A GHAKGE IN THE CURRENT 



63 



publicly referred to, although the court dwelt quite at 

 length upon the subject. In naming the commissioners in 

 open court, the judge said : 



"In the long service that I have had here I might say 

 that all of the communications put together would not oc- 

 cupy one-third of this bundle. It illustrates the anxiety 

 that the public have that, in the composition of this commis- 

 sion, commissioners shall be so selected that the park project 

 shall be considered as one that is not to be subject to fluc- 

 tuations arising from local feeling or local jealousies.^^ 



APPOIJTTMENT OF COMMISSIONERS. 



Reference was then made to *^^more interviews on the part 

 of the people of this county than I have had, I may say, 

 during the whole of my service.^' 



"The commissioners under the original act I appointed 

 on my o™ judgment. The commissioners' powers were 

 merely tentative. The commissioners have discharged their 

 duties in a manner that entitles them to the approval and 

 commendation not only of this court, but of the 

 community." 



"There is everything in the composition and conduct of 

 these commissioners that makes it desirable for me to reap- 

 point them, and it would be my personal ph^asure to com- 

 mend the course of these commissioners by a reappointment. 

 * * * But under the new act a very different condition 

 of affairs confronts me. This new act confers upon these 

 commissioners powers that I may say are extraordinary. 

 The amount is large, the powers of these commissioners are 

 very great, and, in the selection of the persons who are to 

 compose the commission, there are considerations to which 

 I must yield in the performance of a public duty. * * * 

 The principle on which our government is founded is that 

 taxation and representation shall go hand in hand. That 

 principle ought to govern in the execution of a public duty 

 which involves the creation of a debt to be paid by the taxa- 

 - ble inhabitants of the county. 



"The city of Newark pays of the county taxes about 75 



