hundred nine, may have a deed issued to him therefor or for of, what to SEC. 7. The claim of any person to such land shall be Claim, filing filed in the office of the Commissioner of the State Land show. Office within ninety days after this act takes effect. Such claim shall give claimant's name and postoffice address and shall show the facts and circumstances asserted by claimant on which he claims possession, occupancy and improvement of the land. The claim so filed shall show the amount claimed to have been expended under the provisions of this act and the deed from which he, his assignors, or the persons through whom he claims title, the character of the improvements made and shall be signed and verified by the claimant: Provided, That all claims filed in accordance with Proviso, the provisions of act number one hundred seventy-five of the claims. public acts of eighteen hundred ninety-nine, shall be accepted by said board as sufficient to satisfy the provisions of this act and no further claim shall be necessary to be filed by any such claimant in order to entitle him forthwith to a certificate and deed in manner and form and with like effect as provided in section twelve of this act: Provided further, Further That any description of said lands so claimed under act num- proviso. ber one hundred seventy-five of the public acts of eighteen hundred ninety-nine as swamp or submerged lands shall be construed to be and mean any character of land described in the provisions of this act. certain defined. SEC. 8. For the purposes of this act the words "posses- Words sion," "occupancy," and "improvements" shall mean: First, Actual improvements by throwing up of embankments of land, or filling in of land behind such embankments or ditching or dredging or the erection thereon of a structure, suitable for residence purposes; Second, Or putting in of sheat piling on or around the premises or filling in of land behind such sheat piling, or the erection thereon of a suitable structure for residence purposes or enclosure of premises by a fence and erection of a structure thereon suitable for residence purposes; Third, Or land made by filling in, dredging or by any other means; Fourth, The construction on the premises of a structure Proviso. Further proviso. Survey and plat. Board, duty and power of. Minutes, entry of. Conflicting claims. Depositions. suitable for residence purposes: Provided, however, That no claim to these lands on account of occupancy, possession and improvement shall be recognized unless the party making the claim has put improvements upon the premises to the value of at least one hundred dollars and claims ownership therein, in his own right on or before January one, nineteen hundred nine: Provided further, That where any claim shall be for less than one hundred feet the amount of improvement required thereon shall be at the rate of not less than one dollar per front foot. SEC. 9. For the purposes of this act, the survey and plat made by the Commissioner of the State Land Office, as provided for in section four of act number one hundred seventyfive of the public acts of eighteen hundred ninety-nine shall be deemed sufficient for this act and shall subserve all the purposes herein indicated, without the necessity of any further or other survey or plat. SEC. 10. The board of control shall ascertain and decide upon the rights of persons claiming the benefit of this act, and it shall have power to hear and decide in a summary manner all matters respecting such claims except as herein otherwise provided and to that end compel the attendance of witnesses and receive such competent testimony by deposition or otherwise as may be produced, and determine thereon, according to equity and justice, the validity and just extent of the claims and respective rights of conflicting claimants. It shall cause minutes of the filing of such claims and all its proceedings to be entered in a book kept for that purpose, and keep a record of the evidence from which its decisions are made, and is authorized when it deems it necessary, or upon request of any of the claimants to employ a stenographer to assist said board. SEC. 11. In case of conflicting claims to any tract or portion thereof the Commissioner shall cause notice of the conflict to be mailed to the address of each claimant interested therein, such notice to be given by registered letter, and a receipt for the same shall be preserved by the Commissioner and shall be prima facie evidence of the service thereof. In case of conflict, the Commissioner shall give at least ten days' notice to all claimants of the time and place of hearing upon such claims, and in such cases depositions may be taken by any claimant in the manner provided for taking depositions in circuit courts, notice thereof to be served upon all adverse claimants. When no adverse claims are filed, proofs may be taken by deposition in like manner after service of reasonable notice thereof, upon the Commissioner of the State Land Office. The Commissioner of the State Land Office shall give reasonable notice to all such claimants by mail, at their address as given in the claim of the time appointed by said board for the hearing of the claim. SEC. 12. The said board shall hear and determine all Board to hear, etc., claims. claims presented under this act and each claimant adjudged entitled thereto shall receive from the Commissioner of the State Land Office a certificate for the land claimed, or so much thereof as shall be adjudged to such claimant, his heirs or assigns, in which shall be certified the name of the claimant, a description of the land so adjudged to him and the purchase price due therefor, which moneys shall be paid to the State Treasurer within ninety days after notice by reg istered letter, mailed as herein before provided, of the final adjudication of said claim by said board, indorsed by the Commissioner of the State Land Office upon said certificate of purchase. Such certificate shall further state that such When claimant, his heirs or assigns shall on payment of the amount claimant therein named be entitled to a deed of said lands to be exe- deed. cuted by the Governor and upon presentation and surrender of such certificate to the Secretary of