Farry

The petitioner, an applicant for a permit to drill for petroleum upon tide lands in Santa Barbara County, seeks a writ of mandate directing the Director of Finance and Register of Lands to vacate as to his application an official declaration defining the boundaries of an oil-field wherein the petitioner demands such permit to prospect.

In September, 1928, the Surveyor-General and Register of the state land office made an order and prepared a map determining the exterior “boundary lines of the Elwood Oil Field (in so far as State lands fall therein) as fixed under sec. 18, chap. 303, Stats, of Cal., 1921”. Said lines commence one mile westerly from the city of Santa Barbara, extend at right angles three miles out to sea, thence westerly parallel with the shore to a point twenty-four miles distant, and thence shoreward. Such action was preceded and prompted by the successful location and development of a large producing well within said area. Thereafter, and in October, 1928, the petitioner posted the statutory notice, and filed in the office of the surveyor-general his application for a permit to prospect for oil and gas within the aforesaid boundaries, which application was…