The Penn's Grove record., 1915-08-13
FIND SQUATTERS
ON STATES LAND
Secretary of Cd Riparian Com
mission Reports Cases
SOME LOCATED II YEARS
Settled on Shorthand of Cape May
Another Three Years Would
Give Them Full Title
to Upland.
Especial trenton correspondence.l

TO upland.
Especial Trenton Correspondence.)
Trenton. An unusual condition
with respect to use of riparian land
rights in Cape May county by squat
tiers, without grants for the privilege
OF using such lands from the State,
has been made public here through
the report of Edward A. Ransom, jr-,
who has just completed an investiga-
ton of the territory in which this
situation exists. Mr.. Ransom says
that the occupants of these lands are
either through ignorance, or deliber-
ately refused or neglected to apply
to the Riparian Commission for lease
or grant of the lands under water
adjoining their upland property"
The lands in question are adjacent
to the inland waterways in Cape May
county and in the vicinity of Cape
May Court House. The report esti-
mates that there are 1000 lineal feet
OF riparian land which will be taken
up by present occupants if they are
forced to comply with the law. All
of this land is Immediately adjacent
to the finest fishing ground in the
State; is five n seven minutes from
Wildwood by train and is upon the
inland waterway"
Some of those who recently pur-
chased property in this vinicity
thought they possessed riparian rights.
On Grassy Sound Channel were found
a number of occupants without au-
thority and the investigator says that
more than half the owners of cot
tages are not only usurpers upon the
States land, but have squatted upon
the upland and do not even know to
whom it belongs.
"A number of these squatters have
been there for seventeen years. Will
lam Royds, postmaster of Grassy
Sound Station, was the second squat
ter in this colony. He settled seven
teen years ago and says that on adj
vice of counsel he is trying to fill out
twenty years of peaceful possession
in order to clear title to the upland"
Violations were also found at Holly
Beach on the sound, and the report
says that doubt surrounds the owner
ship of "Ephriam's Island" so called,
which cuts a line in the center Of
Grassy Sound. The ownership has
been a matter of dispute many years.
Bond Issue Rule to BE Reargued.
Application is to be made before
the Board of Public Utilities Com
missioners at Trenton for a rehearing
on a recent decision of the board to
permit the Trenton, Lakewood and
Seacoast Railway Company to issue
$85,000 in stock and $3.50, 600 in bonds
for the construction of a railway line
between Lakewood and Point Pleas
ant. Contracts were awarded by the
company Immediately after the per-
mission was granted, and the actual
work of construction has been in
progress for more than a month.
The Trenton, Lakewood and Sea-
coast Railway Company was organ
lied in 1903 for the purpose of build
ing and operating a car line from
Trenton to Point Pleasant via Lake
wood. The promoters were unable to
raise enough money to carry out their
plans, and the construction work went
no further than some grading between
Lakewood and Point Pleasant.
In 1909 the property was forecIosed
and the new owners, in part payment
for it, placed in the hands of the
former owners a certain amount of
newly issued bonds.
In the effort to carry out the orig
inal project of constructing the rail-
way line the present company made
application to the Board of Public
Utilities Commissioners for permits
mission to issue $500, 900 in stock and
1920, 900 in bonds. The engineers of
the board went over carefully the
estimates of the company's engineers
as to the cost of construction and
scaled down these estimates to such
an extent that the work which has
been undertaken by the company is
held down to the authorized $S5, 900
in stock and $4,000 in bonds, and
confined to the Lakewood-Poin Pleas
ant section of the original route.
The application for the rehearing is
made by the stockholders of the
original company, who accepted the
bonds of the present company in part
payment for their holdings. Their
contention is, it is said, that the
amount of the stock and bond issues
allowed by the board is in excess Of
the amount required to complete the
work in a satisfactory manner, and
that, therefore, the bonds which they
hold are likely to lose value.