The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-02-27
NOT SECURED BY PEOPLE HOLD.
ING PRIOR RIGHTS.
PRESENT SYSTEM WRONG
IL Cause Of Endless Litigation-PIea
for Creation Of State Irriga-
ton Official.

present legislature is to pass some
sort of a Measure providing for the
creation of the office of state irriga-
ton warden" said a man familiar
with the situation recently to the
Helena Independent
"The experience of the past few
years fully demonstrates the neces-
sity of such an official, and this neces-
city, or, rather, demand, is bound,
in the very nature of things, to in
crease as the state becomes more
thickly settled and the demand for
water for irrigating purposes-already
equaling the supply under the present
system in which much water is vast
ed-becomes greater
in the early days of Montana
water right disputes were unknown.
At that time nature provided more
than enough water for the irrigation
Of the farms along the creek banks.
The amount of water in the various
creeks has not increased since that
time, while the population which
this water is expected to sustain has
multiplied a thousand fold. AS the
settlers became more numerous, each
one expecting a sufficient proportion
of the stream along which he settled
to irrigate his farm, water right suits
became frequent in the courts. In
almost every instance it was the man
who owned the best right along the
creek to seek redress in the courts
of law.
This was accounted for by the
fact that the early settlers-those who
secured the first rights to the waters
Of the creek-did not go far back into
the m86santains to find a homestead.
They ta,A the best land along the
creek, which was usually to be found
Just where the stream emerged from
the mountains into the larger valley
of the river. AS time went on, other
settlers appeared and many of them
located above the first homesteader.
Thus they secured the first 'whack'
at the water, and by and by there
were enough of the settlers above
the original locator TOBY an extrav-
agant use-literally deprive him of
water for i%rrigating purposes at the
time when water for irrigation was
most needed.
"In all of the older creeks, law
~,.:%c o,~o,ci,o ste %r,,o h,,f orr0or ~.
ing to be the only mean of settleing
the matter-have been resorted to
and the rights along the creek have
been adjudicated. In cases of this
kind it has been found essential for
the court to appoint a water commits
sioner to see that the DEGREES of the
court We're enforced. This has proved
unsatisfactory in almost every in
stance. Among the reasons for this
is the fact that the water commits
sioner appointed by the court had to
do only with the rights which were
adjudicated by that court. Other set.
tiers arrived and over them the water
commissioner had no jurisdiction. II
they Appropriated more than their share
necessary to institute another law
suit in order to get their rights ad
Indicated and put them or their al
legged water right under the jurisdic
ton of the commissioner appointed by
the court. To endow an irrigation
warden with sufficient authority tc
not only look after the old rights, but
to do what he could to provide fol
the newcomer, would, it will be read
lily seen be a much better solution
of the problem than the system nov
in vogue.
Another matter than can not bt
overlooked if the welfare of the state
is to be taken into consideration il
that at the present time men will
old and established water rights in
sist on using more water on thei
farms than is really necessary. Thi
is manifestly wrong, not only to tn
later conner, who is thus deprived o
water that he colud have were ecc
nomy practiced, but to the state a
large, whose duty it is to see tina
the soil of Montana produces just a
much as it is possible to make il
Until such time as the national GOV
ernment carries out its plan of stol
ing the high waters of the spring 70
use in the irrigating season it is al
parent on the face of things tina
economy must be practiced in tn
use of water in the dry stason of tn
year, when the Montana soil erie
most loudly that its thirst be quencl
In NO haitian aan thic nrol