270 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
Board of Freeholders, a plain, unmistakable public expres- 
sion of their desires by the Park Commissioners will be 
effective, and will certainly bring good cheer to those public- 
minded citizens who have been, and are, contributing their 
efforts, as they believe, in furthering the purposes of the 
Park Commission.” 
In furtherance of this conference and correspondence, the 
sub-committee of the Joint Committee on Parkways at- 
tended the Park Board meeting of April 13, 1904. This 
committee consisted, as at the previous conference meeting 
with the board, of H. G. Atwater, J. F. Freeman, and my- 
self, as chairman of the committee. As the commission 
had informally given the assurances as above quoted pri- 
vately, the committee went to this meeting to petition and 
request that a representative of the commission should go 
before the City Council of East Orange, or in such other 
manner as the board might deem best, by or before the 
following Monday night, when the new franchise applica- 
tion was to be considered, and make a similar, unqualified 
statement as to the position of the commission regarding 
the Central avenue parkway. The committee urged that 
the commission could, in its opinion, “as trustees of the 
people of the county, consistently, and very properly, de- 
fend both the parks and the parkways”’; that “many be- 
lieved this to be an obligation under the trust imposed and 
accepted by the commission under the law for establish- 
ing the park system,” and under their oath of office, which 
prescribed that they were to “preserve and care for, lay out 
and improve, any such parks and places,” as provided in 
their charter; “and that the appropriations voted by the 
people had been made with the expectation that the com- 
mission would preserve as well as create the desired parks 
and designated parkways.” 
The commission was, as it had been theretofore, wholly 
non-committal. No assurance was given the committee, 
other than that the request would have “due consideration.” 
The following day the published reports of the confer- 
. ence were so entirely misleading—putting words in the 
