The officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, and it shall be his duty, to administer any oath required by law or the instructions of the Bureau of Land Management, in connection with the entry or purchase of any tract of the public lands; but he shall not charge or receive, directly or indirectly, any compensation for administering such oath.

No provision of this Act shall relieve any public land applicant or claimant from the necessity of making payment of fees, commissions, or other moneys required by law or regulation. Commencing sixty days after April 24, 1944, the officials of district land offices shall not receive any compensation based on fees, commissions, or other receipts and all amounts collected by them shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States.

No provision of this Act shall relieve any public land claimant from the necessity of making payment of fees, commissions, or purchase money required by law or regulation in connection with an application, selection, location, or lease of public lands in Alaska, and all such payments, when made, shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States.

Transcripts of the records in the district land offices, when made and duly certified to by the Secretary of the Interior or such officers as he may designate for individuals, shall be admitted as evidence in all courts of the United States and the Territories thereof, and before all officials authorized to receive evidence, with the same force and effect as the original records.

On and after March 4, 1911, all money or fees received or collected by the Secretary of the Interior or such officers as he may designate of United States land offices for issuing notices of cancellation of entries shall be reported and accounted for by the Secretary or such officers in the same manner as other fees or moneys received or collected.

The Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate shall make to the Secretary of the Treasury monthly returns of the moneys received in district land offices, and pay over such money pursuant to his instructions.

Officers of district land officers, as designated by the Secretary of the Interior are authorized, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate, to deposit to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States all unearned fees and unofficial moneys that have been carried upon the books of their respective offices for a period of five years or more, which sums shall be covered into the Treasury by warrant and carried to the credit of the parties from whom such fees or moneys were received, and into an appropriation account to be denominated “Outstanding liabilities.”

At the time of making such deposit the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior shall furnish a list showing the date when the money was paid to him or to his predecessor; the names and residences of the parties; the purposes of the payments and the amounts thereof, which list shall bear the certificate of the officer that the same is correct; that the amounts are due and payable; that diligence has been exercised to return the same, and that the sums specified have remained unclaimed for a period of five years or more.

Amounts that appear in the accounts of a district land office as “Moneys deposited by unknown parties” shall also be deposited to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, accompanied by a list showing the amount and, if possible, the date of the receipt of each item; which list shall bear the certificate of the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior that, after careful investigation, the ownership of said moneys could not be determined, and that they have been reported in the unearned fees and unofficial moneys accounts for five years or more.

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to pay, out of any unexpended balances of appropriations for contingent expenses of land offices, for the expenses of hearings in land entries and the expenses of depositing public moneys, such sums as have been or may be disbursed by officers designated by the Secretary of the Interior acting as special disbursing agents at United States land offices, before the receipt of Government funds: Provided, That no payment shall be made under this section in excess of the amount appropriated by the Congress for the particular purpose in each instance and for the fiscal year in which such disbursements were made: Provided, That all such disbursements shall have been or shall be made in pursuance of law in carrying out departmental regulations or to meet authorizations by the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate: Provided further, That the accounts containing such items shall have been duly approved by the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate.

Any person or persons who shall have made payment to an officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior or to his predecessor, and the money shall have been covered into the Treasury pursuant to section 91 or 93 of this title, shall, on presenting satisfactory evidence of such payment to the Government Accountability Office, be entitled to have the same returned by the settlement of an account and the issuing of a warrant in his favor according to the practice in other cases of authorized and liquidated claims against the United States: Provided, That when such moneys shall remain unclaimed in the Treasury for more than five years the right to recover the same shall be barred: Provided, That no homestead entryman shall be required to make payment of the purchase money on any application to make a cash entry until the same shall have been approved by the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior, but such payment shall be made within ten days after notice of such approval.

No officer shall receive evidence in, hear, or determine any cause pending in any district land office in which cause he is interested directly or indirectly, or has been of counsel, or where he is related to any of the parties in interest by consanguinity or affinity within the fourth degree, computing by the rules adopted by the common law.

It shall be the duty of every officer so disqualified to report the fact of his disqualification to the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate as soon as he shall ascertain it, and before the hearing of such cause, who thereupon, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, shall designate some other officer or special agent of the Land Department to act in the place of the disqualified officer, and the same authority is conferred on the officer so designated which such officer would otherwise have possessed to act in such case.

Officers of district land offices designated by the Secretary of the Interior in all matters requiring a hearing before them are authorized and empowered to issue subpoenas directing the attendance of witnesses, which subpoenas may be served by any person by delivering a true copy thereof to such witness, and when served, witnesses shall be required to attend in obedience thereto: Provided, That if any subpoena be served under the provisions of this section by any person other than an officer authorized by the laws of the United States, or of the State or Territory in which the depositions are taken, the service thereof shall be proved by the affidavit of the person serving the same: Provided further, That said subpoenas shall be served within the county in which attendance is required, and at least five days before attendance is required.

Witnesses shall have the right to receive their fee for one day’s attendance and mileage in advance. The fees and mileage of witnesses shall be the same as that provided by law in the district courts of the United States in the district in which such land offices are situated; and the witness shall be entitled to receive his fee for attendance in advance from day to day during the hearing.

Any person willfully neglecting or refusing obedience to such subpoena, or neglecting or refusing to appear and testify when subpoenaed, his fees having been paid if demanded, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, for which he shall be punished by indictment in the district court of the United States or in the district courts of the Territories exercising the jurisdiction of district courts of the United States. The punishment for such offense, upon conviction, shall be a fine of not more than $200, or imprisonment not to exceed ninety days, or both, at the discretion of the court: Provided, That if such witness has been prevented from obeying such subpoena without fault upon his part he shall not be punished under the provisions of this section.

Whenever the witness resides outside the county in which the hearing occurs any party to the proceeding may take the testimony of such witness in the county of such witness’s residence in the form of depositions by giving ten days’ written notice of the time and place of taking such depositions to the opposite party or parties. The depositions may be taken before any United States magistrate judge, notary public, judge, or clerk of a court of record. Subpoenas for witnesses before the officer taking depositions may issue from the office of the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior or may be issued by the officer taking the depositions, and disobedience thereof, as defined in section 104 of this title, shall also be punished; and the witness shall receive the same fees and mileage and be subject to the same penalties in all respects as in case of violation of a subpoena to appear before the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior and subject to the same limitations. The fees of the officer taking the depositions shall be the same as those allowed in the State or Territorial courts, and shall be paid by the party taking the deposition, and an itemized account of the fees shall be made by the officer taking the depositions and attached to the depositions.

Whenever the taking of any depositions taken in pursuance of section 105 of this title is concluded the opposite party may proceed at once at his own expense to take depositions in his own behalf, at the same time and place and before the same officer: Provided, That he shall, before taking of the depositions in the first instance is entered upon, give notice to the opposing party, or any agent or attorney representing him in the taking of said depositions of his intention to do so.

If any person applies to any officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior to enter any land whatever, and the officer knowingly and falsely informs the person so applying that the same has already been entered, and refuses to permit the person so applying to enter the same, such officer shall be liable therefor, to the person so applying, for $5 for each acre of land which the person so applying offered to enter, to be recovered by action of debt in any court of record having jurisdiction of the amount.