CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 21, 1882.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith a communication of the Secretary of the Interior, dated the 16th instant, relative to the necessity for a deficiency appropriation for the payment of salaries of clerks and laborers in the Patent Office during the present fiscal year.

The subject is commended to the consideration of Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1882.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of the Navy, with a copy of a letter from the Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, accompanied by a draft of a bill, with estimates for an observation of the transit of Venus on the 6th of December, 1882.

The matter is commended to the consideration of Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1882.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Interior, inclosing a memorial and papers from the Seneca Nation of New York Indians embodying a resolution and remonstrance against the passage of Senate bill No. 19, “to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations,” etc., together with a report thereon of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, recommending an amendment to the seventh section thereof excluding the lands of said Indians.

The accompanying papers are transmitted with the message to the Senate.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1882.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I submit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a letter from the Secretary of the Interior, inclosing a petition of Mr. P.W.  Norris for compensation for services rendered and expenses incurred by him as superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park from the 18th of April, 1877, to the 1st of July, 1878.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1882.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a communication of the Secretary of the Interior of the 23d instant, with accompanying papers, furnished in obedience to a resolution of the Senate of the 30th ultimo, calling for certain information in relation to the Malheur Indian Reservation, in the State of Oregon.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1882.

To the House of Representatives:

In reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th ultimo, I transmit herewith copies of letters from the Secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the Civil Service Commission, dated the 3d and 13th instant, respectively, from which it will be seen that the appropriation of $15,000 made at the last session of Congress for the promotion of efficiency in the different branches of the civil service is still unexpended, and that in order to execute the provisions of section 1753 of the Revised Statutes an annual appropriation of $25,000 would be necessary.