THATin all cases where lands have been or may be confirmed or granted by the United States within the State of Louisiana but where express provision has not been already made for the issuing of patents, it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the General Law Office, upon the production of the usual certificate or plat of survey and the evidence of title, to issue in favor of the party entitled thereto a patent for the land so confirmed or granted; and where, through error or otherwise, any patent shall have been or may be issued for any tract of land in the said State of Louisiana to which any other person or persons may be legally entitled to a patent, under another or different title or claim, such erroneous patent shall not prevent a patent being issued to the person so entitled to a patent for the same land, or any part thereof; Provided, however, That sixty days’ notice shall be given by the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the first patentee, or those claiming under him, by mail, and to be com-

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puted from the time of deposite of the same in the post office, by personal service, to show cause if he or they shall think fit so to do, why such second patent should not issue: And provided, That this section shall not extend to any claims except such as have been finally confirmed against the United States, by or pursuant to a law of the United States, nor to any confirmed claim which has been suspended, unless the cause of such suspension has been or shall be removed to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Sec. 2 And be it further enacted, That the fees now demandable by the registers or registers and receivers for issuing patent certificates for the confirmed private claims, and the delivery of the patents therefor, be, and they are hereby abolished; but for furnishing certified copies or extracts of the reports and papers on file in the local Land Office, connected with or relating to private land claims, the officer furnishing the same shall be entitled to receive from the party applying therefor at the

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rate of twenty five cents for every hundred words for such copies, and for the official certificate thereto the sum of fifty cents and no more.