78 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



cording to their means. The final plan is an extensive one, be- 

 fitting a great city and a generous people. This will be known, 

 not as Bronx Park, but as the Neiv York Zoological Park. Only 

 a few years hence, in the opinion of those who have watched the 

 past growth of the City, and who realize the progress of the 

 science of transportation, this Park will be central, surrounded 

 by a dense population and reached by rapid transit from every 

 direction. 



" Now we must pay a tribute no less warm to the work of 

 many too numerous to name — the various City officers and en- 

 gineers, the professional and business men, the scientists of this 

 and other cities, the architects, the artists, the sculptors, to our 

 able and energetic director and staff — in short, to all who, with 

 or without recompense, have felt the inspiration of this Zoological 

 Park as an ornament to their City and country. These men have 

 devoted months of thought and care, weeks of foreign travel and 

 correspondence, in order to secure for New York the plan and 

 conception of a Zoological Park worthy of the metropolis of the 

 western hemisphere. 



" Comptroller Coler, in the regretted absence of the Mayor, 

 we desire to acknowledge to you, as the official representative of 

 the City, the cordial and helpful support and co-operation of the 

 Mayor and Board of Estimate, of the Park Department and its 

 engineers, as well as of other departments of the City. We state 

 that, although unfinished, the Zoological Park is now ready for 

 the public. You have imposed upon us a great trust ; we have 

 fulfilled it to the best of our ability. We ask your continued 

 confidence and support." 



At the conclusion of Professor Osborn's address, the President 

 introduced the Hon. Bird S. Coler, Comptroller of New York, 

 who represented the Mayor, and who responded as follows : 



REPLY OF HON. BIRD S. COLER. 



" Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen : It gives me great 

 pleasure to participate to-day in the formal opening of the Zo- 

 ological Park. These slight ceremonies mark another advance 

 step in the metropolitan progress of our great City. The plan 

 of public co-operation with private generosity in establishing and 

 maintaining institutions combining artistic or scientific instruc- 



