RECENT DECISIONS UPON THE SUBJECT OF WATER RIGHTS. 239 



home ranch he paid out for labor upon it 

 $80,000. This was almost forty dollars a 

 year upon each acre. 



The subject of our sketch never spec- 

 ulated, nor did he take advantage of the 

 many opportunities for profit that came 

 to him on account of his reputation. He 

 was welcomed to all assemblies of repre- 

 sentative Californians as among the most 

 intelligent and public-spirited of their 

 number. He trained his children to ap- 

 preciate and practice the education and 

 refinement of the best city homes and to 

 be thoroughly practical in ail the details 

 of his many-sided business. 



On one occasion that came to the writ- 

 er's notice Dr. Blowers was asked to join 

 a syndicate to subdivide a tract designed 

 for a colony of raisin growers. The en- 

 dorsement of his personal recommendation 

 and his supervision were to constitute his 

 share of the investment, which was likely 

 to net him more than the accumulations of 

 his lifetime. He examined conditions of 

 soil and climate and concluded that, while 

 a good showing might be made for a time, 

 the colonists could not successfully com- 



pete with more favored localities in the 

 close race of the survival of the fittest that 

 he foresaw. For this reason he withheld 

 the use of his name. 



He has been regarded as a boomer 

 among Californians, and boomers have 

 been looked upon as devoid of conscience. 

 Here was a fortune refused rather than 

 mislead investors. 



The genial influence of his personality 

 so pervaded his household that people who 

 have enjoyed its hospitality for years 

 never dreamed that his present wife 

 was not the mother of the children, 

 and he saw no need for any other pro- 

 vision in his will than that all should 

 share alike in the magnificent property 

 he left them. 



If ever a life proved a theory this 

 one proved that education is not wasted 

 upon a farmer. The fool may "make a 

 living on a farm, but that living is better 

 termed existence, while the man of thought 

 may live so near to nature and in such 

 sympathy with his fellow men that the 

 living may be one continual joy to himself 

 and a benediction to his race. 



RECENT DECISIONS UPON THE SUBJECT OF 



WATER RIGHTS. 



BY CLESSON S. KINNEY, OF THE SALT LAKE CITY BAR. 



D ECENTLY in the Supreme Court of 

 1\ the State of Colorado in the case of 

 White vs. Farmer's Highline Canal and 

 Reservoir Co. (43 Pac. Eep. 1028) it was 

 decided that: The taking and use of 

 water for irrigating purposes is a matter 

 of public interest and subject to state 

 control; and that the irrigation act of that 

 state regulating the taking and distribu- 

 tion of water from streams, and providing 

 among other things that each company 

 controlling canals or ditches shall appoint 

 a superintendent who shall measure to 

 each person entitled thereto, his or her 

 pro rata share of water, applies to and 

 governs companies carrying water for 

 hire and also their patrons, and one con- 

 sumer cannot ignore the allotment made 

 by the superintendent and appropriate 

 to himself more water than his just 

 share. 



It was also held in the same case that 

 the law regulating water rights being in 

 the exercise of the police powers of the 

 state is paramount to a private contract 

 though such contract antedates the pas- 

 sage of the law and rights given by the 

 contract must yield where they are in 

 contravention of the provisions of the 

 statute. 



LICENSE TO CONSTRUCT DITCH. 



In the case decided Feb. 17, 1896, of 

 Tynon vs. Despain et al. by the Supreme 

 Court of Colorado (43 Pac. Rep. 1039) 

 it was held that a parole license to con- 

 struct and maintain an irrigation ditch 

 over the lands of the licensor when exe- 

 cuted by the construction of the ditch is 

 not revocable; and that in an action to 

 recover for damage to an irrigation ditch 

 by its being broken and the water diverted 



