West-Jersey pioneer., 1882-03-30
SENATE BILL 1ez.

There has been much ignorant clamor
in the New York newspapers about the
gross injustice" of Senate bill 1877, which
has been denounced by them as con-
templated theft of the peoples proper
ty,n as a piece of wholesale robbery by
corporate banditti," and as 'con-
scienceless grab by ''soulless monopo-
lies.n The Governor has been so far i'm
pressed by this loud and excited outcry,
as to veto the bill in message of unus-
ual length and animation.
Now, the truth is, that the epithets
which the New York press in it's ignor-
ance, has applied to those who are ask
ing for this bill, really belong to the in
terested parties who opposed it. The
opponents of the measure want to steal
from a railroad company, under the
color of supposed public right, proper
ty that has been sold to that company
by the State for round sum of money.
The facts are simply these The State of
New Jersey-that is, we, the people
some years ago successfully set up the
right of ownership over the riparian
lands of the State, being the land lying
between high-water mark and certain
eastern bulk head line fixed by the
Riparian Commissioners. The State
sells these riparian lands, and the pro-
ceeds go to the State school fund. 1t
thus sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company, some years ago for large
sum of money, extensive riparian inter
ests on the Hudson river at Jersey City.
When purchased by the Company, the
lands largely consisted of the usual oozy,
muddy shore that terminates marsh
at salt water, and the company has
expended millions of dollars in filling in,
reclaiming and improving the property.
The cities of Jersey City and Hoboken,
noting these improvements, and, appar-
emily coveting the enormously increased
value of this once despised mud-hole,
have recently set up the claim that al
though the State sold this riparian in
terest to the railroad companies, the
grant was nevertheless subject to GER
tain ''public easements" among which
is the right of those cities to the free
and unpurchased use of so much of that
strip of riparian land as may be needed
for opening and continuing streets to
the water front They claim, in short,
that the public should receive back, for
nothing, property which they had once
sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
They pretend that that strip of riparian
land is subject to public rights and ease
ments which are not dreamed of with
regard to any other specie OF property.
The pretence is monstrous and lnde-
fensible one Fort the State thus to grab
back, without compensation, lands
which it had sold for a princely sum,
would be a gross act of tyranny and in
Justice. These are the only terms that
| would fifty characterize such transac-
tions.
Senate bill 167 is designed to liberate
this riparian grant from this pretended
public easement. 1t tproposes to make it
the law of New Jersey that no such un-
natural public right exists. 1t proposes
to establish the equitable principal that
riparian land, sold by the State, shall be
subject to no other easements than such
as are established over any other species
of property, by the right of eminent
domain-by it's regular condemnation
and sale under the methods prescribed
by law.
If Jersey City wants to continue her
streets to the water front, over the ripa-
rian lands belonging to corporations,
she must get them by the same process
that opened them though the remain
ing portion of the territory-by the reg
ular condemnation and purchase of the
right of way She sets up the pretence
that the grants were made subject to
such an easement" If that doctrine
could be successfully asserted, the own
ership of the railroad companies and
other corporations in the riparian lands
which they thought they had bought of
the State, would vanish into thin air ;
for, all that covetous cities and towns
abutting on such lands would need to
do in order to grab them, would be to
open streets enough to cover every foot
thereby with easements" Establish
this monstrous doctrine, and every foot
of riparian land in the state will be COW
cred with easements" placed by land
companies and greedy, unprincipled
municipalities. There is not city in
this Union where any such supposed
public easements exist. And New Jersey
with her valuable and diversified water
fronts, should be the last to establish a
principle of such gross injustice and far
reaching mischief as this. The bill should
be passed, notwithstanding the Govern
ors veto-Stdte Gazette.
CROP PROSPECTS. "A special dispatch
fIom Springfield, ILL.,, says: Information
from nearly every section OF the State