QUESTIONS OF POLICY 83 
under active consideration during the summer, and 
early in August it was decided to make a further requisition 
for $945,000. It had also been determined to locate a 
small park in the eastern district of Newark, where all 
agreed a park was needed, and where opportunity offered to 
obtain about thirteen acres of unimproved city lots in the 
midst of a built-up and populous district. 
The acquirements of nearly all this land from the single 
owner, John O’Brien, of New York, enabled the commis- 
sion to avoid the expense and delay incidental to condem- 
nation proceedings, and made the improvement of that park 
the first work completed. 
Early in July, I brought before the board the matter of 
encouraging gifts of park land, ete., from private owners, 
and the following statement was approved and appeared in 
most of the Essex County papers about that time: 
“THE Essex County Park Commission, 
“Newark, N. J., July 25, 1895. 
“Tn order that Essex County may possess as elaborate a 
park system as possible, the Park Commission has thought 
it wise to invite the people to assist in increasing the area 
and attractions. This is the only commission in the United 
States where the park movement embraces an entire county, 
and the splendid possibilities which follow from such an 
almost unlimited choice of magnificent natural features 
make most desirable the hearty co-operation of the press 
and people in every portion of the county. 
“The experience of other localities shows that park de- 
velopment has been materially assisted by liberal gifts of 
land and money, and in almost every community the park 
systems are a monument not only to the wise public policy 
but to private benefaction as well. 
“Of the 425 acres in the Springfield (Mass.) park sys- 
tem, more than 300 acres have been by gift from individuals 
and but 116 acres—less than one-third—acquired by pur- 
chase. 
‘Within the past two years the city of Hartford (Conn.) 
