The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1904-02-13
CAN ANACORTES
"GOBBLE us UP"
THE STATUTE UNDER WHICH THEY
HOPE TO DO TT
Distancs Limit of Act of 1901 Repealed
by Last Legislature and New Provision
e.. \,
Made for Annexation of "CsntIguous"
Territory.

A few weeks ago the ISLANDER re-
ferred to the scheme of d number of
Anacortes politicians to have Fidal-
go, Guemes, Cypress and Sinclair
islands detached from Skagit county
and attached to San Juan county,
with view to establishing the coun1
ty seat at Anacortes. 1t was then
supposed that the plan of our neigh
bors was based upon the provisions
of the act of March 9, 1891, entitled
'tAn act to provide for annexing GER
tain county territory to a neighbor-
ing county to which it is contiguous"
and the main provisions of this act
were then quoted to show that it did
not furnish authority for the outrage
contemplated, because of the section
Justly providing that no such annex
alton should be made where any OF
the territory proposed to be annexed
was distant more than ten miles from
the court house at the county seat of
the county to which it was proposed
to have such territory attached.
Prosecuting Attorney Wynn has
called the attention of the editor to
the fact that the act referred to was
amended by the last legislature by
the passage of House Bill No. 3O2,
which received the approval of the
governor March 16, 1903, and which
reads as follows:
"Section 1. That when four-fifths of the
qualified electors living upon any terri
tory not less than one section in area
shall desire to have such territory stricken
from the county of which it shall then he
part and added to and made part of
the county contiguous thereto, they may
present petition describing with proper
certainty the bounds and area Of such
territory, with the reasons for making
such application, to the board of county
commissioners of the county, in which
such territory shall be. who Shall proceed
| to ascertain if such petition contains the
requisite number Of petitioners. who shall
be bona fide residents of the territory
sought to be stricken off and transferred
to the contiguous county, and if satisfied
that the petition is signed by four-fifths
of the bona fde residents of such territory
and there will remain In the county from
| which such territory is taken more than
four thousand inhabitants, the said board
shall make an order that a special elec-
territory described in the petition upon a
date to be named in said order. Notices
of election shall contain a description of
the territory proposed to be transferred,
the names of the counties from and to
which such transfer is intended to be
made, and shall be posted and published
as required for general elections.
'Sec. q That section ten oil said act be
and the same is hereby repealed"
From the above it appears to be
unnecessarily to consider the interests
or wishes Of the people of the county
to which annexation of "contigu-
Gus" territory is proposed: 1t might
be interesting to know what part, if
any, the representative Of this coun-
ty took in the passage of this per-
nicious act. 1t would doubtless be
an unwarranted reflection upon his
alertness to assume that it became
law without his knowledge, and his
friends will naturally hope that refer
ence to the House journal will show.
that he strenuously opposed the BILL,
which passed the House March 6,
1903, and the Senate five days later
and was signed by our Skagit county
governor on the 10th. The term
contiguous" means primarily lin
actual contact; touching" II the
act were TO go before the supreme
court for construction, as 1t certain
| ly will if an attempt is made by
our hungry neighbors at Anacortes
to "gobble us up" the probability is
that the court win hold that it could
not reasonably be assumed to be the