52 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



from the riparian lands by an allotment boundary or by a public roatl, or to any land distant more 

 than one mile from the bank (ripa) in respect of which the right accrues. 



Any owner of land alienated from the Crown before the said fifteenth day of December, one 

 thousand eight liundred and eighty-six, claiming to have the rigiit to take and divert water from any 

 river, stream, water course, lake, lagoon, swamp, or marsh, being in or flowing through or abutting 

 upon such lands for use thereon other than the ordinary and domestic us(! of himself and his family 

 and servants, and of his cattle permanently depasturing on such lands, on the ground of his having 

 exercised such use for not less than twent)- years prior to the passing of this act, shall register his claim 

 to such right within twelve months from the passing of this act. 



It shall be competent for the Crown or for any landowner or for anybody or person to challenge 

 such claim and to have an issue tried at law to settle the same. 



All claims not registered within twelve months shall absolutelj' lapse. 



Sections will be required to define the form and mode of making the statement of claim of any 

 right to take and divert water from any river, stream, water course, lake, lagoon, swamp, or marsh, 

 for uses other than ordinary and domestic use and the use of cattle, and to define the authority to 

 receive such claims and to register them or to refuse registration and to provide for an appeal and the 

 trial of an issue in case of such refusal and the nonacquiescence of the claimant therein. 



Except as hereinbefore expressly provided, the water at any time in any river, stream, w"ater 

 course, lake, lagoon, swamp, or marsh shall be, and the same is hereby, declare<l to be absolutely the 

 property of the Crown and inalienable, and the right to the use of all such water shall in every case 

 be deemed to be vested in the Crown. 



Where any river, stream, water course, lake, lagoon, swamp, or marsh forms the boundary of an 

 allotment of land alienated by the Crown, the lied and banks thereof shall be deemed to have remained 

 in the Crown and not to have passed to the landowner. 



Except as hereinbefore expressly provided, or except under the provisions of some act of Parlia- 

 ment, no person shall divert or appropriate any water from any river, stream, water course, lake, 

 lagoon, swamp, or marsh except in the exercise of the general right of all persons to use water for 

 domestic and ordinary use and for the use of cattle from any river, stream, water course, lake, lagoon, 

 swamp, or marsh vesfed in the Crown and to which there is access by a public road or reserve. 



After the passing of this act no right to the permanent diversion or to the exclusive use of the 

 water in any river, stream, water course, lake, lagoon, swamp, or marsh, and no right to take and 

 divert such water for use on any riparian land other than the ordinary and domestic use of the owner 

 and of his family and servants and of his cattle permanently depasturing thereon shall be acquired by 

 any riparian owner or any other person by length of use or otherwise than as the same may be acquired 

 or conferred under the provisions of some act of Parliament. And no such right shall be deemed to 

 have been acquired otherwise than as aforesaid since the passing of the irrigation act 1886, notwith- 

 standing the repeal of the said act. 



A provision to entitle the Crown, V)y the minister of water-supply or his officers, to interfere 

 summarily to prevent the undue, excessive or illegal diversion of water from any river, stream, water 

 course, lake, lagoon, swamp, or marsh, and to lay on the person or body diverting, whether private 

 landowner, trust, or other body or person, the onus of appealing against such interference and not on 

 the Crown the onus of applying for an injunction or other process to restrain it or him. 



PROVINCE OF NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA. 



Water-rights act of 1896. 



Whereas it is desirable in the public interest to declare the respective rights of the Crown and of 

 riparian proprietors to the waters of rivers and lakes, and to make better provision for the conserva- 

 tion and sujjply of water and for regulating drainage: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most 

 Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the legislative council and legislative 

 assembly of Kew South W^ales in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 



Rights of Croirni and of riparian proprietors. 



1. (I) The right to the use and flow and to the control of the water in all rivers and lakes which 

 flow through or past or are situated within the land of two or more occupiers, and of the water con- 

 tained in or conserved liy any works to which this act extends, shall, subject only to the restrictions 



