£99 



were the only lot and township lines upon which surveys had been 

 made so that the park lines could be definite. I want to call attention 

 to the fact that the proposed park of 2,307,000 acres includes within 

 it substantially five-sixth^ of the State lands within that district. 

 That it has been so arranged by the commission that out of the 644,000 

 acres of State lands 512,000 acres are included within its limits. The 

 entire area of- the Adirondack forest if 3,588,000 acres. If that 

 3,500,000 acres had been incorporated in the park, the State 

 owning on^y about 600,000 acres, it would have been necessary 

 to purchase substantially 3,000,000 acres of land in order to pro- 

 cure sufficient land for park purposes, because it was recommended" 

 by the chief executive and seems to have been the view of the 

 Senate that the State should acquire' all the lands within the park 

 limits. I repeat that would have necessitated the purchase of three 

 millions of acres. The park as provided for, 2,300,000, necessi- 

 tates the purchase of about 1,800*000 acres or only, sixty per cent of 

 the amount it would have been necessary to ipurchase had a larger 

 area been taken within the park lines. I insist this justifies the 

 judgmerit of the commissioners, as does the additional fact, that this 

 land can be purchased at about sixty per cent of the amount it would 

 have cost for the larger quantity independent of the fact that the 

 State owns so much larger proportion of it, and hence it could have 

 been bought much more cheaply in proportion. So upon the score 

 of economy for the purpose of placing within the park the greatest 

 quantity of State land, the report of the commission commends itself. 

 I need not call attention to what is shown by the map which has been 

 brought here by the commission, that the park as proposed contains 

 one-fourteenth of the area of the State, or to compare it with the size 

 of other parks and States. I have spread those figures out upon the 

 brief which we have prepared in order that they may be examined by 

 the committee at their leisure and that they may see the extent of 

 this park as compared with the extent of this State and other States. 

 There was another reason why the entire State lands were 

 not taken for park purposes and that is a reason which has not been 

 adverted to here, a9 1 supposed it would be, by way of attack upon the 

 lumbermen. At the outset of this inquiry it was insisted, because, 

 Mr. Basselin was a lumberman, therefore he had not by reason of 

 that fact done his duty toward the State. The fact was ignored that 

 Mr. Basselin was a lumberman when he was appointed in 1885, that 

 when the present chief executive reappointed him in 1889 he was 

 known tojDe a lumberman and beyond all that, as he stated, he was 

 appointed because he was a lumberman. That brings me to this point, 



