x LAND AND THE LAND LAWS 103 



If, as I have suggested before, some of the earlier 

 land officers were ignorant of the first elements of 

 land, land settlement, and land tenure, they might well 

 retort that this ignorance was shared to at least an 

 equal degree by the majority of the earlier settlers. 



The buildings occupied by the land officers are 

 most insanitary, and the heat in the corrugated iron 

 hut that does duty for a land office is at certain 

 seasons of the year most oppressive. The class of 

 questions dealt with in this office are not only most 

 perplexing and difficult themselves, but are often 

 presented in person by an angry, incoherent, and 

 perspiring applicant. Yet I have never known or 

 heard of anything but the utmost civility accorded to 

 the applicant, and the utmost pains taken to find a 

 loophole in the law which will give a fair solution to 

 his case. 



