OCR Text |
Show 229 shall further provide that all irrigable land held in private ownership by any one owner in excess of one hundred and sixty irrigable acres shall be appraised in a manner to be prescribed by the Secretary of the In- terior and the sale prices thereof fixed by the Secretary on the basis of its actual bona fide value at the date of appraisal without reference to the proposed construc- tion of the irrigation works; and that no such excess lands so held shall receive water from any project or division if the owners thereof shall refuse to execute valid recordable contracts for the sale of such lands under terms and conditions satisfactory to the Secre- tary of the Interior and at prices not to exceed those fixed by the Secretary of the Interior; and that until one-half the construction charges against said lands shall have been fully paid no sale of any such lands shall carry the right to receive water unless and until the pur- chase price involved in such sale is approved by the Sec- retary of the Interior and that upon proof of fraudulent representation as to the true consideration involved in such sales the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to cancel the water right attaching to the land involved in such fraudulent sales * * . *. Under this provision, the district and not the United States delivers water to the individual users. The district agrees that it will withhold project water from land "in excess of 160 irrigable acres" held in private ownership, unless the owner agrees in a "recordable contract" to sell such land under terms and conditions satisfactory to the Secretary and at prices not to exceed those fixed by him.462 482 On May 15, 1944, in a telegram to the Tulare Daily Times, Tulare, California, the then Secretary stated that Section 46 denied him the power, in the absence of consent of the water users, to establish the limit of land in private ownership on any new project at less than 160 acres. But see Act of August 9, 1912, § 3, 37 Stat. 265, 266, 43 U. S. C. 544; Act of August 13, 1914, § 12, 38 Stat. 686, 689, 43 U. S. C. 418; see supra, n. 446, p. 226, and p. 277. The provision in Section 46 for a "recordable contract" to insure eligi- bility for water service is somewhat similar to the earlier administrative requirement that excess landowners sign trust deeds for the sale of excess |