124 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



how it is distributed among users. Nature of water right contracts 

 between canal owners and water users. Collection of facts showing 

 what contracts have proven satisfactory, and what forms of contracts 

 have given rise to controversy, and the reason therefor. Collection 

 of facts showing rates for sale or delivery of water, and the methods 

 by which these rates have been established. 



REPORTS. 



Eleventh. While the facts gathered will largely modify the nature 

 of their presentation and will vary somewhat in each instance, it will 

 greatly aid in the study of your conclusions if they deal with the 

 same issues and in the same order. The following scheme is sug- 

 gested. 



(a). The foundation of any system of administrative laws is the 

 method of establishing rights to the stream. In your discussion of 

 the results in California, the first question to be considered is whether 

 or not the present method of filing and recording claims to water is 

 satisfactory. If not, what should take its place? 



(b). Is the present method of adjudicating rights satisfactory? 

 If not, what should replace it. 



(c). What has been the influence of the doctrine of riparian 

 rights on the success of irrigation, and what modifications of this 

 doctrine are suggested? 



(d). Is the present system of stream control, or lack of it, and of 

 dividing water between the different ditches which divert the common 

 supply satisfactory? If not, what form of administration or control 

 should take its place? 



(e). Should there be a State Engineer, and what should be his 

 duties? 



(f ). Should there be a central office of record of claims or titles 

 to water in place of the present separate county records, and what 

 supervision or control should be exercised over rights to be acquired 

 hereafter. 



(g). What steps should be taken to secure the fullest conser- 

 vation and use of water which now runs to waste; the discussion of 

 this question to include state or national control and aid, the legis- 

 lation needed to define rights to stored water, and to determine who 

 is entitled to the water thus stored. 



It is understood that this outline will not touch all of the complex 

 and important problems which your investigations will disclose and- 

 with which your reports will have to deal. It is, however, believed 

 to state some of the leading ones which legislators and users of 

 waters are now confronted, not only in California, but in every other 

 arid commonwealth. 



