exceeds that of any former year since the year 1854, the sales of that year exceeding those of the past year. Nothing can be more gratifying to the lover of good order and good common schools in our State, than the prosperity, permanency and increasing stability of this most important fund. The amount of principal now due from the holders of certificates and from the State, is over $2,000,000.

It is a noble donation to the Educational interests of our prosperous and growing State, and its benefits and blessings if properly administered, must be continued for all time to

come.

UNIVERSITY LANDS.

Three hundred and ninety and fifty-four one-hundredth acres have been sold, for the sum of $3,858 48, against 240 acres, sold for $2,400, for the year 1865.

The receipts on account of principal have been $14,693 75 against $17,724 58, for the previous year.

Interest and penalty received have been $12,305 58, against $13,203 83, for the year 1865.

NORMAL SCHOOL LANDS.

There have been 40 acres sold for $160. Receipts on account of principal, have been $2,712 80, against $6,283 90, for the year 1865.

ASYLUM LANDS.

Number of acres sold, 200; amount sold for, $800; against 680 acres sold for $2,720, for the year 1865. Receipts on account of principal, $931 50, against $4,090, for the year 1865.

STATE BUILDING LANDS.

There have been 160 acres sold for the sum of $640. Amount received on account of principal is $2,901 60, against $930 57 for the year 1865.

SALT SPRING LANDS.

The amount sold is 429.46 acres, for $1,717 84. Amount of

principal received, $1,953 73, against $2,973 79, for the year

1865.

The Trust Fund Lands, known as University, Normal School, Asylum, State Building, and Salt Spring, have been mostly disposed of, hence very few sales can be reported. The duty remaining with reference to these lands, is to collect interest and receive principal when offered, and grant to the holders of Certificates, Patents for the lands embraced in such Certificates.

TAXES.

The receipts to the General Fund, on account of taxes for the past fiscal year, amount to $4,512 84, against $3,419 99 for the year 1865.

Some opposition has been made by Certificate holders to the provisions of the Act of 1863, No. 107, requiring the Commissioner of the Land Office to certify that the amount of taxes, interest and charges have been paid, in addition to the former Certificate requiring a Certificate only as to principal and interest. But holders generally cheerfully acquiesce in what is apparently so just and necessary a provision.

Section 2,493, Compiled Laws, requires the Commissioner of the State Land Office to transmit to the County Treasurers, in each year, a list of lands sold on or before the third Wednesday in March, for the year then next preceding. As the Supervisors do not now complete their Assessment Rolls until the month of May, more than a month intervenes in each year in which the sales are not reported, hence the sales for that month generally escape taxation. It would be advisable to amend the section so as to require the lists to be forwarded to the County Treasurers on or before the third Wednesday in April, instead of the third Wednesday in March, as before.

SWAMP LANDS.

This class of lands forms now one of the most important parts of the business connected with the State Land Office. There have been sold of this class of lands, the past fiscal

year, 9,826.54 acres, amounting to $12,283 17, against 12,081.41 acres, sold for $15,202 during the previous year.

The amount sold on account of road contracts and ditches completed, and also under other special acts of the Legislature and Board of Control, is 167,276.49 acres, amounting, at the minimum price of $1 25 per acre, to $209,095 61, against 124,452.33 acres, amounting to $155,565 41 for the year 1865. The amount now reserved on account of roads and ditches not completed, is 458,700 acres.

The amount licensed to actual settlers under the provisions of the act of 1861, is 19,564.04 acres, against 18,373.26 acres licensed during the previous year.

The amount patented to actual settlers who have proved a residence of five years, is 13,089.63 acres. The number of patents now issued under the provisions of the act of 1859, and amended in 1861, is 838.

There can be no doubt as to the utility of granting land to actual settlers. The principle is both just and humane, though not all of those who have obtained licences have been able to prove up their claims to the satisfaction of the Commissioner; yet it does not lessen the justness and wisdom of the law. The number who have made themselves a home free of cost, have not only added to their own comfort and happiness, but have also enhanced the material interest and prosperity of the State. The principle has long been recognized by Congress in some form, and probably will not be abandoned as long as there are wildernesses to settle.

There has been but little conflict between the settler and those who seek to make selections under the road laws--the former select the timbered land adapted to farming purposes, while the latter, for the past year, have sought and selected lands in the pine timbered regions of our State.

The liberal policy of appropriating the Swamp Lands to actual settlers, and for opening important roads in the State, is believed to have been beneficial to the great interests of the State. That much good has been accomplished by the enact

ment of these laws, there can be no doubt. The acts regulating the construction of roads, are in some respects conflicting, and are not always understood by those who are entrusted with their execution. His Excellency the Governor, who is made by the laws the chief overseer of these highways, will point out to you the defects as they exist in some of the acts, and ask for such revision and changes as will seem to him necessary and proper.

We have received approved lists of about 230,000 acres of the Swamp Lands, which were omitted in former lists, on account of the difficulty of making the selections, by reason of the changes made between the old or fraudulent surveys in some sections of the State, and the re-surveys. When patents are received for the lands embraced in such lists, the lands can be speedily brought into market. No public sale has been made of any of the Swamp Lands since 1863.

AGRICULTURAL LANDS.

Under a resolution of the Agricultural Land Board of Control, the Governor and Commissioner of the Land Office were appointed the agents to complete the selections of land, under the act of Congress, which was commenced by my predecessor, Hon. S. S. Lacey. The Governor, having had the matter mostly in charge, will inform you as to the progress made, which has necessarily been slow, but has been favorable, considering the many difficulties that have to be encountered in selecting valuable lands at the present time.

TRESPASSES.

Trespasses upon the Public Lands have been committed chiefly, for the years 1865 and 1866, in the Lower Peninsula. A few have been committed in the Upper Peninsula, in the country bordering upon Green Bay, in Menominee County.

The trespasses in the Lower Peninsula have been committed near Pentwater, on the Muskegon River, and the country bordering upon Thunder Bay. Some have been committed in

other localities in the State, but none of any magnitude, except in the region of country above named.

My principal agent, Mr. E. L. Briggs, of Grand Rapids, has collected of persons, where a settlement and adjustment of damages have been made, the sum of $5,040 95. The expenses attending such collections in the various localities, and in their prosecutions, have been $1,763 19. The balance, being $3,272 76, has been paid into the State Treasury, to the credit of the proper fund. There are a few claims that yet remain unadjusted, that cannot be at present settled, amounting to from $300 to $500.

Trespasses have also been detected where no seizure has as yet been made, which will be attended to and properly reported.

The trespasses, or a large portion of them, have been committed upon Railroad Lands. The Swamp Lands have been so rapidly disposed of under our system of building roads, that few cases have been detected upon them, and few persons have the boldness or rather hardihood to trespass upon the School Lands; a few such cases have occurred during the past year.

Mr. Briggs informs me that owing to the difficulty of successfully prosecuting trespassers under our State laws, upon the Railroad Lands, he, under the advice of Hon. A. D. Griswold, U. S. District Attorney for the Western District of this State, procured indictments in the United States District Court against a number of persons in the neighborhood of Pentwater. One of the cases was argued and submitted to Judge Withey, who decided that the United States could not maintain the indictment against trespassers who had cut timber upon these lands. And from the difficulty of checking the depredations upon these lands, which are of late of frequent occurrence, and some of them of great magnitude, and because of the vast extent of the Railroad grants, Mr. Briggs suggests that the Legislature memorialize Congress to pass an act giving to the United States Courts jurisdiction in cases