Junior Stenographer:

Mildred M. Crockett......... . ... ... ..................Annapolis
Photostat Assistant:

Mrs. Lenville J. Kawlings... ....................................Annapolis
The Commissioner of the Land Office is appointed by the Governor
with the consent of the Senate, to hold office during the term of the
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, 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, Insol-
vent Proceedings and abstracts of Deeds, Mortgages and Releases
of Mortgages for the Counties and Baltimore City.

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

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE

City Hall, Baltimore
Telephone: PLaza 2000

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 1946, inclusive, with a full index of same, and the Codes
and Laws of the other States. Chapter 160 of 1935 provides that the
several State departments shall transmit copies of their reports to the
Department of Legislative Reference for exchange purposes. The
Director of the Department is Secretary of the Legislative Council.
(Chapter 474 of the Acts of 1916, An. Code, 1939, Art. Sec. 100.)

COMMISSIONERS FOR THE PROMOTION OF UNIFORMITY OF

LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES

(Terms Expires 1947)

Name Postoffice
C. Walter Cole............ ......................Towson
William Curran.. ................... ...............................Baltimore
E. Paul Mason................................. .......................Baltimore