54 FIEST COUNTY PAEK SYSTEM 



and, outside of a comparatively small official and political 

 contingent, evident^ received bnt little support. No fnrtlier 

 active effort in that direction, to my knowledge, was made. 



While the bill was pending in the Senate, two of the com- 

 missioners incidental^, and almost accidentally, ascer- 

 tained about the same time that the legislation providing for 

 an appointive park commission for Hudson County a few 

 years previous had been declared unconstitutional by the 

 courts. The question at once arose as to how the act, then 

 before the Legislature, could be amended so as to avoid a 

 similar experience in Essex County. The problem was, at a 

 special meeting of the board, immediately given to counsel 

 to work out, and on February 18 Messrs. Emery and Coult 

 gave three optional remedies for the apparent defect in the 

 bill. They were : 



(a) An amendment providing for the appointment of the 

 new commission b}^ the Governor — an elective official. 



(b) To have the commission selected by or from the 

 board of freeholders — an elective body. 



(c) Apply the referendum principle and submit the 

 measure and the question whether it should or should not 

 become operative to the electorate of the county to 

 determine. 



LEFT TO THE PEOPLE. 



The commissioners promptly decided that they would 

 "trust the people on the issue.'^ An amendment was at 

 once prepared providing for a vote throughout the county 

 at the next election, which was to occur April 9, (1895), 

 with the ballots "For the park act" and "Against the park 

 act." This draft of the amendment was immediately sent 

 to Senator Ketcham, at Trenton. It was, without objec- 

 tion, added to the bill, and on February 26 the measure was 

 passed in the Senate by a vote of 14 to 0. On the following 

 day it was passed in the Assembly by a vote of 50 to 0 — not 

 a single vote having been recorded in either house against it. 



The bill carried with it a direct appropriation, should it 

 fee approved by the people of the county, of $2^500^000 ei 



