Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1875 — Beaver Lake Lands. [ARTICLE]

Beaver Lake Lands.

The Governor yesterday submitted a special message to the Legislature relating to the celebrated Beaver Lake Lands cases, now pending in the courts, and suggesting the imperative necessity of legislative interference to protect the rights of settlers and present owne rs. Tire, land in question is situated in the northwestern pan of the State, and is of great value now. A generation or two ago Messers. J. P. Dunn and M. G. Bright obtained possession of the land front the United States, under tbe ditching and drainage laws, by virtue' of riparian owner-ship. The land so reclaimed from tin bed of Beaver Lake, and held by them, was 7,880 acres. Dunn’s portion of the land was purchased by Bright at sheriff’s sate, and subsequently transferred by the purchaser to tne State Treasurer in satistaction of a debt owing the State by Dunn. "Under the act ot 1865 these lands have been sold to other parties, the State realizing $8,500. The land was sold subject to taxation and thousands of dollars have been levied and collected in taxes. The message contains a detailed statement of the case as given above, and fui ther says that Congress by the act ofJanuary 11, 1873, released and quit-claimed to the State the bed of Beaver Lake, though the Governor expresses a grave doubt as to whether the United States owns the lakes in the State. He cites the case in Pollard’s Lesee vs. Hagen et al , 3 Howard, as being conclusive on the point. The titles of the present holders have been beld good. Inasmuch as the Governor was council in a case oi this kind he declines to make recommendation further than to say that the State has distinctly asserted title to these lands, a tact that should not be overlooked in arranging equities between herself and the present owners and claimants. The necessity for settlement arises from the fact that certain parties owning land bordering on the original boundaries of the lake have Drought suit for possession of the entire tract of reclaimed land, amounting to between 10,000 and 12,000 acres. —Indianapolis Journal. The name of the “little tariff bill” is a perpetual reminder of its tricky origin. It Was originally represented as a very inconsequential little measure, chiefly designed to correot the phraseology and remove some inconsistencies from the existing law. Before its final passage, however, it was discovered that the “little’’ bill raised the rate ofdhties on about forty different articles. The bill seems to have been framed more with a view to favor certain interests than to raise revenue, and is a measure of very doubtful propriety. The President would do a good thing in vetoing it.—lndianapolis Journal. The common school system, as managed in this takes high rank aB a murder mill. Within the, past two months several teachers have died from overwork, and others have been compelled to resign to avoid a jimilar fate.—lndianapolis' Herald- .

President Grant, with a great fioorish of trnmpets, declines the tender of the free nee of the telegraph wires. This might be deemed virtue on the part of the President did not everybody know that he lias been dead-heading it over the country ever since his election, on steamboats and cars, at hotels, and every other possible manner. He has, at times, dead-headed his entire family.— lndianapolis Herald, The Secretary of the Treasury estimates that the revenues for the current year will amount to $284,318,285.99; that the ordinary expenses will be $275,315,189.42 which will leave to be applied to the Sinking Fund but $9,002,796.57. Under the law, the sum required for the Sinking Fund is $31,096,545, and there will therefore be a deficit of over twenty-two millions of dollars. Economies having been pressed to tbe verge of meanness, the Secretary sees no way out of the trouble, other than a resort to increased taxation. The country is notin a condition to bear additional burdens, nor is it in a temper to submit to them.—