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Show 496 ADJUDICATION OF WATER RIGHTS IN WATERCOURSES Early water rights. -In any suit brought for protection of water rights acquired under the law of 1891,319 the plaintiff may join as parties all persons who have diverted water from the same source. Any interested person not made a party may become so; and the court on its own motion may require all claimants to be brought in. All relative priorities may be determined in one decree. North Dakota Bien Code provisions. -The statute, which closely follows the Bien Code, as discussed earlier, provides that the State Engineer shall make hydrographic surveys and investigations of each stream system and source of water supply in the State, beginning with those most used for irrigation. He shall obtain and record all available data for the determination, development, and adjudication of the water supply of the State.320 On completing such a survey of any stream system, the State Engineer is to deliver a copy thereof, together with copies of all data necessary to determine all rights to use water of the stream system surveyed, to the Attorney General who, within 60 days thereafter, is to bring suit on behalf of the State to determine all rights to use such water.321 If suit for the adjudication of rights to use water of a stream system shall have been begun by private parties, the Attorney General is not required to bring suit, but he shall intervene in such suit if notified by the State Engineer that in his opinion the public interest requires such action.322 In any suit for the determination of water rights, all who claim the right to use such waters shall be made parties. When any suit has been filed, the court shall direct the State Engineer to make or furnish a complete hydrographic survey of the stream system in order to obtain all data necessary to the determination of the rights involved.323 The cost of such suit, including costs on behalf of the State, and of such surveys, shall be charged against each of the private parties to the suit in proportion to the amount of the water right allotted to him!324 Upon the completion of the adjudication, a certified j other statute, originally enacted in 1905 and still extant, provides that in any suit for the determination of stream water rights wherein the State is a party, the court is directed to call upon the State Engineer for a complete hydrographic survey of the stream system. All claimants must be made parties. Oreg. Laws 1905, ch. 228, § 4, Rev. Stat. § 541.310 (Supp. 1969). 319Oreg. Laws 1891, pp. 52-60, Rev. Stat. § 541.080 (Supp. 1969). 320N. Dak. Cent. Code Ann. § 61-03-15 (1960). 321 Id. § 61-03-16. 322Id. § 61-03-16. 323Id. § 61-03-17. In any water suit, the court is authorized to appoint a referee or referees, not to exceed three, to take testimony and report upon rights of the parties, as in other equity suits. Id. § 61-04-16. 324 Id. § 61-03-17. Section 61-03-18 provides for a permanent hydrographic survey fund to be used |