mit a communication from the Secretary of State,
covering two dispatches from the United States minister at Honolulu.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

VETO MESSAGES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 17, 1894_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without my approval House bill No. 71, entitled "An act for the
relief of purchasers of timber and stone lands under the act of June 3,
1878."

This bill permits the proofs and affidavits which under present statutes
parties desiring to acquire certain public lands are required to make
before the registers and receivers of the land offices within which such
lands are located to be made before any commissioner of the United
States circuit court or before the judge or clerk of any court of
records of the county or parish in which the lands are situated.

A similar bill was passed by the Fifty-second Congress and was
disapproved by the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the
Secretary of the Interior. The successors of these officers oppose the
present bill on the ground that in its operation it would open the door
to fraud and to a perversion of the intentions of the Government in
relation to the public lands.

It is difficult, with the most scrupulous care, to guard the alienation
of our public lands from fraud and illegal practices. It is perfectly
plain, however, that the prospect of accomplishing this result is better
under present laws, which require the necessary proofs to be made before
land officers who are appointed for that purpose and who are under the
control of the General Land Office and amenable to its regulations, than
it would be by substituting other officers over whom the Land Office has
no control.

Certain rules and orders of the Land Office are now in force which
regulate the taking of the necessary proofs and permit oral examinations
by registers and receivers. These regulations are of the utmost
importance if our land laws are to be justly and honestly administered.

I fully concur in the objections made to this bill by the officers
having charge of the public lands in the last Administration and by
their successors who are now charged with that responsibility. I am
convinced that such a relaxation of our existing land laws as is
contemplated by the bill under consideration would not be in the
interest of good administration.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 20, 1894_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I her