602 



tions should be repeated in. the face of the evidence which shows 

 the entire freedom from these charges on the part of these gentlemen. 



A single word with regard to the expenses of the park as it is laid 

 out by the commissioners as compared with a larger park. If my 

 recollection serves me right the cost of the entire Northern Adiron- 

 dack region substantially, as laid out in the proposed park before the 

 committee a few evenings ago, was $7,000,000 of dollars. It would 

 seem to have been a reasonable thing that this commission should 

 undertake to bring in a less area in order that the expense might be 

 less, and upon the question of expense is the question of condemnation 

 by the State. This commission recommended that lands should not 

 at present be condemned. They did not place themselves on record 

 against condemnation proceedings for all time to come, but they 

 deemed it unwise to put the machinery of condemnation proceedings in 

 effect at present, and that it was better to undertake to obtain lands 

 by means of purchase. What were the motives which actuated sujph 

 a recommendation ? Why, the expense of the proceeding. Gentlemen,' 

 have any of you watched with any interest the expenses of the con- 

 demnation proceedings for the new aqueduct ? I take it the chairman 

 of this commission is somewhat familiar with that, coming from that 

 locality, and knows what the expenses of condemnation proceedings 

 outside of the cost of the. lands amount to.- I think he has some idea 

 from residing in that locality what the legal expenses connected with 

 the condemnation of several thousand pieces of land -in the Adiroh?i. 

 dack region would cost. The expense of condemnation proceedings if 

 taken immediately, without undertaking to obtain title by purchase or 

 exchange, would be simply enormous, and I will not venture to under- 

 take to estimate the figure into which it would run. But when you 

 consider the expense . of each separate parcel, you would find 

 that those figures are simply enormous. There is another reason 

 why condemnation proceedings were not wise in the first instance. 

 That reason appears again in the argument before the gentlemen of 

 the committee that the soft woods should be allowed to be taken out 

 by the owners, and give them a term of years to do jt. Those of you 

 who are members of the legal profession will at once appreciate the 

 inconsistency of . taking condemnation proceedings for a portion of the 

 title to the land, leaving a part of the lands, so to speak — that is, a 

 portion of the timber — leave the title to that in the owner of the land. 



It is not the taking of a, mere easement, a mere right that may be 

 condemned, but will you condemn ninety or ninety-five per cent of the 

 title which a man has, and leave the other five or ten per cent of the 

 title in him? Can you doit? Is there any machinery known to the law; 



