Section 2
SEC. 2. Section three of the same Act, as amended by section two of Act Numbered Twenty-four hundred and seventy-eight, is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 3. Beginning with January one, nineteen hundred and nineteen, any lands not sold in accordance with the last , preceding section may be leased under the provisions of Act Numbered Twenty-two hundred and thirty or sold at auction at a price not less than their assessed value, to be fixed by the Director of Lands with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and payment may be made either in cash or in equal semiannual installments extending over a period not to exceed eight years. The lands so sold shall be subject to the payment of the land tax which shall accrue against the purchaser from the day of signing the contract of sale.' "The purchaser shall respect any contract of lease that the Government may have made prior to the sale. "If the purchasers at public auction are not the lessees themselves, they shall pay to the owners of the improvements made on said lands the value thereof, if said owners prefer this, which value shall be agreed upon between the Director of Lands and the owners of said improvements."