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Substitute offered by Mr. Marshall :

The right to divert the waters of the Niagara river, above Niagara Falls, pursuant to any grant or license heretofore or hereafter created, shall be regulated by and be under the direction and control of the Commissioners of the Land Office. This section shall not be deemed to recognize or affect any privilege or license under which any person or corporation may now claim the right to divert the waters of said river.

TRANSFER OF LAND TITLES.

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON TRANSFER OF LAND TITLES.

Referred to the Committee of the Whole.

To the Constitutional Convention :

July 10, 1894.

The special committee on improving the methods and lessening the cost of transferring land and interest therein, respectfully report:

That after careful consideration of the subject referred to them, they are impressed by its importance, and can but conclude that very great advantage, and benefits of no ordinary extent, will result to the whole people by the adoption of judicious methods of lessening the expense of the transfer of land, and by the establishment of a system of recording and indexing instruments relating thereto that shall be uniform throughout the State.

The committee, therefore, recommend that the following clauses be inserted in the Constitution :

All laws relating to the transfer of titles to, or interest in, land in this State, by conveyance, devise or descent, or the recording or indexing of instruments providing for such transfers, shall hereafter be general laws applicable to the entire State.

The Governor is directed, at the first session of the Legislature after the adoption of this Constitution, to appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate, five persons, residents of the State, who are counselors-at-law and have been admitted to practice for not less than ten years, who shall be known as the Board of Commissioners of Land Records of the State of New York, whose duty it shall be, among other things, to be prescribed by the Legislature in connection therewith, to consider and from time to time report to the Legislature, such bills, as in their opin ion, should be passed by the Legislature to reform, simplify and

cheapen the transferring and dealing with the titles to and interest in land in this State.

Any vacancy in said board shall be filled in like manner as the original appointments.

Said commissioners shall serve without compensation, and shall be allowed for their reasonable expenses and clerk hire, such sums as shall be audited and approved by the State Comptroller.

Dated July 5, 1894.

ANDREW H. GREEN,

Chairman.

SALT SPRINGS.

COMMUNICATION

FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE IN REPLY TO THE RESOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ASKING FOR CERTAIN INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE ONONDAGA SALT SPRINGS RESERVATION.

Office of Secretary of State,

Albany, July 23, 1894.

Hon. Charles E. Fitch, Secretary Constitutional Convention, Albany, N. Y.:

Dear Sir.-In reply to the request contained in resolution of the Constitutional Convention, adopted the 18th inst., asking this office for certain information relative to the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation, I have to say:

The State of New York came into possession of the lands known as the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation, by treaties with the Onondaga Indians. The first was held at Fort Schuy ler, September 12, 1788, by the fourth section of which it was provided that the Salt Lake (Onondaga) and the lands for one mile around the same, should forever remain for the common benefit of the people of the State of New York and of the Onondagas and their posterity, for the purpose of making salt, and should not be granted or in any wise be disposed of for other purposes.

At a council of the sachems, chiefs and warriors of the Onondaga Nation of Indians, held at Fort Stanwix June 16, 1790, the above treaty was ratified and confirmed.

By the treaty with said Indians, held at Cayuga Ferry, July 28, 1875, the following appears :

"Now know all men further by these presents that in order to render the said common right, and the said lands adjoining to the creek aforesaid more productive of an annual income to the said Onondaga Nation, it is covenanted, stipulated and agreed by

the said Onondaga nation, that they will sell, and they do by these presents sell, to the people of the State of New York, and their successors forever, all and singular, the common right in the said Salt lake, and the one mile of land around the same, together with all and singular the lands comprised within onehalf mile of the creek, between the northern boundary of the land reserved to them by the agreement of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, and the said Salt lake, to have and to hold the same to the people of the State of New York and their successors forever, in consideration of which cession and grants it is covenanted, agreed and granted on the part of the people of the State of New York that they shall pay, and do now pay, to the said Onondaga Nation, in the presence of the witnesses who have subscribed their names hereunto, the sum of five hundred dollars for the common right aforesaid, and also the sum of two hundred dollars for the one-half mile of land adjoining the said creek in the extent aforesaid, and the people of the State of New York do further promise, covenant and agree that they will pay to the Onondaga Nation in manner hereinafter specified, the further sums of five hundred dollars and of two hundred dollars, and also one hundred bushels of salt, to be delivered at the Salt lake aforesaid on the first day of June next ensuing the date hereof, and annually forever thereafter on the first day of June in each year, the said sums of five hundred and of two hundred dollars, and the said one hundred bushels of salt; and it is further covenanted and agreed that as well as the said eight hundred dollars hereinbefore mentioned as the said several sums of five hundred and two hundred dollars, and the sum of five hundred dollars stipulated to be paid to them by the treaty of Fort Schuyler first aforesaid, making together the sum of two thousand dallars, shall in future be annually paid them forever hereafter."

Nowhere in any of the above-named treaties is the extent of the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation given in acres. The field notes of survey of the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation, on file in this office, do not state the acreage, and this office has no official information as to the number of acres in said reservation.

A careful examination of the volumes of State releases on file in this office, shows that there have been released to the people of the State about 825 acres of lands in the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation.

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