Arizona republican., 1904-01-17
WATER USERS IN CONFERENCE
Petitions Signed for Formation of
 Canal Districts.

l Grand canals held a very enthusiastic meeting yesterday afternoon in O'Neill
 hall, and took an important step toward the formation of canal districts, a move that must necessarily be accom- plished before the distribution of stOr- age water can be arranged for.
 The purpose of this movement is to proceed entirely in harmony with the
 provisions of article of the articles of ! incorporation of the Water Users asso- l Cfation and to carry out the ideas of l both the association and the govern ment. It will be a long time, of course, before the water in the reservoir will 1 he ready for delivery but it is recog-
 niZed also that there is a great deal of
 work to do in the matter now being un- ] dertaken and t is desirable to save IS much time as possible.
 Article g, under which this work is b. gun, reads as follows:
 Section 1. The lands under each sep ! arate distributing canal system within 1 the territory described in Article " of l these articles, shall on the petition of 1 the owners of two-thirds of the shares of capital stock of this association ap- Durtenant to the lands in such pro- | posed canal division, be formed into a canal division and the boundares of such division shall be fixed by the council. On a petition of a majority of
 the shares in this association owning ] lands affected thereby, or without such petition. whenever in the judgment of | the council it will be beneficial, the ! council may change or modify, the 1 boundaries of any canal division. | Then follows the manner of the ap- ' ,g--.s three for each district, and other de- tails.
 Another purpose of the meeting was to consider the matter of priority rights Tn the event that there is al- ways water enough in the reservoir for all the lands that are to be watered, the question of priority would never make any difference, but in the event that by any calamity or miscalculation there should be a shortage, then the or ig.nal question of priority would natur- ally come up. The government, there fore has wisely ruled that the matter of priority should be settled in the be- ginning, before any such contingency could arrive, and against any possible necessity for such information being available. Just how this will be done t-l ci llItllttl lilctl IliS l4bl b-tll ttlIi mined. but it is prcbabl that in some way one or more friendly suits will be instituted to settle the priOrities or to
 work out a plan for such settlement. Tn the settlement of this question, as well as in determining just what portion of the river flow is due to the lands in question. it is desirable to have some reliable data respecting the water sup ply now being used by the respective north side canals. The records of Wa
 ter Commissioner Trott show the river
 f w and the amount turned overs 10
 the Arizona Water company, but they
 do not show the proportion of that water is distributed by the company to each canal
 To obtain this data the general com
 mittee of twenty-one. representing the
 canals. and acting through the sub
 committee of seven, last November em-
 rlOyed 1T. F. RobinsoS to take gauge measurements of the river flow and of
 the flow in each canal at each run.
 Ii is proposed to continue these meas
 urements for six months from that date
 The meeting yesterday, therefore, was
 to report to the entire body of water
 users the action of the general com mittee in employing Mir. Robinson. pro-
 viding for the continuance of his work,
 and also to decide whether or not the
 time had come to take the initiative
 in the formation of canal districts. The
 result of the meeting was affirmative
 and unanimous action on both propo-
 sitions.
 The meeting was presided over by John R. Norton, r. 1T. Parker acting as secretary. The first hour of the meet ing was devoted to an address by Judge Kibbey. who did not leave for Wash ingtCn as announced yesterday, but who left lhis morning. Judge Kibbey's ad- dress was a most interesting one and went over the history of the water question in the valley pretty thorough ly Particular attention was paid to the discussion of the question of priorities as indicated above. and the explanation of possible events wherein the present settlement of the matter is desirable though. of course, all people hope there will never come a time when water shortage will make a priority right val uable. But in any event it is one of the things that must be settled to con form to the requirements of the govern ment. Judge Kibbey also said he was iu harmony with the present movement for the formation Of canal districts and in view of the fact that it is one of the things that have to be done, the pre- liminaries cannot be attended to too soon.
 At the conclusion of Judge Kibbey's address. there was a general discussion after which the report of the committee was presented in the form of three pc titions; one affecting the water users under each of the three canals, which the committee believed should be adopt i ed by the signatures of the water us- CTS present. One of the petitions is printed below and the others are in ex- actly the same form, excepting for the | change in the name of the canal and the description of the canal district | The petition reads
 To the Council of the Salt River Val ! lev Water Users Association:
 We. the undersigned. being the own CTS of twO-thirds Of the shares of the ! c22ital stock of the Salt River Valley | Water Users Association appurtenant to lands within the territory bounded |