“... he was in effect stealing from his neighbors...”
I think that sums up the point exactly. Your property is not yours and what falls on it from the heavens isn’t yours either. It belongs to the state or the “collective”. Sounds just a little socialistic doesn’t it?
Do all his neighbors not get the same amount of rain? Were his neighbors capturing the run-off from his property to live on? Wouldn’t that be considered stealing HIS water? What were his neighbors doing with his water that they couldn’t do while he was collecting, er, stealing it?
I grew up in Medford, and I can attest that it gets enough rain for everyone in the Rogue Valley (which contains White City) - especially if you have the foresight to store some on your property for the occasional 104 degree days in July/August.