Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-07-01

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of certain tithes and other taxes, pro-
viGed they, within specified time, set
| out fruit trees, and constructed q dam
and necessary trenches for irrigating;
and it was provided that, "for their own
benefit, they should be collectively un-
der the direct obligation of attending
to the repair of the principal trench,
dam, auxiliary drains and other pub
lie drains in their pueblos.n
And even at that early date the me-
cessity of some official regulation OF
the distribution of water privileges
seems to have been appreciated; for
this is assigned as one of the reasons
for the appointment of Alcaldes and
other municipal officers.
THE BASIS OF THE MEXICAN OR
SPANISH LAW
Is the civil law; therefore to it and the
ordinances, DEGREES and regulations
made from time to time by the Span
ish and Mexican authorities, must we
look for the rights of the old pueblo to
the water flowing in the river.
Escriche, in his Diccinnario Razo-
nado de Legis lacion y Jurispruden-
cia," says: "Those waters belong to
the public, which are not and cannot
be private property; such as
| the waters of the rivers, which
by themselves, or Joined with others,
follow their course to the sea. These
can be navigable or unnavigable. If
they are navigable no one can use
their waters, 50 las to impede or inter-
fere with navigation: but if they are
not navigable the owners of the lands
by which they pass can use the water
f~, Il of 1A; orfn fNn
dustry, acithoW prejudice to the COM
along their course may have made
vided for in the laws and the orders
and DEGREES, spoken ofsunder the word
Auquina."
There are also given
THIRTEEN RULES,
| Which, in the absence of ordinances
and customs of the country, are die
tated by equity and the interests of
agriculture, the first of which is as fol-
lows:
"The waters of fountains and
streams belong to the owners of the
lands on which they rise, or the own
ers of lands below, who have acquired
a right to their use while they remain
within their bounds, but when they
flow out they become running waters,
'dqu0 23rofUens, and belong to the
first who uses them, in so far as he
needs them"
The other rules are in no wise appli-
cable to this question.
Under the head of Auquina, he says:
Notwithstanding what is said
above, no private individual or cor
peration, can divert in their source or
course the waters of
SPRINGS OR RIVERS,
Which from old times irrgate other
lands lower down, which land cannot be
despoiled of the benefit which they
have acquired, in favor of others who
by the act of not having made use
thereof sanctioned the right of those
who had taken advantage of them"
The Pueblo of Los Angeles was
founded about A. ID. 1871, and pre-
vious to the grant Of any land in
Southern California.
The ranches by, or through, whic h
the Los Angeles river passes before it
reaches the city limits, are the San
Rafael, Los Feliz and La Providencia.
The San Rafael Rancho was granted
originally to Jose Maria Verdugo, in
A. ID. 1884, to be used by him in pas
turing his cattle, ETC., but upon the
con luton, and with the proviso, that
he should not in any way prejudice
| the citizens of the "Queen of the
Angels" Both the
LOS FELIz AND LA PRovIDENCIA
RANCHOS
Were granted in 1913, and, as 1 am
told, with similar reservations of the
rights of the citizens of the pueblo
But whether there were such Ieserva-
tions or not the grants of these two
tracts were made so long after the
pueblo had, under the law, appropri-
ated and claimed the right to manage,
control and use, if need be, all the
water in the Los Angeles river that it
is impossible that either one of those
ranches could now establish any adj
verse right to any portion of the water
flowing therein.
AS appears from the report of Judge
Stephen c. Foster, submitted to your
predecessors in office, to which report,
debted for much of my information
| Archives contain list of documents
ICidOlhS w JuC CiOiC Vi ito lohdS} SOPlSI
of which were procured by me (Mr.
FOSTER under resolu ion of the Com
mon Council, from the Surveyor-Gen-
erals office, in San Francisco, April
14th, 1852, to be presented to the Land
Commissioner.
No. II of said listi an expediente, OF
LAND SUIT,
Between the citizens and Alcalde OF
the Pueblo de Los Angeles and the
Priest in charge of the Mission of San
Fernando, respecting the taking out
of water from the river at Cahuenga,
the present source of the river, decided
by the Governor Josef Arguello, in
favor of the pueblo, March 10th, 1870"
In 1888 and 1884 new diputes arose
the latter one being caused by the
erection Of dam in the river by the
administrators of the same Mission,
but upon a promise of the "Adminis-
trador" to remove the dam whenever
the water should be needed by the
Pueblo, it seems that the Ayunta-
miento of the Pueblo took no further
steps in the matter.