New York State Forestry 57 



undertaken until after the boundaries and high flow Hnes thereof 

 shall have been accurately surveyed and fixed, and after public 

 notice, hearing and determination that such lands are required 

 for such public use. The expense of any such improvements 

 shall be apportioned on the public and private property and mu- 

 nicipalities benefited to the extent of the benefits received. Any 

 such reservoir shall always be operated by the state and the legis- 

 lature shall provide for a charge upon the property and munici- 

 palities benefited for a reasonable return to the state upon the 

 value of the rights and property of the state used and the ser- 

 vices of the state rendered, which shall be fixed for terms of not 

 exceeding ten years, and be readjustable at the end of any term. 

 Unsanitary conditions shall not be created or continued by any 

 such public works. 



Section 4. The legislature may authorise the use by the city of 

 New York for its municipal zvater supply of lands now belong- 

 ing to the state located in the tozvns of Hurley and Shandaken 

 in the county of Ulster and in the town of Lexington in the 

 county of Greene, for just compensation. 



Section 5. The legislature shall annually make provision for 

 the purchase of real property xvithin the Adirondack and Catskill 

 parks as defined by law, the reforestation of lands and the mak- 

 ing of boundary and valuation surveys. 



Section 6. [Last sentence of former section seven of former 

 article seven.] A violation of any of the provisions of this [sec- 

 tion] article may be restrained at the suit of the people or, with 

 the consent of the supreme court in appellate division, on notice 

 to the attorney-general at the suit of any citizen. 



Note : — Matter in italics is new ; matter in brackets [ ] is to 

 be omitted. 



The Constitutional Convention itself through the work of the 

 committee on state officers recommended a consolidation of ap- 

 proximately 150 state offices, bureaus, etc., into seventeen de- 

 partments. Conservation was to be a department by itself and 

 to have jurisdiction over forest, fish, game, water power, potable 

 waters and regulation of stream flow. 



It was argued that an attempt should be made to take the affairs 

 of the Commission out of politics and that this could be done by 

 the formation of a Commission modeled on the lines of the Board 

 of Regents of this State, which has jurisdiction over educational 

 interest ; that by the appointment by the Governor and confirma- 

 tion of the Senate of nine commissioners, one from each judicial 

 district of the State; a non-partisan board would be created 

 which should be a buffer between the legislature, politics and a 

 non-partisan administration. 