State together with the receipt of the State Treasurer showing the payment of the purchase price, a deed shall issue to said claimant, his heirs or assigns. An appeal to the circuit court for St. Clair Appeal. county from the decision of said board between conflicting claimants will lie in the same manner as near as may be as in actions in trespass before justices of the peace when a plea of title is interposed. entitled to how filed. SEC. 13. All claims under this act shall be filed with the Claims, Commissioner of the State Land Office within three months after this act takes effect and all rights of claimants to any lands involved in this act for which claims shall not be made and filed within the time herein provided, shall cease and become void, and all persons occupying such lands shall from thenceforth be considered trespassers. association, SEC. 14. No claim under this act shall be allowed for Claim, limit of. more than two hundred feet frontage and no more than one tract shall be adjudged to any one person, and no more shall be granted to any claimant than was actually in good faith claimed and improved or occupied for resident purposes and improved on or before the first day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred nine: Provided however, Proviso, That in case the claimant be an association, society or club, etc. it may be awarded a frontage not exceeding twenty-five feet for each member of such club, society or association in good standing on January one, nineteen hundred nine: Provided Further further, That any claimant who shall have improved or occupied more than two hundred feet front or erected valuable improvements thereon suitable for residence location shall be entitled to receive a deed for such additional frontage as he may have actually so occupied and improved. proviso. SEC. 15. All said lands platted as specified in this act, Appraisal. not awarded to any claimant under the foregoing provisions of this act shall be appraised by said board of control, which shall determine their real value exclusive of all improve Moneys, how paid, etc. Expenses, how paid. Certain tands reserved. Rules. Special meetings. ments; which appraisal shall be filed with the said board of control, and thereupon the said lands shall be held for sale or rental by the said board and may be disposed of by it at public or private sale, or leased, as provided in this act, as opportunity may arise, but no sale shall be made at any less price than the appraised value. SEC. 16. The moneys received from the sale or leasing of the said lands shall be paid to the State Treasurer and by him credited to the general fund. All expenses incurred in carrying out the provisions of this act shall, when audited by the Board of State Auditors, be paid from the general fund in the same manner as other expenses incident to the conducting of the State land office. SEC. 17. All of said swamp and submerged lands, lake bottom, made lands, or any other lands not lying contiguous to any natural navigable channel and not included in the surveys made by the Commissioner of the State Land Office as provided for in act number one hundred seventy-five of the public acts of eighteen hundred ninety-nine, shall be and are hereby forever reserved to and for the use of the people of this State as a hunting and fishing resort. SEC. 18. Said board of control shall have the power to make all needed and necessary rules for the control and management of so much of said lands as are not conveyed under the provisions of this act. It may provide and limit the extent and amount of land that shall be leased to any one person, firm or corporation. It may provide for and hold special meetings but rental values shall not be fixed at any special meeting of said board. Approved June 2, 1909. Members board of education, [No. 216.] AN ACT fixing the time when members of the State Board of Education shall be elected. The People of the State of Michigan enact: SECTION 1. At the biennial spring election to be held on the first Monday in April of nineteen hundred nine, and at wisen elected. each succeeding biennial spring election, there shall be elected one member of the Board of Education, who shall hold his office for six years from the first day of July following his election; at the biennial spring election to be held on the first Monday in April, nineteen hundred nine, a successor to the member of the State Board of Education whose term of office expired on December thirty-first, nineteen hun dred eight, shall be elected; at the biennial spring election [No. 217.] AN ACT making appropriations for the State Board of Geological Survey for special purposes, for the fiscal years ending June thirty, nineteen hundred ten, and June thirty, nineteen hundred eleven, and to provide a tax to meet the same. The People of the State of Michigan enact: purposes, 1910. SECTION 1. There is hereby appropriated for the State Special Board of Geological Survey for the fiscal year ending June 1 thirty, nineteen hundred ten, the sum of three thousand dollars, for purposes and by amounts as follows: For the continuance of the biological survey of the plants and animals of the State, as authorized by act number two hundred fifty of the public acts of nineteen hundred five, one thousand dollars; for the continuance of the topographical survey of the State with the United States geological survey, in accordance with act number two hundred fifty-one of the public acts of nineteen hundred five, two thousand dollars. SEC. 2. The further sum of three thousand dollars is Idem, 1911. hereby appropriated for the said board, for the fiscal year ending June thirty, nineteen hundred eleven, for purposes and by amounts as follows: For the continuance of the biological survey of the plants and animals of the State, one thousand dollars; and for the continuance of the topographical survey of the State with the United States geological survey, two thousand dollars: Provided, however, That in Proviso, U. S. case the United States government fails to appropriate an appropriation. amount for the topographical survey, then the amounts appropriated by this act for that purpose shall be paid into and become a part of the general fund in the State treasury. |