Governor. (Constitution, Art. 7, Sec. 4.) All clerks are under the
Merit System.

The Land Office is the State Record Office, pertaining to boundaries
of land, and is the means by which discovered vacant land is passed by
the State to the individual, and covers the period from the earliest to
the present date. The Commissioner sits as a judge in contested dis-
putes over vacant land, and there is a right of appeal direct to the
Court of Appeals over his decision.

The duties of the Land Office, in regard to its clerical force, is to
keep the indexing, answer the various questions that are daily brought
to it by the mail, wait on the visiting public, and record the patents
and certificates that are returned on the different kinds of warrants
executed by the County Surveyors throughout the State.
Questions relating to confiscated British property.
Questions relating to Provincial Court Deeds, Chancery (Equity)
Records to 1851 and original papers, Debt Books, Rent Rolls, Insolvent
Proceedings and abstracts of Deeds, Mortgages and Releases of Mort-
gages for the Counties and Baltimore City.

Duplicate records of all deeds, mortgages and releases of mortgages
throughout the State are filed in the Land Office, and it is the duty of
the Commissioner to have them properly bound and indexed.
Photostating and blueprinting of any record.

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS—

Annapolis

Name. Postoffice.
Superintendent:
Philip A. Myers Severn

The Superintendent and all officers in this department are appointed
by the Governor. (Ch. 551, 1906.)

The Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds is the custo-
dian of the State Capitol, Court of Appeals Building and Executive
Mansion in the City of Annapolis.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE.
City Hall, Baltimore.
Director, Horace E. Flack, Baltimore.

The function of the Department of Legislative Reference is to col-
lect, compile and index information on all questions of proposed legis-
lation, to investigate and report upon the laws of Maryland and other
States at the request of the Governor, any committee or member of the
General Assembly, or the head of any State Department. It is also
made the duty of the Department to prepare or aid in the preparation
of any bill or resolution on the request of any member of the Legis-
lature, and to maintain an office at Annapolis during the sessions of
the Legislature. There is on file in the Department a complete set of
all bills which have been introduced in the Legislature of Maryland
from 1908 to 1937. inclusive, with a full index of same, and the Codes
and Laws of the other States. Chapter 150 of 1935 provides that the
several State departments shall transmit copies of their reports to the
Department of Legislative Reference for exchange purposes. (Chapter
474 of the Acts of 1916, An. Code Art. 41, Sec. 64.)