106 THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, 



no application having been made to pay, redeem or purchase the same, 

 and no suit pending to set aside said taxes or remove the cloud from 

 the title occasioned thereby,, shall be subject to the provisions of this 

 section. Whenever it shall appear by the records in the Auditor Gen- 

 eral's oflBce that any lands are delinquent for five years or more and 

 that said lands have been bid off to the State one or more times by rea- 

 son of such delinquent taxes, and that the time of redemption of such 

 sale or sales has expired and that no application has been made to 

 pay, to redeem or purchase the same, and it shall appear that no 

 action is pending in the circuit court of the county where said lands ' 

 are situated to set aside the taxes or remove the cloud on the title 

 occasioned thereby, the title to the State shall be darned abso- 

 lute in and to said lands; and it shall be the duty of the 

 Auditor General and the Commissioner of the State Land Office to cause 

 an examination of such lands to be made as soon as practicable, to ascer- 

 tain their value and if abandoned. Upon the examiner filing a certifi- 

 cate as to said examination and the occupancy of said premises, and the 

 certificate of the county clerk of the county where said lands are situ- 

 ated, in the office of the Auditor General, showing that no suit is pend- 

 ing in said county to set aside any of said taxes or remove the cloud 

 occasioned thereby, the Auditor General and the Commissioner of the 

 State Land Office shall determine what lands so examined come within 

 the provisions of this section, and record their determination in a book 

 to be kept in the office of the Auditor General for that purpose. * * * 

 Within ninety days after such determination, the Auditor General shall 

 make a transfer of deed of all lands so determined by the Auditor Gen- 

 eral and said Commissioner of the State Land Office to come within the 

 provisions of this section to the State of Michigan as an individual, as 

 provided in section 72 of this act, so far as said section is applicable." 



It seems evident that the spirit of the law here contemplates that ^t 

 the end of five years, lands not sold or redeemed, should be deeded to 

 the State, and all further expenses of handling them thus stopped. But 

 this was evidently not always done, for as has been pointed out in this 

 report before, most of these lands remained for longer periods, often 

 twenty years and more in the Auditor General's office, and were thus 

 a source of expense, apparently quite often unlawful. 



The following case, being the sale by the Auditor General of the 

 north 1/2 of the S E i^, section 36-16-14 W, for the taxes of 1889, 1890, 

 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, |27.20, being seven consecutive years. This 

 land wa^ disposed of to Lewis Eetterstoff, who sold same to the Alaska 

 Eefrigerator Co., by whom it was lumbered, who cut 150,000 feet of 

 green pine, worth $1,500.00 on the stump. 



That the view that many of the lands are unlawfully held in the Audi- 

 tor General's office, is held by others well acquainted with the facts, is 

 illustrated by a controversy between the former Land Commission and . 

 former Auditor General, in which the Land Commissioner finally com- 

 pelled the Auditor General's Office to deed certain lands long overdue 

 for this transfer. 



Another point equally serious, and at present a dangerous menace, is 

 the following : 



Lands are bought from the State often at 50 cents an acre. They are 



