24 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Bronx Park should be set apart as the site of the New York 
Zoological Park, was formally approved in a long resolution pre- 
pared by the Corporation Counsel, Hon. Francis M. Scott, setting 
forth the conditions of the tenure, and the relations to exist be- 
tween the Society and the City of New York. The full text of 
the resolution is appended to this report. 
This resolution was adopted by the unanimous vote of the Com- 
missioners, and met the approval of both the press and the public. 
In brief, the collections and animal buildings, to cost not less than 
$250,000, are to be presented to the City by the Society. The City 
is to prepare the ground for occupancy, and maintain the Zoologi- 
cal Park when established. The terms of the grant are equitable 
to both parties to the transaction, and while demanding more of 
the Society than the contracts existing between the City and the 
two Museums, they are, upon the whole, satisfactory. Neverthe- 
less, they involve very liberal contributions to the Park from the 
citizens of New York. 
It is both a duty and a pleasure to record here that in the very 
serious task the Zoological Society has assumed in undertaking to 
establish a zoological park for this City on the scale proposed, its 
efforts were met by the Mayor, the Sinking Fund Commission 
and the Board of Parks in a most liberal and helpful spirit, with- 
out which the accomplishment of the ends attained would have 
been quite impossible. 
In view of the wholly unimproved condition of South Bronx 
Park, with the consent of the Mayor and the informal approval 
of the Board of Parks, a bill was introduced in the Legislature, by 
Senator Charles B. Page in the Senate, and in the Assembly by 
Mr. George C. Austin, authorizing the City of New York to issue 
and sell bonds to the amount of $125,000, for the purpose of 
meeting the cost of the ground improvements that are necessary 
to enable the public to utilize and enjoy the park. 
Having first received the approval of Mayor Strong and Gov- 
ernor Black, the bill became a law on the 18th day of May, 1897, 
and is now known as Chapter 510 of the Laws of 1897. The text of 
the bill appears at the end of this report. In brief, it provides that 
the Department of Public Parks shall improve South Bronx Park, 
in accordance with the plans of this Society, as soon as the Zoolog- 
ical Society shall have raised, by subscription or otherwise, the 
sum of $100,000 for the prosecution of its own share of the work. 
