568 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



As to the drainage of swamps and lowlands where an improve- 

 ment in the public health may be reasonably expected, the State 

 should pay a portion of the cost. On rivers like the Hudson and 

 Mohawk, where the State assumes to absolutely control the waters 

 without regard to the rights or wishes of the riparian proprie- 

 tors, the State should in consideration of such control make all 

 necessary improvements at its own expense. On the rivers of the 

 balance of the State, where a different rule prevails, the State may 

 in consideration of the abatement of tloods and improvement of 

 the public health pay a portion of the cost. 



Constitutional amendment. One difficulty in New York is such 

 defects in the constitution as prevent thorough development of 

 the natural resources of the State by means of works serving to 

 control water. This fact is the more extraordinary because a 

 number of western States have embodied in their constitutions 

 articles empowering the legislatures to apply a taking by right 

 of eminent domain upon payment of just compensation for the 

 necessary purposes of retaining, excluding or conveying water. 

 The contradictory laws of New York may be sufficiently illus- 

 trated by stating that it was discovered a few years ago that 

 under the amended charter of New York city the city had no right 

 to secure an adequate water supply. The result of this was to 

 throw the furnishing of water into the hands of a private company. 



Constitutional precedents for an act of the kind here proposed 

 have been enacted in Missouri, Colorado, Illinois, California, 

 Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming. In Wyoming the 

 provision reads as follows: 



Private property shall not be taken for private use unless by 

 consent of the owner, except for private ways of necessity, and 

 for reservoirs, drains, flumes or ditches on or across the lands of 

 another for agricultural, mining, milling, domestic or sanitary 

 purposes, nor in any case without due compensation. 



In New York the law on the subject of mill and flowage acts is, 

 as already shown, in an unsettled state, and a constitutional 

 amendment enabling proper legislation to be enacted is needed 

 in order to develop hydraulic works as well as other natural re- 

 sources of the State. 



It has been said that it is no more justifiable to take property 

 for mills on the ground that their business is beneficial to the 



