doration to secure a note which the corporation later discounted with the Federal intermediate credit bank. In July, 1928, the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank of Columbia conveyed this lot with other property to Davenport-Brooks Corporation, which thereafter contracted to sell and convey it to the BrooksHirth-Corbett Corporation.

The abstract of title covering the real estate now shows title to lot 2 in section 18 described above, based upon a tax certificate, No. 1715, of the United States which was issued to Ben Robinson pursuant to sale of the lot on November 21, 1865, by the United States direct-tax commissioners of the district of South Carolina for nonpayment of taxes. This sale was made under and by virtue of an act of Congress entitled "An act for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary districts within the United States and for other purposes," approved June 7, 1862, and an act amendatory thereof approved February 6, 1863. This tax certificate was duly acknowledged on September 27, 1866, and was recorded in what was then known as Beaufort District (now Beaufort County) S. C., on April 3, 1871, in book 5, pages 343 and 344. It appears that the land records of Beaufort County were destroyed by fire during the Civil War and it is reported to be impossible to trace the title to the land in question back of the date of the tax certificate.

The 1922 Code of Laws of South Carolina (vol. 3, chap. 1, p. 4, sec. 4, subsec. 9), shows that the Legislature of South Carolina in 1808 (S. C. Gen. Stat. 1808, vol. 5, p. 596, sec. 4, act of December 17, 1808) ceded to the United States "five acres of public lands, near the town of Beaufort, including the site of Fort Lyttleton, Beaufort County, for the purpose of erecting a fort." The cession of December 17, 1808, apparently was absolute, although the exact metes and bounds of the five acres were not delimited in the act of the legislature. Commissioners were named in the statute to locate the five acres, but apparently they failed to function, for on April 25, 1848, it was suggested to the Governor of South Carolina that new commissioners be appointed to fix the boundaries of the grant. records do not show further proceedings to fix the exact limits of the ceded property.

The

The act of June 7, 1862 (12 U. S. Stat. et al. 422), which provided for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary districts within the United States, in section 1 charged all lands in the several States (except such lands as were free from taxation by the State or United States laws) with the direct tax imposed by Congress. Section 7 of the act authorized the sale of lands where the tax had not been paid.

It is apparent that the land ceded to the United States by the State of South Carolina by the act of December 17, 1808, being public land, was never subject to the direct tax acts, and it was not taxable either under a State statute or under the laws of the United States. It would appear, therefore, that the tax sale and the issuance of the tax certificate covering the land in question were, as to the 5 acres of land comprising the site of Fort Lyttleton, null and void and did not divest the title of the United States in and to such property. This, of course, could only have been accomplished by an act of Congress authorizing the sale of the 5 acres in question. It seems that there is now no structure in existence known as Fort Lyttleton, and the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank of Columbia has been unable to obtain any evidence showing the exact location of any structures since the date that these lands were ceded by the State of South Carolina to the United States.

The Davenport-Brooks Corporation, grantee in the Federal intermediate-credit bank's warranty deed, has now entered into a contract for the sale and conveyance of property including the lot in question but is unable to deliver merchantable title to its purchaser because of the defect in title and has advised the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank of Columbia that unless the cloud upon the title to the land is removed it will have recourse to the bank upon the warranty contained in its deed for any damages sustained on account of the failure of title to the 5 acres in question.

The information obtainable indicates that the United States has not occupied, used, or exercised any dominion over the 5 acres of land in question since 1865. The tract considered separately and independently of the farm of which it has been a part for the past years is not of great value, and it is probable that, due to its location, it is not now useful to the United States as a site for a fort or for any

other purpose. In view of the fact that the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank of Columbia, all of the capital stock of which is owned by the Government of the United States, will sustain a loss unless it is made possible for it to convey good title to the 5 acres of land in question to its grantee, it is desirable in the circumstances that title to the tract be conveyed to the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank of Columbia and it is understood that the War Department will offer no objection to legislation accomplishing this purpose. Therefore, this department recommends the enactment of bill H. R. 9198.

AUTHORIZING SALE OF CERTAIN LAND IN OREGON TO THE KLAMATH IRRIGATION DISTRICT

MARCH 19, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed

Mr. BUTLER, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 10174]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 10174) authorizing the sale of a certain tract of land in the State of Oregon to the Klamath irrigation district, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with amendments.

On line 4, page 1, strike out the words "sell and convey" and insert in lieu thereof the words "enter into a contract to sell and quitclaim". After the word "fourteen" in line 14, on page 3, insert the words. "and inety-eight one-hundredths".

On line 17, on page 3, after the word "feet" insert the words "and seven-tenths".

On page 4, strike out all of the paragraph commencing with the word "Such" in line 1 and ending with the figures "294" in line 7, and insert in lieu thereof the following:

Such conveyance shall also include a quitclaim of an easement for a perpetual right of ingress to and egress from the above-described strip of land over a tract of land sixty feet wide along the eastern boundary of said section 36 and extending from the south line of said section 36 to the strip of land first above described. Said two tracts of land are described in a deed recorded in the office of the county clerk of Klamath County, Oregon, in volume 27 of deeds, beginning at page 294. On page 4, strike out all of section 2 and insert in lieu thereof the following:

SEC. 2. Such conveyance shall be executed by or on behalf of the Secretary upon the payment within said period of six months by the said Klamath irrigation district to the United States of an amount equal to the book value of such lands as such value appears on the records of the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, as of the date of such contract. The proceeds of such sale shall be paid into the reclamation fund

HR-71-2-VOL 271

STATEMENT OF FACTS

This bill authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to sell and convey within six months after the approval of this act to the Klamath irrigation district, an Oregon corporation, all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to a certain strip of land known locally as the McCormick power site.

