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enhanced value of Brooklyn property to-day fully justifies the liberally 

 conceived plan of operations we recommended when our whole inten- 

 tion was laid bare before you three years ago. 



We are now in the middle of the work, all the important points, save 

 one, have been carried. We have all the ground we want and where 

 we want it ; our most burdensome operations in the field have been 

 successfully carried through, and we are henceforward in a position to 

 go ahead under more favorable circumstances. What the end is to be 

 we cannot tell, for the point left unsettled seems to us to be of vital im- 

 portance to the financial success of the whole undertaking. It is the 

 one now before you for consideration. 



What we ask, with a profound conviction of its necessity, is what we 

 have asked for from the first, that the Legislature shall give us the power 

 to make a fresh disposition of the land on the east side of the' avenue, 

 so that it may be laid out under our direction in a way that we firmly 

 believe will not only help the park, by giving it proper approaches in 

 every direction, but will enable our whole scheme to become a really 

 comprehensive project for the advancement of the prosperity of Brook- 

 lyn, and at the same time establish it on a thoroughly satisfactory basis 

 as an investment of city funds. 



We are, however, now as heretofore open to any new conviction that 

 will enable us the better to perform our trust, and only ask that the 

 question shall be discussed in a, candid spirit, and on broad public 

 grounds. 



