70 THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, 



nently have charge of the forestry interests of the State, should be 

 given power to select out from, the State's holdings (all of the State's 

 holdings being made forestry reserves primarily), and all lands which 

 for any reason they were of the opinion that it was not to the State's 

 best interests to hold as forest reserves, would not that solve the 

 problem adequately? 



A. That seems to be true. 



Q. Does it occur to you that authority to select could be better and 

 more logically left than with the Forestry Commission? 



A. No. 



Q. Describe the process in detail under the law by which the State 

 acquires its title, the deed from the Auditor General included. When 

 and by what steps is its title brought to the point where the tax home- 

 stead lands may be entered or sold? 



A. The land is first returned to the county treasurer by the town 

 treasurer; by the county treasurer it is returned to the Auditor Gen- 

 eral. After a lapse of the statutory time, the Auditor General applies 

 to the circuit court in the county where the lands are located for a de- 

 cree against the lands. The lands are advertised for a hearing in the 

 circuit court, and a decree is entered, at this hearing, against the lands 

 for the amount of taxes charged up against them, with the necesssary 

 additional costs and penalties. This decree in the circuit court provides 

 for a sale of the lands. The Auditor General advertises them and they 

 are offered for sale in May of each year at the county treasurer's office. 

 The sale in May, 1907, would be for the taxes of 1904. At the time of 

 auction at the county seat, if there are no purchasers for the land, 

 it is by the county treasurer bid to the State, and is so returned to the 

 Auditor General as bid to the State. It is then subject to redemption 

 for one year. If not redeemed within the year it then goes on to the 

 State tax land list. The owner's right is at this point cut off; and if 

 the land has been delinquent for five or more years it then becomes sub- 

 ject to being deeded to the State by the Auditor General, which trans- 

 fers it to the Land Office and it then becomes tax homestead land. 



Q. At the end of the year of redemption, the law provides for the 

 State tax land being deeded upon examination if it is found abandoned 

 and delinquent for five years? 



A. That is true. 



Q. Now describe the method in your office of disposing of the tax 

 homestead lands. 



A. After the lands have been deeded to the Land Department by the 

 Auditor General, they are personally examined by examiners appointed 

 by the Auditor General and the Land Commissioner. There is no fixed 

 time within which this is required to be done, fhe lands are then ad- 

 vertised in the paper in the county where the lands are located, giving 

 the date when the sales will take place at the Land Office, in the City 

 of Lansing. The lands are sold to the highest bidder at public auction, 

 providing the bid equals or exceeds the appraised value as placed upon 

 the lands by the examiner and the Land Commissioner, but in no case 

 can the lands be sold at private sale until they have first been offered 

 at public sale to the highest bidder. 



Q. After they are offered at public sale, can they then be sold at 

 private sale, or is there a further process to be gone through? 



