additional quantity of land adjacent to his former entry or elsewhere sufficient to make with the previous entry acres scrip is not issued to persons not soldiers or sailors except by special act of congress and is not issued to soldiers under the above act unless entry was made prior to juno 22 1874 A person who lias settled on land which is afterward taken by the government for public purpose is allowed to select other lands in lieu thereof but no scrip is issued to him |