WATER APPROPEIATIOJf FROM KINGS EIVEB. 275 



voice in the formation of the districts and in the issuance of bonds. Voting should, 

 moreover, have been proportional, or nearly so, to the value of the property repre- 

 sented by each voter. Much better results would, it is thought, have been attained 

 if lx)nds for the construction of the works had been issued bj' the State and the 

 works had been constructed by the State for the benefit of the district. The State 

 might have been given the right to levy a tax ujxjn the district to pay interest, and 

 it might have retained control of all works of diversion and deliver}- of water into 

 the districts until such time as it had been recouped for its outlaj' and all bonds were 

 redeemed. 



The law, as enacted, was constantly being evaded. Bonds wei"e sold to third 

 parties in order to be passed from the district to contractors who could not receive 

 them in direct payment for work done. The work for which they were received was 

 conti-acted for at high prices in order that bonds could be disposed of at values far 

 below par and still compensate the conti-actor for his outlay. Or works were con- 

 structed at private expense with an understanding that they would be bought with 

 district bonds on completion — the law permitting completed works to be thus paid 

 for. Large blocks of bonds, too, were delivered in payment for reputed water 

 rights. Districts were formed on petitions of freeholders who had accepted donations 

 of worthless land, a few acres apiece, in order to qualify as freeholders. In other 

 cases the difficulties of securing an adequate water supply had not been well considered. 

 The di.stricts were misled by low estimates of cost, and after construction had been 

 commenced to make the work already done of value, thej- had to increase, often 

 double, the bond issue. In other districts the burden of taxation became so great 

 that every effort has been and is being made to evade payment of the incurred 

 obligations. I 



Of all the districts (over thirty) organized in the State very few are to-day in suc- 

 cessful operation. One of these, though not free from troubles of its own, is the 

 Alta Irrigation District, referred to later on. Two others, dependent or. Kings River 

 water, had been organized, but are now defunct. These were the Selma district, in 

 which a bond issue was repeatedh' defeated, and the Sunset district, whose organiza- 

 tion has been declared illegal. 



The statutes are silent as to the rights to subsurface and artesian waters, and 

 here again common law becomes the rule of decision. The tendency of recent deci- 

 sions seems to be to protect a prior user when the subsurface waters flow in a well- 

 defined subsurface channel. 



The landowner who prepares his land for irrigation and to whom water is fur- 

 nished by a canal corporation, is bj- law granted a continuous right to obtain water 

 from the same corporation. The statute provides: 



Whenever any corporation, organized under the laws of this State, furnishes water to irrigate 

 lands which said corporation has sold, the right to the tlow and use of said water is and shall remain 

 a perpetual easement to the land so sold at such rates and terms as may be established by said corpo- 

 ration in pursuance of law; and whenever any person who is cultivating land on the line and within 

 the flow of any ditch owned by such corporation has been furnished water by it with which to irrigate 

 his land, such person shall be entitled to the continued use of said water upon the same terms as those 

 who have purchased their land of the corporation. 



