The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1904-11-28

have not been increased in value at the
same ratio as other property in the city,
or commensurate with the increased val
ne of lands on New York Bay and Har-
Dor, evidenced by the growth of popula-
tion, buildings and transportation since
1884, and that even under the operation
of the present law the city is deprived
of certain proportion of the tax which
| it should receive.
We propose to demonstrate TO you that
the greater number of these complaints
have no grounds in fact, and of the
Others, if they were at any time true,
they have been by amendments to the
act and changes in the methods of the
State, either entirely remedied, or so far
remedied as to leave no substantial
grounds for complaint.
As for the first complaint
The whole frontage of Jersey City and
Hoboken upon the Hudson River, from
the Morris Canal Basin to Weehawken.
is about 16,500 feet, and up to the pres
ent time is the most valuable water
front in New Jersey, and the front popu-
larly supposed TO have been disposed of
to the disadvantage of the inhabitants Of
the cities.
Nothing is further from the fact. OF
this frontage, 1880 feet is comprised in
the lands now or formerly of the Jersey
Associates Gncluding Morris Canal and
Pennsylvania Railroad lands), the Budd
grant and John B. Coles improvements
tnow Long Dock Company, and the
lands of John Stevens (now Hoboken
Land and Improvement Company and
their grantees).
The base title to all this frontage is by
deeds for all the upland behind, and
grants from the State, giving power to
hold fill out. build docks and wharves,
and otherwise improve the lands under
water in front. dating back over one hun
tlred years, before railroad had been
dreamed of, or the State, by it's courts,
had defined its right of ownership to
lands under water After about three
quarters of century of actual posses
sion, and the expenditure of large
sums in the improvements authorized by
law, and when the State had defined its
rights, and appointed a Riparian Com
mission, these ancient grants were con-
irmed for a nominal consideration to
the successors of the original owners
Could the state, in law or equity, have
done otherwise than confirm them in the
title?
When the original grants were made,
the sites of Jersey City and Hoboken
We're woods, fields and swamps; the
farms were on the hills. The grantees
were the sole owners of the lands, and
their new enterprise, of building up
town on the Jersey shore, was generally
pnly result in financial disaster, as ac-
tually proved to be the result to many of
looked upon as a speculation which could
the parties interested.
Instead of the water front being
stripped from the cities, the cities were
nursed into being and growth behind the
front, the owners, with a foresight in adj
vance of, perhaps. all the inhabitants of
the then, young Republic, holding and
reserving the frontage with some dim
foreshadowing of the mighty future of
the shores of the harbor of New York
Every person who bought lot, or
built home on the lands behind this
shore, from the first lot sold, for hum
dred years, knew well that his deed gave
him not shade of right to this shore
front.
OF the remaining 2.7oo feet Of this
front, part is now contained in the south
erly half of the Lackawanna yard (the
northern part coming through Stevens
and the Hoboken Land and Improve
ment Company This title is from the
purchase Of the shore front from heirs
of John 3. Coles about the middle of the
last century, and through. the Jersey
Shore Improvement Company, who were
chartered by the State in 1854 to fill in
and improve the mud fats in front: the
grant being since confirmed by the Ri
parian Commission.
Even at this time there was very little
indication that the speculation of making
lands would result as a financial success.
The lands to the west. to the foot of the
hill We're deep mud swamps, on which
not permanent improvement had ever
been made. The Erie Railroad had not
yet tunnelled the hill. The Morris and
Essex was an infant railroad with one
track running from Newark to Norris
town. and the man who should then sug-
gest that this mud fiat would ever be
needed, or used, by that road as ter
minal yard would have been thought
crazy.