Copp

— The defendant applied to the surveyor general, in December, 1869, to purchase the lands in controversy —they being portions of section 10, township 12 north, range 1 west — in lieu of certain portions of sixteenth sections. The application was made under the act of March 28, 1868 (Stats. 1867-68, p. 507), and it was approved in April, 1870; and the defendant, having made part payment for the land, as required by law, the register, on the 14th of April, 1870, issued to him a certificate of purchase.

On the 30th of April, 1870, the plaintiff made his application for the purchase of the same lands, in lieu of the school lands mentioned in the defendant’s application; but the surveyor general refused to approve the application, and entered an order referring the contest between the plaintiff and defendant, as to their respective rights to purchase the land, to the proper district court for trial. The defendant had judgment, and the plaintiff appeals.

The defendant’s application to purchase failed to state whether there were any improvements, on the land other than those of his own, and a part of the facts required to be stated were set forth in an unverified statement. For these…