F332 SALE OF TIMBER ON PUBLIC LANDS IN ALASKA HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE PUBLIC LANDS Meng HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H. R. 7696 A BILL TO AMEND SECTION 11 OF THE ACT OF CONGRESS Hmt 13F37 SALE OF TIMBER ON PUBLIC LANDS IN ALASKA COMMITTEE ON THE PUBLIC LANDS, The committee this day met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Nicholas J. Sinnott (chairman)_presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. We have under consideration H. R. 7696, which is as follows: (The bill referred to is as follows:) [H. R. 7696, Sixty-eighth Congress, first session] A BILL To amend section 11 of the act of Congress approved May 14, 1898 (30th Stat. L. p. 409-415) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 11 of the act of Congress approved May 14, 1898, entitled "An act extending the homestead laws and providing for right of way for railroads in the district of Alaska, and for other purposes," is hereby amended, as follows: "That the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, may cause to be appraised the timber, or any part thereof, on public lands in the Territory of Alaska, and may from time to time sell so much thereof as he may deem proper, for not less than the appraised value thereof, in such quantities to each purchaser as he shall prescribe to be used in the Territory of Alaska or for export therefrom to the United States, or any one of the several States or Territories of the United States, but not elsewhere, under such rules, limitations, and restrictions as he may prescribe. Payments for such timber shall be made to the receiver of public moneys of the local land office of the land district in which said timber may be sold, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe, and the moneys arising therefrom shall be accounted for by the receiver of such land office to the Commissioner of the General Land Office in a separate account, and shall be covered into the Treasury. The Secretary of the Interior may permit, under regulations to be prescribed by him, the use of timber found upon the public lands in said Territory of Alaska by actual settlers, residents, individual miners, and prospectors for minerals, for firewood, fencing, building, mining, prospecting, and for domestic purposes, as may be actually needed by such persons for such purposes." The CHAIRMAN. There are here letters from the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture which are to be inserted in the record. (The letters referred to are as follows:) Hon. N. J. SINNOTT, Chairman Committee on the Public Lands, House of Representatives. MARCH 17, 1924. DEAR MR. SINNOTT: Reference is made to your request of March 7 for a report upon bill H. R 7696, to amend section 11 of the act of Congress approved May 14, 1898 (30th Stat. L. p. 409-415). The national forests of Alaska contain approximately 80,000,000,000 feet of standing timber, while the public domain contains what has been roughly guessed at as 25,000,000,000 or 30,000,000,000 feet. The total is something over 1 |
