Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-21

ESPECIAL TELEeRAk TO THE DIsPAFcHl.
NEW YORK, December 2O.-Miss Liberty
is Jerseyman. While New York has been
busy reaching out after the Worlds Fair,
in the interest of the whole country, the
cunning Jerseyman hes been reaching out
after worldly possessions. She wanted Bed
loe's Island and Robbins Reef, and now
she has got them, Statue of Liberty, light
house and all.
This deed of annextion has been done
through the joint boundary commission, ap-
pointed under authority of the Legislatures
of New York and New Jersey in 1887, to
locate definitely the line between the two
States, which had been more or less In dis
pute for more than 100 years. A royal
commission first located the line in 1859,
but it did 80 with a laxness of expression
and a sparseness of detail that left the ques-
tion almost as unsettled as before.
ANOTHER BREAK MADE.
To settle the disputes that were contin-
ually arising on this account, another COM
mission was appointed in 1884, to do the
work over again. This commission de-
cided that the boundary line should be the
middle of the Hudson river and New York
Bay to the sea. This seemed clear and def
mite enough, but was not long before new
disputes arose. The bed of Raritan Bay
became valuable as an oyster
planting ground, and the un-
certainty as to jurisd iction led to
frequent disputes, and sometimes to blood
shed. The Legislatures Of both States were
flooded with petitions for settlement of the
matter, but nothing was done. Later, the
growing value of the shores Of the river and
bay for commercial purposes led to a new
class of disputes.
Ten years ago suit was begun by the State
of New York to prevent the Central Rail-
road of New Jersey from filing in and oc-
cupying land under water at Communipaw.
The company was acting under grant from
the Riparian Commissioner of New Jersey.
The case went to the Court of Appeals. and
there the decision was in favor of the COM
pany, the Court holding that the term mid
die Of the waters meant the center Of the
channel
STILL DISPUTES AROSE.
Thus the matter stood until in 1885, when
a renewal of the disputes over the Raritan
Bay oyster beds led to the passage by the
New Jersey Legislature of resolution ere
ating a commission, and asking New York
aries. New York responded In 1887, and
Mayo W. Hazeltine, Robert Moore and
Lieutenant s. G. Hanus, United States
Army, were appointed from this State. Ex-
Speaker A. B. Stoney and two others repre-
sented New Jersey.
After several months spent in looking
up precedents and trying to find some gen.
efal principle upon which the line could be
drawn, the commission decided that the
only way to settle the matter would be to fix
an actual line, and mark it by permanent
monuments, mutual concessions to be
made at disputed points. The line agreed
upon sweeps east Of Robbins Reef light
house, and includes not only that and Bed
loe's Island, but Ellis Island, Oyster Island
and all of the bay west of them, making
them New Jersey property.
VERY VALUABLE LAND.
The land, with that in Kill-von-Kull, where
the line has already been monumented, is of
enormous value, in view of the vast scheme
of docks and other terminals already begun
at Black Tom and other points on the
Jersey shore, and which is designed
ultimately to extend the shore line out
so as to make Miss Liberty almost on dry
land instead of in the middle Of the bay.
The title to this land under water vests in
the State of New Jersey, and its proceedsby
sale or lease can be used only for the State
school fund, which already amounts to sew
eral millions of dollars, received from simi-
lar grants of riparian lands.
The actual jurisdiction for police and SIM
liar purposes over the whole of the waters of
the harbor is still vested in New York by
separate agreement made by the two States
many years ago.