DEPARTMENT OF PARKS. 6 1 



" To say that such localities could not have county parks, would 

 be to say, in most cases, that they could not have any. In my 

 opinion, it is clearly within the power of the Legislature to treat 

 the acquisition of park property for the benefit, primarily, of the 

 inhabitants of a particular county as a county purchase. This 

 view is sustained by the only direct authority, cited by the 

 counsel on either side (St. Lewis County vs. Griswold, 58 Mis- 

 souri, 175). But in the absence of authority, I should reach the 

 same conclusion. 



" If the Federal Government may maintain a park and the State 

 Government may maintain a park, I can perceive no good reason 

 in law why the Legislature may not authorize the maintenance 

 of a park by a county. 



" The motion to continue the preliminary injunction is de- 

 nied." 



THE SUPERVISORS ACT. 



The Legislature, in 1894, created a County Department of 

 Parks. This was in the law providing for the purchase of 

 land necessary for a shore drive (Chapter 758 of the Laws of 

 1894, Section 5). The first portion of this section reads: "The 

 Department of Parks of said city (Brooklyn) is hereby constituted 

 a department of parks of said county (Kings), and shall have and 

 possess all the powers and duties now held and exercised by said 

 department in relation to any parkway, road, highway, boulevard 

 or concourse in said county, over and relating to the lands, high- 

 ways, parkways, roads or other property, franchises or rights, 

 authorized to be acquired by the provisions of this act." 



The Board of Supervisors of the county took cognizance of 

 this law, as stated by Justice Bartlett in his decision, on the first 

 day of July, when they adopted an act creating a county civil ser- 

 vice commission to prepare lists of persons to be employed in the 

 county parks and upon the county highways, and appointing as 

 officers of the county department, Frank Squier, Commissioner ; 

 Henry L. Palmer, Deputy Commissioner ; and William A. Booth, 

 Property and Labor Clerk. 



The injunction having been removed, I proceeded with the 

 purchase of the park lands and have secured about all that is 

 required. 



The size and approximate cost of the new parks is as follows: 

 Brooklyn Forest, 535 acres, $1,100,000 ; Dyker Beach Park, 144 



