PRELIMINARY WORK COMPLETED 43 
natural reservations for park purposes. Others contended 
that delay would largely increase the cost of the requisite 
park lands. Many suggestions were made apropos of the 
discussion. The occasion was but another indication of the 
sentiment of good will and best wishes which generally pre- 
vailed at that time. 
Before passing from the work of the first Park Commis- 
sion, there are two or three matters that were considered 
and acted upon in the preparation of the charter creating 
the permanent commission, which it may be of interest to 
refer to here. There were two vital principles involved. 
First, as to whether the commission for establishing and 
maintaining the park system should be elective or appoint- 
ive, and, if appointive, in what official or court or courts 
the appointing power should be vested. And second, should 
provision be made for directly assessing the cost of the lands 
for the parks and the improvements, or both; or should a 
portion of the cost, or all of the cost, be provided for by a 
general tax according to the ratables upon the county as a 
whole. It was deemed imperative to have these conditions 
clearly defined, and, before John R. Emery submitted the 
first draft of the proposed charter, on January 25, 1895, 
the points pro and con, as to an appointive board, had been 
seriously considered by the commissioners. They were 
unanimous in the conclusion, in consideration of the 
methods by which candidates for important county offices 
secured, or were accorded, nominations through the cus- 
tomary channels of party selection, that, for such a position 
as that of park commissioner, charged with the responsi- 
bility of locating, acquiring and developing an extended 
park system and the consequent expenditure of large sums 
of public funds, the chances might be more favorable for sat- 
isfactory results under the appointive plan than under the 
elective system. 
THE APPOINTIVE SYSTEM. 
It was recognized that the work of locating and devolop- 
ing a series of parks for so large an area of such diversified 
