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Show second payment, according to'the terms of the contract. The o5ce reported that it was decidedly opposed to any further modi6cation in ithe brms of the contract. April 15,1898, Lieutenant Irwin reported that during the two pre-weding months liens and suits aggregating $16,887.64 had been fled against the company and that a mortgage for $50,000 Bad been given on the portion of the property known as the Government Canal; that it had also a bonded indebtedness of $300,000, and that on March 29, 1898, the affairs of the company had been placed in the hands of a receiver-A. B. Scott, its former secretary. He reported these facts for such action as might be thought necessary to insure full compliance by 'the company with the terms of its contract, fearing that such compli-cations might injuriously affect the interests and rights of the Qovern-nnent by interfering with the continuous delivery of water upon the reservation. 'Phis information was submitted to the Department April 22,1898. In accordancewithDepartment instructions Agent Irwin was directed, May 13,1898, to make an investigation and ascertain the status of the several liens and whether any of them had been satisfied. He was also directed to have the two contracts of the company recorded in the proper county records, which has been done. July 7,1898,C. A. Warner, who had succeeded Lieutenant Irwin as agent, reported that the Idaho Canal Company was not doing any work on the reservation toward the fulfillment of its contract and did not m m to be making any preparation to begin the samein the near future. July 26,1898, the office reported the above information to the Depart-ment with the recommendation that Inspector W. H. Graves be sent to %he Fort Hall Reservation to investigate the condition of the company and make recommendation as to the best course to be pursued. It seems probable that legal steps will have to be taken to protect the interests of the Government and the Indians. Crow Reservation, Mont-March 10,1898, W. H. Graves, superintendent in charge of the construction of irrigation works on %Kis reservation, reported that the ditch on the east side of the Big Horn River was not only a large and expensive undertaking, but would easily take rank with the most extensive and best constructed irrigation works in the country and would supply an nnusually fine body of valley land, about 45,000 acres of the best portion of the Crow Reservation; that about 12 miles of the upper portion of the canal was finished, or very nearly so, with a head gate well under way; that the expenditures up to that time had been $175,156.35, and that to complete it would require the sum of $138,500. Speaking of the good effect upon the Indians result-ing from their employment on the ditohes, he said: In payment for lanas ceded to the Government they reoeive eemiannnaUy in oash about $6 each. To reoeive this they are required to go from the respective district0 throughout the reeervation in which they live to the agenay and there remain until thepapenta me mads. To do thb many of them travel long diatanoes, and the |