72 Fourth Annual Report of the 



40,000 acres of land from the Indian River Company, situated in 

 Townships 15 and 32, Totten & Crossfield's Purchase, Hamilton 

 and Essex Counties. At the time of the purchase there was :i 

 portion of the land under contract and many families in use and 

 occupation of some of the lands. There was at the time of the sale 

 a question as to what lands would pass to the State, and there 

 was inserted in the deed a covenant that there would be a refund 

 of purchase price and taxes upon all lands where the State failed 

 to acquire title. The occupancies continued and the question of 

 title, although embarrassing, persisted from year to year and 

 from administration to administration. We decided that the 

 equity of the matter must be determined and an adjudication of 

 the title secured. Accordingly, a complete survey of the lands 

 was made, a description of the occupied land secured, complaints 

 drawn and served. Hon. Irving G. Vann, former judge of the 

 Court of Appeals, as Official Referee held court at Indian Lake 

 and practically all the cases have been heard. The judgments 

 have been entered in one half the cases and the remainder are 

 awaiting the findings. As a result it has been so far determined 

 that the State did not acquire title to 1,847.41 acres in this tract. 

 This does not mean a loss of land but does mean that the State 

 never acquired title to this area which it paid for and is now in 

 position to recover the purchase price. 



Actions to determine title to various parcels of land were fully 

 prosecuted. The State's title to several of these properties was 

 based on tax sales. The tax titles were fatally defective, and the 

 court decided that the State never acquired title. These lands 

 were as follows: 



Acres 



Iron Ore Tract, Lots 218 and 221 parts 95 . 30 



Oxbow Tract, Lot 123 155.00 



Hardenburgh Patent, Gt. Lot 2, Div. 28, Lot 3 part. . 76.50 



Hardenburgh Patent, Gt. Lot 35, Div. 14, Lot 8 part. . 45.00 

 Hardenburgh Patent, Gt. Lot 39, Morgan Lewis Tract, 



Lot 85 115.00 



486.80 



