The Morris County chronicle., 1903-12-18

hidden stump and rock waste"
that will furnish the prime obstruc-
ton to the course pursued by the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company
in its effort for the abandonment of
the Morris Canal. The more OBJ
structions piled in the path of the
project the better, and the outcome
to the State will dwarf the ripar-
ian rights" idea which fruited
vastly to the benefit of New Jer-
sey's common school fund-of the
late Augustus w. Cutler into COM
parative insig nificance.
The Morris Canal and Banking
Company never owned Lake Ho-
patcong it merely acquired a right
to take as much water from Brook
lyn Pond, after the dam was built
and the low lands flooded, as was
actually necessary for the naviga-
ton of the Morris Canal-and no
more This right was granted by
the individual owners of this prop
erty and supplemented Ivy legisla-
tive action.
The list of land titles held by the
Morris Canal and Banking Com
pany has been in the possession of
the Commission from it's first meet
ing Some of these titles were
gained by purchase others were
permissive-that is, titles of trust
granting lands for canal purposes
only, with reversion to the grantors
their heirs and assigns, in case the
canal should be abandoned. This
is the gist of the quaint legal style
in which these documents were
formulated
The late David A. Nicholas, of
Flanders, well known to Morris
tonians Of generation ago, told
the writer few weeks prior to his
death that he had a transcript of
all the conveyances of land, water
rights, etc, covering the enlarge.
ment of old Brooklyn Pond, and
promised to furnish the document
Death stepped in before the promise
could be fulfilled. Among other
things noted in his diary was
the contract the Delaware, Lacka-
wanna & Western Railroad Com
pany was obliged to enter into with
the owners of " ater rights at or near
Landing. This exceedingly valua-
bic document, supplemented from
diary notes Of Nj. Nicholas, would
prove Of value in the existing con-
troversy.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad
Company virtually owns nothing
but the lease of the lands the canal
occupies for canal purposes. We
are not aware that eminent do
main rights" were ever acquired
under the State franchise. Some
lands We're purchased outright i
others were deeds i'll trust, as in the
case of the McFarlan grant in
Dover, for which never a cent was
paid, Mr. McFarlan granting the
land through his rolling-mill prop
erty for the prospective better trans
mission of the output of his then
large iron works to tidewater, the
canal running but few feet distant
from his mansion. The stipulation
of reversionary right appears on the
conveyance. This will prove a
Stlcker tor the Lehlgh Com
pany, as it is on the grounds now or
lately owned by Mr.. McFarlan's as
signs that the canal crosses the
Rockaway River.
Regarding Lake Hopatcong, il is
inconceivable that a legislature
elected on the principle of serving
the best interests of the State and
presumed so to do, should fly in the
face Of vested rights and truckle to
the behests, moneyed or otherwise,
of venal corporation. The legis-
lator who does so will find that, to
use the language of the streets, his
name is " Mud " especially so if
tries to push himself for further
advancement.
The inchoate rights of the State
must be protected as we'll as the
rights of the heirs of the original
grantors.