The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-03-18
ANTHRACITE and WATER
Novel Suggestion to Cover
nor Albeit Anent the
Reading Lehigh
Deal.
BILL 449 STILL UNSIGNED.
Surrender Of the Pequannock
Suggested As the Price Of A
Concession.
BILL 449 STILL UNSIGNED.
speciol TO the Jersev Citv Ne,cs.

grave doubts now whether Governor AD-
bett will sign the bill legalizing the coal
deal between the Reading, Lehigh Val
ley and New Jersey Central Railroads. He
was at the State House yesterday after
noon for two hours. He left at four
o'clock for Philadelphia to attend the
Glover Club dinner. Just before his de-
parture he was asked If he had sigued the
bill and he said that he had not The bill
was safe in his possession and he would fix
no definite time when it would be consid-
cred. He gave no particular reason why
he had delayed approving sucn an i'm
portant measure. but volunteered the in
formation that he had not familiarized
himself with the provisions of the bill.
He thought that the bill would not be
signed this week. He left the State
House in a hurry. AS he passed out of
his reception room Miles Ross and James
Smith, Jr., were seated together on
sofa discussing the peculiar position.
is THE ACT UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
In speaking of the matter here yester-
day a prominent constitutional lawyer
said tnat while the act was in purport a
public one. 1t was In reality private one.
Nothing bore that view of the case out
more clearly than Section of the bill,
which reads:-
"That if any steckholder of any corpora
tion of this State whose railroad or other
public work has been or shall be leased,
assigned or transferred by any lease as
signment or transfer, shall be dissatisfied
Herewith, the parties to said lease or one
of them shall pay to such dissatisfied
stockholder the value of his or her stock
Immediately. prior to said lease;
upon such value the same shall
be appraised by three disinterested Com
missioners appointed for that purpose by
the Chancellor or any Justice of the
Supreme Court of this State, on the ap-
plication of either party, made upon
twenty days notice, put the parties to
said lease shall not be required to pay for
The stock of any such dissatisfied stock
holder unless .he or she shall give
written notice of such dissatisfaction to
the president or secretary Of one Of the
contracting parties to said lease within
three months after the due execution of
said lease, or in cases of leases heretofore
made, within three months after the pas
sage of this act, and said assignment or
transfer provided for by said lease shall
not be valid as against such dissenting
stockholder, until the value of his or her
stock shall have been paid or rendered as
provided in this act, and the parties SO
paying for said stock may hold the same
or sell it or any part Of it for such price
as the directors Of said company may
deem expedient.
ADVANTAGES OF A LITIGATION.
This section, the lawyer declared, prac-
tically amounted to the exercise of the
right of eminent domain. 1t was not for
the benefit of the public. but solely for the
purpose of working advantage to few.
1t was intended to prevent rival to the
combination from getting possession of a
few shares of stock and starting litiga-
ton. There was some reason to believe
that under the turn the matter had now
taken, the Lehtgh Valley might welcome
a suit to test the constitutionality of the
bill. Such course would tie the matter
up in the courts. where, by taking advan-
tage of all the various steps of appeal, the
matter could be held for year or more.
In the meantime, the defects, constitu-
tional or otherwise, which the lawyers
for the prosecution might discover, could
be remedied by the next Legislature.
The conversation theme turned upon the
Governors motives in delaying to sign
the bill when the lawyer said that he had
reason to believe that the Governors
course was actuated by his desire to
make sure that the State derived some
thing of real value in exchange for. the
great benefits which the bill conferred
upon the combination: as, for example,
some sufficient guarantee that the prom
ises of cheaper coal made by the advo-
Gates of the bill, would be carried out.
HOW TIRE STATE MAY BE BENEFITED.
Continuing on this phase of the subject
the gentleman said that the Governor
might stipulate as condition of his ap-
proving the bill that the Lehigh Valley
should surrender the questioned eX-
elusive rights which it claims to greater
part of the States supply of pure water.
1t was the opinion Of the Governor and
other able lawyers that the Lehigh Val
ley's claim to an indefeasible right in
running water was not good, and that it
only had an easement In The water and
even that was subject to the right of
eminent domain. The company claimed
that the rights which it had in the water
han been acquired under grants given by
the State to the Morris Canal and Bank
ing Company and could not be conStitu-
tionally taken away.
If the Governor should make some ar
rangement as suggested and similar to
that which he made with the Morris and
Essex Railroad Company in the matter of
it's disputed taxes, long litigation be-
tween the State and the Lehigh Valley
Railroad Company. which was sure to
come some day over the water question,
would be avoided.
In answer TO the question whether the
obtaining of this water supply would be
a real benefit to the State the lawyer re-
ferred me to that portion of Governor
Abbett's message which dealt with the
granite region of the State, which en-
braces the upper regions of the Ramapo.
Wanaque, Pequannock and Rockaway
Rivers. The Governor said:-
WHAT THE GOVERNOR SAYS.
"The flow from eighty-Seven square
miles of the watershed of the Rockaway
River, can be collected at point 500 feet
above tide, at distance of twenty miles
from tide water at the head of Newark
Bay, and fifty miles from Trenton. The
water from this area can be impounded
aud used for the supply of the northern,
cent raj or southern portions of the State,
as may be required.
"ln addition to the above, there are
including eighty-two square miles
drained by the Ramapo and Wanaque
Rivers in New York State) 227 square
miles af territory tributary to the north
ern branches of the Passaic River, the
water from which is capable of being
at an elevation of over three
hundred feet above tide, at a point distant
twenty-five miles from tide water at the
head of Newark Bay, and can be utilized
for the supply of the population in the
lying between the First or
Mountain and the Hudson
River, and stretching from the city of
Paterson to the Raritau River
THE LEHIGH'S QUESTIONABLE CLAIMS.
That Granitlc region, the lawyer said,
embraced four fifths of the really good
water supply of the State. 1t was now
controlled by the Lehigh Valley Railroad