The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-02-06
For the anderson h,telziqencer.
Extract from Gov. Moses late Messag

extract from GOV. MOSES ldto MeSSdYe.
.FLowAGE Acr.-We require q statute by
which can be furnished prompt and specific
remedy to persons whose lands may be injured
BIZ the overflow of water courses consequent
upon the erection of mill dams across the same,
and sthe want of proper care in the owners OF
such dams.
1t should regulate also the use of the water
Of such streams on which adjacent mills, pro-
PEELED by water, may have been erected. Many
States have already passed laws specially in re-
gard to this subject.
The Statute of Rhode Island would seem to
me to be the most suitable for us, and recon-
mend that its leading provisions, if not the
whole of it, be adopted by the General Assem-
bly, and enacted into law for this State.
The statute to which refer is to be found IN
tisle 8, chapter 88, of the Revised Statutes of
ard will be furnished for the use of any COM
mittee of your honorable bodies that may de-
sire it.
The provision in the 18th section, making
the Judgment for damages run against the body
of the defendant, should of course, bel stricken
out, as it would be violatiye of our constitu-
tion.
The late Annual Message of His Excellency
Gov. Moses to the Legislature of our State, has
received the encomiums of the entire press of
the State. The eminently practical character
of the most of his suggestions, and their adsp-
tasion to the present needs of the State, COM
mends the Message, as whole, and in all of
its parts, to the intelligent and serious consid-
Grafton of her suffering people. The short,
simple and unpretending extract from that
Message published above, though appearing
nearly last in the paper, is by no means least in
Importance of the many valuable suggestions
of His ExceIlency. Read it again, kind reader,
if you have before perused it, and ponder every
sentence and every word. We regret exceed
ingly that we have no means of ascertaining
thu, precise nature of the Rhode Island law,
providing, in the judgment of the Governor, a
prompt and specific remedy to persons whose
la1,ds may be injured by the overflow Of water
courses consequent upon the erection of mill
dams across the same" The Governor, in the
short paragraph above, merely calls the atten-
ton of the Legislature to the evil, and, unlike
some of our modern savaas in the law, thinks
that body competent to provide remedy" 1
do not think Mr.. Editor, that the Governor
coruprehends the evil in all of its magnitude,
no2 do 1 know that the Rhode Island law would
fully meet the exigency, but it is step in the
right direction; and might add, the first step
thst has ever been taken in this State, by those
in authority, in this much-needed reform. If
His Excellency could visit the northwestern
part of the State, and could see with his own
eyes, the vast quantities of fertile bottom land,
not simply injured, but utterly ruined, SO far as
the purposes of cultivation are concerned,
Consequent upon the erection Of some mill
dam across" said stream and sadder still, if he
were told of the appalling amount of sickness
and the numerous deaths occasioned by the
ma!aria arising from these flooded lands, then
would his head and heart enter into this sub
jece, with zeal unsurpassed in any other field
of his labors as the chief executive officer of
the State. God speed the good work
REFORM.