“ Much of the capital was invested between twenty and thirty years ago, and to be able still to realize 6 per cent upon the money originally invested is more than most people are able to accomplish in any ordinary investment, and more than is necessary in order to give just compensation for property at the time it is used for the public purpose originally intended.
It is, of course, impossibel to say what rates may be adopted in the other counties through which this canal runs, and that is one of the embarrassments under which the parties suffer from the language of the statute of 1885. ”

“ To regulate or establish rates for which water will be supplied is in its nature the execution of one of the powers of the state, and the right of the state so to do should not be regarded as parted with any sooner than the right of taxation should be so regarded, and the language of the alleged contract should in both cases be equally plain. ”

“ It is an arrangement determinable at the will of either of the parties, as much so as the hiring of a laboring man by the day.'
In Tucker v. Ferguson, 22 Wall. 527, 22 L. ed. 805, it was also held that an act of the legislature exempting property of a railroad company from taxation was not a contract to exempt it unless there were a consideration for the act; that, without it, the promise was of a gratuity, spontaneously made which might be kept, changed, or recalled, at pleasure, and that the rule applies to the agreements of states made without consideration as well as to those of persons. ”

“ To take the amount actually invested into 'estimation' does not mean necessarily that such amount is to control the decision of the question of rates. Other language would have been employed to express that thought. The cost may be estimated, says the act, but that leaves open a reference to the other facts adverted to in the latter part of § 5, and it is upon a consideration of the whole case that the board is to determine what shall be reasonable, just, and equal to all parties. ”

“ It is true that the cases cited involved questions of alleged contracts for exemption from taxation, in regard to which it has been said that no presumption exists in favor of a contract by a state to exempt lands from taxation, and that every reasonable doubt should be resolved against it. ”

“ The original cost may have been too great; mistakes of construction, even though honest, may have been made, which necessarily enhanced the cost; more property may have been acquired than nessary or needful for the purpose intended. Other circumstances might exist which would show the original rates much too large for fair or reasonable compensation at the present time. ”

“ Exactly how the question may be hereafter determined as to the percentage of income, where there are three different boards of supervisors who may fix rates for their respective counties, each differing from the other, is not made clear by the statute. The complainant admits that the rates provided for by the supervisors under the act of 1885, if applied to all three counties, would allow complainant an income of substantially 6 per cent on $337,000, being $25,000 more than the present cost of the work would be, as shown by uncontradicted and satisfactory evidence. ”

“ Irrigation by means of corporations formed to supply water was in its infancy in 1862 in California, and the risks necessarily taken in the organization of such companies, and the prosecution of their work, were then not only very large, but also extremely uncertain in character. ”