OCR Text |
Show ALLEGED LAND FRAUDS. They Intolre liaay cinlmt TTest or the Jordan. It Is commonly understood that vast tracts or land lyjng between the Jordan river and the lake have been illed upon under the desert land law, but, In a largo number or such cases, the physical passlbllitles orcomplylng with the requirements the statute are not apparent. In fact.a casual observer would at once say, without reserve, that the pro--. lalona or the desert land act cannot Possibly be carried out according to either their letter or spirit, on the greater part or Uie land In question Tlio law requires that the mJor part of each legal subdivision or tho tract embracvl In ilm mi..,. i.n be Irrigated prior to tbe making or final proor. But where the water is tocomo rrom with which to Irrigate more than a small percentage or tlie vast expense or desert which lies between the river and the lake is a problem not yet sol ved. Kxperinients have demonstrated that flow Ing w ells can be su nk there and sufficient water bo thereby secured se-cured for domestic uses, watering stock aud Irrlfrating a few trees. But to talk of Irrigating more lhau an acre or tivo from any flowing well yet sunk In the region referred to would be nonsense. Hence, while titles to the land might be honestly obtained under the homestead and pre-emption laws, perjury would have to be committed com-mitted In orJer to get title to more than a small portion of it under tlm desert act. The attention of the laud olllco In this city has been turned to this sulject by the proceedings had In a .erv Important case lately heard before be-fore Registrar Hobbs, In which a decision has not y t been rendered," It being still held Under advise ment. The case reforred to Is that of Lewis S. Dickinson, contestant, vs. P. II. Auerbacb, contestee, and the leading facts are given as follows: The contestee depended wholly upon what are known as the surplus, sur-plus, Xorth Point and West Point canals, consolidated, for water with which to Irrigate his claim. These canals head in the Jordan river, and long before cither or them was coutructed all the water flowing In the river In ordinary J ears, during i the Irrigating season, had been appropriated. ap-propriated. Xot enough Water flowed In the con-vlidated canal to irrigate more than a Tew hundred acres, a small fraction of the claims. in the aggregate, which depended i upon that canal. The greater part or contestee's land lay higher than the canal water level. Water was turned on such portions or the land I as could be reached with It after tbe cloe of the irrigating seasdii, which terminates in August. This Is not, contestant claims, Irrigating divert 1 land within the meaning of the i law . Tlie leading features of this case are allege! to be common to a large number of other desert claims in the same Icinlty, but it is explained that Mr. Auerbach did not testifyln his own case, being absent from the city, and that he depended, in making ills llual proor, uiun Information Infor-mation furnished to him by other ierc(ns, and not Ujion leroual knowledge. The attorney for the contestant. M. M. ICaighn, Ksq., In his printed argument, sajt: This eae is of vjstim ortance,and the principle- and fa l that mu't be H-lcr mined rcrcin are necessarily ai pllcable to thousands of acre of land in the same neighborhood, thit Is. Ijlnx between Jor dan bivcr and Oreat bait Lake- dependent uponlbesarre water sui ply and embraced in a number of desert enuicf Hcalso quotes from General Laud Olllce circular, sec 1 0, page 37: -Persons makiop desert land entries mut acquire a clear nitbt to the use of tntSeienl iralcr for the puroe of imaat 1-jjt the whole of tbe land and of kce injr it pcrmancnuy irrifsleiy And thefollowlngfroai tho Territorial Terri-torial statute upon the sutjee!. A rivebt to the use of water for any useful purpose is hereby recosalsed and acknowledged to have vested and ae crued as a primary right, to theeatentof, and reaonabe nccess ty for sach use thereof, un ler any of tbe foltowlns; clr cumstanecs 1 Whenever any person or persons shall have taken, divcned and used any of the miMpprofrttttfd water of any natural stream, water course, lake or sprins;, or other natu ral source of supp'y 2. W tenever any person shall have had the peareable. uninterrupted use of water for a )eriod of seven years. It Is urged that the unlawful acquisition or large tracts or land by syndicatesand speculators, to tbe Injury of the genuine settler and home-seeker, should lie put a stop to. |