15 



((uantity dclivorod, and iho iiiiiiic t)f the ditch to which it was deliv- 

 ered, with a siiininary showing tlie amount stored prior to May 1 and 

 the amount stored durnig the wlioU' season. 



The commissioners are instructed to keep two of these books, one 

 of which is carried in the fiehl, so that notes may be kept as the obser- 

 vations are made. The other is to be fiUed t)ut at the end of the 

 season and sent to the State engineer to be kept as a part of the rec- 

 ords of his ollice. 



These records have never been kept u]:» by the commissioners, the 

 reason usually assigned being that tlie county commissioners, who 

 must allow the bills of the water connnissioners, have refused to pay 

 for the time necessary for the collection of the data required. The 

 commissioners have been repeatedly urged to collect the information 

 while about their other duties, but have not generally done so. They 

 complain also that farmers and ditch owners will not give them the 

 information, seeming to think that it may in some way be used to 

 their disadvantage. 



Charges against a commissioner must be made in wTiting to the 

 division engineer, who is recpiired to hold a fair and impartial trial, 

 after five days' notice to the connnissioner. If the commissioner is 

 found guilty, the tli vision engineer is to appoint a deputy to do the 

 work of the commissioner. Within thirty days the engineer must file 

 with the governor his findings, and if he recommends dismissal the 

 governor is to appoint a new commissioner recommended by the 

 county commissioners. The complainant must put up a bond to 

 reimburse the commissioner in case the charges are not sustained. 

 This is a recent law, and no cases have arisen under it. 



The commissioners have been sued in the courts for damages and 

 have always claimed that the State should defend them, but the 

 attorney-general has refused to do this. One commissioner gives an 

 instance where suit was brought against him, but later dismissed on 

 motion of the complainant after the commissioner had gone to con- 

 siderable expense to prepare a defense. It would seem that the State 

 should defend the commissioner in such cases and reimburse any nec- 

 essary expense. 



The pay of water commissioner is $5 per day for the time actually 

 put in. He is not to begin work in any season until called upon by 

 some water-right holder who is not getting the water he deems him- 

 self entitled to or until ordered out by the division engineer, and is not 

 to continue working longer than the necessity therefor exists. In the 

 more highly developed districts along the South Platte and Arkansas 

 rivers the commissioners put in full time, as the winter flow of the 

 streams is used either for storage or for winter irrigation. In some 

 other districts the commissioners work but a few days and in wet sea- 

 sons not at all. The expense of distribution in 1904 in district No. 2, 



