414 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



Under the existing statutes applicable to the case, the State of New York appropriates such land as 

 it sees fit for canal purposes, seizes the land and says to the land owner that he must go to a tribunal 

 known as the Board of Claims to have his damages ascertained. That he can have no costs for 

 collecting his damages. The statute creating the Board of Claims permits it to prescribe rules and 

 regulations of practice ; and under the rules and regulations prescribed, this claimant was obliged to 

 furnish a specific and accurate description of the lands appropriated in order even to file his claim so 

 as to present his case to the Court to obtain the compensation and damages that are justly due. For 

 surveying, printing, witness fees, copying and certifying to papers, disbursements, etc., $10,000 were 

 expended, which certainly ought justly and equitably to be taken into account in any settlement made. 



The claimant squarely challenges the constitutionality of a statute which deprives him of his 

 property and inflicts upon him the expense and burden of ascertaining its metes and bounds and then 

 of chasing up the compensation. Tlie Constitution guarantees to him just compensation for his 

 property taken, and clearl)'- to deduct the cost of obtaining it, does not leave just compensation. 



As above stated, the proof regarding the damages shows the claim so much larger than originally 

 claimed that in case no settlement is made, the claim will have to be amended to conform to the proof, 

 as permission has already been given so to do, so as to include the damages proven and not set forth 

 in the claim. 



The foregoing is as concise a statement as the claimant is able to make of the facts which the 

 undersigned desires to submit for the consideration of the Forest Commission and the Commissioners 

 of the Land Office, when they shall take action with reference to the purchase of Adirondack Lands 

 affected by the construction of the Beaver River Reservoir, pursuant to the authority conferred upon 

 them by Chapter 561, Laws 1895, the truth of which, we believe, will be fully verified by personal 

 examination of the property damaged, which it is expected and desired said Board shall make, and 

 also by reference to the stenographer's minutes taken in the matter of his claim against the State for 

 damages, now pending in the Board of Claims, and copies of which minutes are also herewith 

 submitted. 



Dated July 10, 1895. 



WILLIAM SFAVARD WEBB, 



By Edward M. Burns, Manager. 



In May, 1895, the Legi.slaturc passed the law known as Chapter 561, Laws of 

 1895, "An act to authorize the I'orest Commission to purchase lands within the 

 boundaries of the Forest Preser\e." 



This law, which was signed by the Governor on May 8, 1895, pro\ides as follows: 



Section i. Pursuant to its recommendation and resolution, transmitted to the Legislature 

 February fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, the Forest Commission, or such department of the 

 State government as may hereafter be charged with the care of the Forest Preserve, is authorized, 

 with the approval of the Commissioners of the Land Office, to purchase, for the uses and purposes of 

 the Adirondack Park, the whole or any portion of any township or great lot within the boundaries of 

 the Forest Preserve, the owners of which have sustained damage by the construction of reservoirs by 

 the State for canal purposes, or to restore waters taken for the canals, not exceeding in all 80,000 

 acres, at a reasonable and fair valuation, taking into account the damages necessarily sustained by 

 any such owner in consequence of the acts of the State in constructing and maintaining such reser- 

 voir, but every such purchase shall be upon the e.xpress condition stated in the contract of purchase, 

 that the land owner from whom the purchase is made shall release to the State all claims for 

 damages to lands not purchased and owned and retained by him. 



Section 2. The Treasurer shall pay, on the warrant of the Comptroller, from the money now in 

 the hands of the Treasurer of the State to the credit of the Forest Commission, and known as the Forest 

 Preserve fund, the sum of fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and said 



