THE METROPOLITAN TARK SYSTEM. 161 



them invaluable assets among the possessions of the community — 

 factors of incalculable worth in the promotion of the public 

 prosperity. 



The scope of the Commission, therefore, comprises not only the 

 establishment of great public reservations and the preservation of 

 natural features of exceptional beanty, but the restoration, so far 

 as possible, of the seashore in the neighborhood of Boston to a 

 condition whereby the public may freely enjoy the privileges of 

 access to the salt water ; of improving the natural watercourses 

 of the district in a way that will make them beautiful and valuable 

 featnres of the region in place of the nuisances they have been 

 allowed to become ; of preserving the charms of the various 

 beautiful ponds that form precious features of our suburban land- 

 scapes ; and of establishing convenient and agreeable means of 

 communication, in the shape of boulevards or parkways, between 

 the dense populations of the metropolitan area and the various 

 reservations established for their benefit. 



All of this will of course require some years before even all the 

 preliminary conditions essential to the realization of such a work 

 can be brought about. The Commission has therefore to give its 

 first efforts to the attainment of the main ends embodied in the 

 plan of procedure devised for its guidance by its predecessors. 

 In this work, of course, it is limited by the means placed at its 

 disposal. It has never been claimed that this amount would be 

 sufficient to carry out even the main features of the work agreed 

 upon as desirable. The preliminary Commission expressly stated 

 that the general financial provision made in the proposed bill which 

 afterwards became a law was designed to enable the permanent 

 Commission to enter on its work with energy and upon a suitable 

 though reasonable scale, and it was estimated that this provision 

 would be adequate for the immediate acquisition of the Middlesex 

 Fells and the Blue Hills. This work has already been accom- 

 plished, and it is probable that the appropriation now at the 

 disposal of the Commission will be sufficient to go considerably 

 further. 



The present Commission began its work as soon as practicable 

 after its appointment last summer. It includes, besides the three 

 members of the preliminary Commission, two new members. One 

 of these is Mr. Abraham L. Richards, of Watertown, who was 

 appointed for the short term of one year. Mr. Richards was a 

 11 



