Arizona republican., 1910-04-03
GOVERNMENTS OFFER FOR THE MESA CANAL
MEETING OF STOCKHOUOERS WITH RECLAMATION SER
 VICE OFFICIALS.
Calling of Another Meeting.

At the meeting of the stockholders 1 Of the Mesa Canal company with rep
 resentatives of the reclamation ser 1 vice yesterday, l.. C. Hill, supervising
 engineer as had been anticipated. pre- scented to the meeting an agreement
 for the purchase by the government of
 all the physical property of the canal company. except a small land holding, comprised chiefly of the canal and lat ! erals. for the sum of $43,000. The
 question was much discussed after Mir. , Hill and the associated officials left for ! Phoenix, the decision reached by the
 stockholders being that the directors . of the canal company should confer | with the company'S attorney and de | wise contract tO be submitted to the
 stockholders at meeting to be held | Saturday. April l6 and that previous ! ly q copy of the contract should be
 sent to each stockholder that he might give consideration to its provisions.
 MT. Hill was accompanied by C. s. ] Witbeck. examiner of the service. and 1 by Howard S. Reed. the engineer in
 charge of water distribution. Mir. Hill and MT. Witbeck both discussed the situation at length. outlining the agree | mcnt submitted and it's certain results
 if entered into. more fully than could | well he explained in the document it. ! self. In substance the proposition is ! for the government to take ownership ! and possession of the canal at . valua- | tion of $43.000. CrcditIng that sum to 1 the lands now having an interest in ! the canal and signed to the association 1 each acre to the amount of its inter est in the canal. the credits to be made against the final charge per acre to all the lands in the association for the project construction.
 It is not planned that any cash money shall change hands in this
 transaction. but the result will amount to the same thing. Forty-three thousand dollars. roughly estimated. equals approximately $3 per acre for the lands under the Mesa canal. Assuming that the total cost of the project is $40 per acre and assuming that g per acre is the correct value of the price offered. the lands under the
 Mesa canal would have to pay $S7 per acre more. in cash. However. the ca nal values are represented by stock which carries floating water rights. so that land ownership does not neces- sarily represent canal ownership. In
 the event man had stock or rights enough to cover two acres, and only had one acre of land. he would of course get credit for that much inter est in the canal on the one acre. or approximately s6
 The agreement offered by MT Hill 1 provides for the government taking | charge of the canal property at once l administering it as it does the rest ! of it's system. and furnishing rcser- | voir water to all lands not in excess | ownership, which are signed to the wa l ter users association. The use of the . word stock in this transaction is l quite necessary, though 1t hardly 1 means the same thing it would in an ! ordinary stock transaction. The gov ernment of course does not want the l stock unless it has it all and has no mo- | ton of using the stock after 1t gets II. 1 only to cancel it, eventually. What the 1 government buys in reality is the phy- i scal property of the company and the l stock is surrendered by each holder | merely to show how much credit he ! shall receive on what he will owe the 1 government for his share in the reser- 1 voir These shares. which on basis of l 5000 for the whole property are ! valued at S107.50 each, the agreement | offered says may be presented for | credits on the reservoir debt any time l after two years and within ten years l thereafter The reason for not ac- cepting them now is probably that the ! reservoir will not be formally opened | for q couple of years, hence no pay ments would be due
 One of the important obstacles in the mind of number of the stockholders i was that in the event that the stock of the Mesa Canal company was trans ferred to the government by so doing the canal organization would be dis banded and as company IL would have no standing in the court. and especially in the suit which it is pro posed shall be instituted at d near date looking toward readjudication of the prorating of the water to the Mesa canal. Throughout the meeting matters of considerable m1ment were brought up for explanation. nut prob ably the one finding the most expres- sion from the stockholders was thas IbCVe referred to.
 Concerning the above II "llI De seen that tEc company will ha:e at least two years in which to fins up ito business. or longer if it wants to. though after the reservoir payments become due it will either have tO sur render it's stock to meet them or pay cash for the early payments until such time as it does surrender it's stock.
 Out of the possible 4OO shares in the company there were 253 shares listed at the commencement of the meeting and no less than the owners Of twen- ty-five shares came in later. There was d liberal discussion throughout the ses- sion. and MT. Hill and MT. Witbeck were subjected to d rigid cross fire of questions.
 CHURCH NOTE. prnrram fpr the Lords day of the