The Klamath-California Federal reclamation project, located in Klamath County, Oreg., and Modoc and Siskiyou Counties in California was constructed by the Reclamation Service, work being commenced upon the project in 1905. The district as developed to this time has about 130,000 acres, being served by water furnished by the project in Oregon and about 11,000 acres being so served but located in California. In addition to the acreage above mentioned there is included the acreage of eight scattered and independent irrigation districts, aggregating about 40,000 acres, which have, directly or indirectly, business relations with the United States Bureau of Reclamation in that they are furnished water from the ditches of the Klamath irrigation district.

All of the water for the Klamath irrigation district and for the present and future development in California comes from upper Klamath Lake, which is the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River, containing about 200,000 acre-feet and fed by various living streams.

The small tract of land authorized to be conveyed by the terms of this bill was acquired by the Reclamation Bureau at the time of the establishment of the project, but the same was never developed by the bureau for power purposes and the district desires to purchase the same for the development of power or for any other use or purpose for which it is adapted. The bill authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to sell the tract of land to the Klamath irrigation district within six months after the approval of this act upon the payment of the present book value of said property.

The Bureau of Reclamation no longer has any need for the tract of land and by the sale of the same the reclamation fund will be reimbursed to the extent of its present book value. Under date of March 8, 1930, Hon. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior, wrote the following letter to Hon. Don B. Colton, chairman of the Committee on the Public Lands:

Hon. DoN B. COLTON,

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, March 8, 1930.

Chairman Committee on the Public Lands,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Further reference is made to your request of February 26 for a report on H. R. 10174, which would authorize the sale of a certain tract of land in the State of Oregon to the Klamath irrigation district I transmit herewith a memorandum from the Commissioner of Reclamation. After a review of the proposed measure, I agree with Commissioner Mead

Very truly yours,

RAY LYMAN WILBUR, Secretary.

Attached to the letter of the Secretary of the Interior was the letter or statement of Hon. Elwood Mead, Commissioner of Reclamation.

Memorandum for the Secretary.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF RECLAMATION,
Washington, March 1, 1930.

Subject: Report upon H. R. 10174, authorizing the sale of a certain tract of land in the State of Oregon to the Klamath irrigation district, Klamath reclamation project.

Reference is made to letter dated February 26, 1930, to you from Don B. Colton, chairman of the House Committee on the Public Lands, inclosing for report a copy of the bill referred to above.

The bill directs the department to convey to the Klamath irrigation district a tract of land on the Klamath project, locally known as the McCormick tract, upon the payment by the district to the United States of the book value of the tract.

The tract lies along the Klamath River and might be utilized as a power site. It is no longer needed by the bureau and should be sold. Under the act of February 2, 1911 (36 Stat. 895), lands acquired for reclamation purposes and no longer needed are to be sold at public auction. The Klamath irrigation district objects to such procedure in this case for the reason that a sale at public auction would most probably result in the purchase of the tract by the power companies and the consequent inability of the people of the locality to develop a power site owned by themselves. Should Congress desire to prescribe a private sale to the district, the bureau would recommend that in view of the circumstances no objections be made by the department, since this is primarily a matter of congressional policy.

It is understood, however, that the California-Oregon Power Co. desires a right of way over this land in connection with certain proposed changes in Link River Dam, which is upstream from the McCormick tract. It is also understood that the Klamath irrigation district has no objections to the approval by the department of such right of way, subject to certain conditions which can be incorporated in the grant of right of way. In view of the fact that such right of way may be granted by the department, with the approval of the Klamath irrigation district, before contract for the sale of the tract is made with the district, it is thought advisable to amend the bill so as to direct the Secretary to quitclaim to the district such rights in the land as the United States may have at the date of the contract.

It is believed, therefore, that lines 3 to 10, inclusive, on page 1 of the bill should be amended so as to read as follows:

"That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to enter into a contract to sell and quitclaim within six months after the date of the approval of this act, to the Klamath irrigation district, an Oregon corporation, all the right, title, and interest of the United States at the date of said contract in and to the following-described lands located in the county of Klamath, State of Oregon: A strip of land four hundred feet wide on the left bank of the Klamath River in the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter, and in lots.

Throughout the bill, the plus sign should be used instead of the diagonal dash. After the word "fourteen" in line 14, on page 3, the following should be inserted to conform to the Government's deed "and ninety-eight one-hundredths". For the same reason the words "and seven-tenths" should be added after "feet" in line 17, on page 3.

Page 4 of the bill should be amended so as to read as follows:

"Such conveyance shall also include a quitclaim of an easement for a perpetual right of ingress to and egress from the above-described strip of land over a tract of land 60 feet wide along the eastern boundary of said section 36 and extending from the south line of said section 36 to the strip of land first above described. Said two tracts of land are described in a deed recorded in the office of the county clerk of Klamath County, Oreg., in volume 27 of deeds, beginning at page 294. "SEC. 2. Such conveyance shall be executed by or on behalf of the Secretary upon the payment within said period of six months by the said Klamath irrigation