To balance of Insane Hospital fund in the treasury on the 1st

day of December, 1848, after deducting the sum of
$3,518 39, reported in last report,
amount received from the 1st of December, 1848, to the
30th November, 1850, inclusive,

To balance due,

INSANE HOSPITAL FUND.

amount of warra

By amount of warrants issued for the Insane Hospital fund
prior to the first day of December, 1848, and cancel-
led since last report,

amount of warrants issued, cancelled and deposited in
the auditor's office, from the 1st of December, 1848, to
the 30th November, 1850, inclusive, after deducting
the sum of $3,518 39, reported in last report,
amount to balance account,

FUND FOR THE BLIND.

To amount of tax received on the assessment of 1849,

$ 9374 33

By amount of warrants issued and paid at the treasury, amount to balance account,

STATEMENT of the condition of the state lands selected and purchased for internal improvement purposes, except town lots, mill property, and land in Cairo city.

In what district lands selected, and to what account lands purchased were charged.

Chicago,

selected and sold to 1st. from Dec.
purchased. December 1, 1846 to
1846. Dec.1, '48

Quantity Acres Acres sold Acres sold Total acres Acres re

90,022.88 80,396,04

Alton & McCarmel R. R.
Alton & Shawneetown R.
Total lands purchased, -
Total,

680.00 2,200.34 74.92

1,280.00

15,873.23

5,086.45

11,476.69

42,291.65 3,362.92 323.19 2,955.26 5,641.37 35,650,28 251,351.70 91,749.30 15,212.42 13,961.64 120,923.36 130,428.34

The above table shows 130,428.34 acres of lands, selected under the act of congress, Sept. 4, 1841, and of the lands purchased by the board of commissioners of public works, remaining unsold. The aggregate value of these lands as appraised under the act of 1843, amounts to the sum of $753,348 83. All of the said lands have been offered at public sale, and are now subject to entry, except 6,071.62 acres, which were not offered at the land sale of 1844, or since. There has been received during the two years ending November 30, 1850, on the sales of state lands, state indebtedness amounting to the sum of

To which add for error in report of 1846,

Making the sum of

$65,759 94

160 00

$65,919 94

Which sum has been deposited with the fund commissioner.

(

The work required by the second section of an act entitled "an act to enable the auditor of public accounts to perform his duty," approved March 1st, 1847, and the twenty-third section of an act entitled "an act to amend the several acts concerning the public revenue," approved February 8, 1848, is nearly completed, and it is expected, will be finished during the present month. Believing that the public interest required that the land records in the several counties should be corrected at as early a day as possible, the work has been pushed forward with all possible dispatch, and eighty counties have been furnished with complete records of all the lands subject to taxation in said counties. Thirteen other counties have applied for corrected land books, which it is expected will be completed by the first of January. The remaining six counties, to wit: Crawford, De Witt, Edgar, Fulton, Peoria, and Vermilion, have, I am informed, had their land records corrected; hence it will not be necessary to furnish them with land books from this office.

In making out the county land books, as well as the annual reports of lands for taxation, I find it to be impossible to determine the correct boundaries of some of the counties, from the plats and records on file in this office. The dividing line, in some cases, is nothing more than a small creek or branch, the meanderings of which have never been surveyed; hence the channel is not correctly traced upon the plats.

I have been at considerable expense and trouble in obtaining plats and other information from the surveyor general's office, and the several land offices, for the purpose of correcting, as far as possible, the defects in the maps and records in this office, but am satisfied that they are yet very imperfect, and that they cannot be correctly ascertained without an actual survey of the lands through which the line passes. Portions of several counties are bounded by lines running diagonally through sections, making it very difficult for assessors to determine in what county the lands should be taxed. In many cases, therefore, the lands are assessed in both counties, and frequently they are not assessed in either county; thereby not only causing trouble to the owners of the property, but an actual loss to the public treasury. Much disorder would be avoided, in my opinion, if the lines dividing counties were made to conform to the surveys of the general government, except where the boundary line is a navigable river or lake. Wherever it might be necessary to run lines diagonally across sections, they could be run so as to zigzag with the lines of quarters of quarter sections without materially affecting the direction of any line, and thereby forty acre tracts would always be left altogether, either on one side or the other of such lines, and no difficulty could arise in the assessment of such lands.

The records of lands purchased by individuals from the general government, subject to taxation, (except a portion of the old locations and claims, which will soon be corrected,) are now in as complete order as they can well be made; and the system adopted in making out the new land books for this office, and for the counties, is so perfect that it will require but little care and attention to keep them in perfect order here

after. However, as there are frequent changes of entries of lands, on account of errors, pre-emption claims, &c., it will be necessary that some provision be made to have this office advised of such changes, or corrections, that the tax lists may be corrected annually, and improper assessments avoided.

For the purpose of correcting the school land records, I have had them transcribed into tract books, and it is found that in many cases the same tract has been patented in error, to two or more persons. Lists of these errors have been furnished to the school commissioners of the proper counties, and, in some cases, the erroneous patents have been returned to this office, and corrected, but a large number of them are still outstanding. From applications made to this office for school land patents, it appears that patents which have been issued and forwarded to the commissioners, have either been lost in the mails, or mislaid at the office of the commissioner, and that the purchasers have not received patents for the lands thus patented. It may be necessary that some provision be made regulating the issuing of duplicate patents in such cases, and to enable this department to correct the errors above referred to.

I would respectfully suggest the expediency of more restrictive legislation to secure the public revenue. The large amount lost annually by defalcation of collectors, seems to require some more effectual mode of securing the revenue than now exists. It is an easy matter for securities on collectors' bonds, in many cases, if they are so disposed, to sell their property before judgments can be obtained on the bonds, and thereby evade their payment; and, if I have been correctly informed, the courts in some cases approve bonds with insufficient securities. If the bonds required from collectors were made liens upon their real estate, and upon the real estate of their securities, until their accounts were fully settled, and the responsibility of the securities determined by the value of their real estate, it would, in my opinion, secure more effectually the public revenue, and cause collectors to be more prompt and energetic in the discharge of their duties.

There may be a small amount collected from clerks of county courts, as some of the accounts, for the redemption of forfeited property, have not yet been adjusted. In some counties the law regulating the assessment and collection of the revenue on forfeited property has not been complied with, but in a large number of the counties the clerks, and other officers, promptly discharged the duties required, and have succeeded in clearing the old lists of the back taxes, and placing the property on the regular tax lists.

In consequence of the many errors in land lists reported for taxation, and the want of proper care and attention in assessing, a large portion of the lands heretofore forfeited to the state had been assessed and sold

in error, and the sales had to be cancelled. In many counties the legality of the assessments were, so doubtful that the lands were sold for mere nominal amounts, not sufficient to pay the costs of sale, and in some cases bidders could not be found at any price. In cases where the lands were re-offered for sale and could not be sold, the old sales have been cancelled, and the lands placed upon the tax lists for taxation.