298 



FLORIDA. 



SEC. 5. All persons entering lands under the pro- 

 visions of this act shall be assessed for and pay t;ixcs 

 on the land so entered, from and utter the date of en- 

 try and first payment thereon, and a failure to pay the 

 taxes assessed thereon shall cause a forfeiture of all 

 the benefits of this act and the part of the purchase- 

 money paid in. 



The Governor vetoed a bill providing that 



the seat of government be changed from Tallahassee, 

 in Leon County, to Gainesville, in Alachua County, 

 or such other place in this State which a majority 

 of the registered voters of the State shall select : Pro- 

 vided, that the removal of the scat of government and 

 the erection of the Capitol building shall be accom- 

 plished without cost to the State. 



A committee appointed to investigate certain 

 charges of official misconduct against Chief- Jus- 

 tice . M . Randall made a report, exonerating 

 him, which was adopted. 



The act to regulate the practice of medicine 



provides for the appointment by the Governor 

 of six boards of medical examiners, to be lo- 

 cated respectively at Tallahassee, Jacksonville, 

 Pensacola, Key West, Ocala, and Tampa, whose 

 duty it is to examine candidates for practice, 

 not graduates in medicine, and issue certificates 

 to those found competent. 



The joint committee of the Senate and As- 

 sembly appointed to go to Jacksonville to ob- 

 tain information regarding the indebtedness of 

 the Internal Improvement Fund, reported the 

 following statement of the amount of coupons 

 of bonds of the railroad companies guaranteed 

 by the trustees of the Internal Improvement 

 Fund, which have been filed in court and veri- 

 fied as reported by A. Doggett, Special Master, 

 with interest on the coupons from maturity, 

 the payments made thereon, and the balance 

 now due : 



RAILROAD COMPANY. 



Amount of coupons. 



Interest on coupon*. 



Total principal and 

 interest. 



Payment* made. 



Balance due. 



Florida 



Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central. 



Pt-nsacola and Georgia 



Tallahassee 



$300,615 00 



95,620 00 



180,728 50 



19,288 50 



$227.664 77 

 95.537 88 

 94,406 44 

 15,858 05 



$528,279 77 



191,157 88 



225,134 94 



85,146 55 



$75,818 59 

 68,149 46 

 28,889 47 

 8,791 71 



$452,466 18 

 128,008 42 

 201,245 47 

 26,854 84 



Total. 



$546,252 00 



$438,467 14 



$979,719 14 



$171,644 28 



$808,074 91 



After the first of January a remarkable ac- 

 tivity in the sale of State lands was manifested. 

 The following are the sales for five months : 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT AND SWAMP LANDS. 



MONTHS. 



Acre*. 



Amount. 



January 4,874-98 $4.113 26 



February 27,602-42 22,977 88 



March 8,895-32 10,89683 



April 88,298-45 20,71396 



May 14,897-87 12,45883 



Total 90,568-54 $71,15926 



SCHOOL AND SEMINARY LANDS. 

 LANDS. Acres. Amount. 



Total sales 6,370-00 $3,95700 



Since the 1st day of January, 1879, these 

 patents for swamp-lands have been received 

 from the United States : 



Acret. 



Patent No. 19, former Tallahassee (now Gaines- 

 ville) district 4,689-80 



Patent No. 12. former St, Augustine (now 

 Gainesville) district 29,509-75 



Patent No. 1. Gainesville district 15,761 86 



Patent No. 17, former Tampa (now Gainesville) 

 district 682.860-34 



Patent No. 18, former Tampa (now Gainesville) 

 district 813,514- 68 



Patent No. 19, former Tampa (now Gainesville) 

 district 536,995-15 



Patent No. 20, former Tampa (now Gainesville) 

 district 2,282,667 07 



Total 8,765,448-65 



The quantity previously patented was 10,667,016-15 



Making total patents received 14,442,404- 80 



The quantity disposed of prior to 



January 1, 1S77, was 1,497,272 27 



Disposed of since 187,457- 15 



1,684,729-42 



Balance orr hand 12,757,785'33 



A census of the Indians of South Florida 

 was taken a year or two since, giving a total 

 population of 203. This has been augmented 

 by the natural increase, and they may now be 

 set down at 225. The chiefs are always chosen 

 from the family or faction of the " Tigers," it 

 being a tradition among the Indians that if the 

 selection be made from the "Wolves," the 

 "Snakes," or the "North Winds," the ad- 

 ministration of the incumbent will be short- 

 lived. A general council is called annually in 

 the green-corn season, when a trial is had of 

 all offenders against the laws. This is also a 

 legislative body, where new laws are enacted 

 and modifications made in those already passed. 



A question arising as to the effect of a con- 

 viction for petit larceny before a justice of the 

 peace upon the right of suffrage, the Supreme 

 Court decided that, under the Constitution and 

 laws, such conviction disqualified the offender 

 from voting. 



Captain H. S. Duval, United States deputy 

 surveyor, returning from an expedition in 

 South Florida, reports that the country marked 

 as the Everglades, as far as he surveyed, con- 

 sists of high, rolling lands, covered with a large 

 growth of pine, with here and there large 

 bodies of hammock-land which seemed richer 

 than he had ever before seen in an experience 

 of thirty-one years in surveying in Florida. 



He regards the Everglades as partially a 

 myth, though doubtless there is something of 

 the kind, but covering but very little ground, 

 immediately south of the great Okechobee 

 Lake. 



For the year ending June 1st, the total value 

 of merchandise transported on the Chattahoo- 

 chee River, including the Appalachicola and 



