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. 
