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Show 332 SUMMARIES OF THE STATE WATER RIGHTS SYSTEMS and Conservation and its contractors, may petition the court to provide for water-commissioner distribution of the waters.158 The court decree is the yardstick by which the water commissioner must proceed in measuring and distributing the water according to the rights fixed by it. He does not have complete and exclusive jurisdiction to control the stream as such. It is necessary to look to the controlling provisions of the decree for the authority of both the court in issuing instructions to the commissioner, and the commissioner in carrying them out.159 Nebraska Governmental Status The Territory of Nebraska was established May 30; 1854,1 and Nebraska was admitted to the Union March 1, 1867.2 Early Uses of Water "It is to be remembered," said the Nebraska Supreme Court, "that Nebraska was first settled along the eastern borders and in its river valleys. These lands were not arid lands, nor, indeed, may the entire state be properly designated as an arid state."3 Shortly after the turn of the century, the court observed that irrigation was then very new in the State, as the semiarid portions did not begin to be settled until about 1880.4 One witness in the instant case said that in 1880 and 1881 it was usual for every man in northwestern Nebraska to take what water he could; others testified that no one then respected any other's rights in water. While there was some testimony of a custom of respecting prior appropriations, the weight of the evidence was to the effect that there were then very few settlers and that all took what water was at hand, without regulation or custom of any sort. However, the supreme court remarked in another case that, as a matter of public knowledge, after the passage of the irrigation laws of 1877 and 1889 many irrigation enterprises were commenced in the western part of the State by both private individuals and corporations.5 These interests became so extensive and irrigation of such economic importance that in 1895 new and is*Id. §89-1001(3). See Mont. Rev. Codes Ann. § §89-1002 to -1016 (1964) for detailed provisions regarding the commissioners' duties and responsibilities. 1S9Allen v. Wampler, 143 Mont. 486, 392 Pac. (2d) 82, 84-86 (1964); Quigley v. Mclntosh, 110 Mont. 495, 499-500, 510-511, 103 Pac. (2d) 1067 (1940); State ex rel. Reeder v. District Ct., 100 Mont. 376, 382, 47 Pac. (2d) 653 (1935). 1 10 Stat. 277 (1854). 214 Stat. 820(1867). 3Osterman v. Central Nebr. Pub. Power & In. Dist., 131 Nebr. 356, 365, 268 N.W. 334 (1966). See Drainage Dist. No. 1 of Lincoln County v. Suburban In. Dist., 139 Nebr. 460, 467-468, 298 N.W. 131 (1941). AMengv. Coffee, 67 Nebr. 500, 518-520, 93 N.W. 713 (1903). 5Farmers'In. Dist. v. Frank, 72 Nebr. 136, 146, 100 N.W. 286 (1904). |