270 FIEST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 



Board of Freeholders, a plain, unmistakable public expres- 

 sion of their desires by the Park Commissioners will be 

 effective, and will certainly bring good cheer to those public- 

 minded citizens who have been, and are, contributing their 

 efforts, as they believe, in furthering the purposes of the 

 Park Commission.'^ 



In furtherance of this conference and correspondence, the 

 sub-committee of the Joint Committee on Parkways at- 

 tended the Park Board meeting of April 13, 1904. This 

 committee consisted, as at the previous conference meeting 

 with the board, of H. G. Atwater, J. F. Freeman, and my- 

 self, as chairman of the committee. As the commission 

 had informally given the assurances as above quoted pri- 

 vately, the committee went to this meeting to petition and 

 request that a representative of the commission should go 

 before the City Council of East Orange, or in such other 

 manner as the board might deem best, by or before the 

 following Monday night, when the new franchise applica- 

 tion was to be considered, and make a similar, unqualified 

 statement as to the position of the commission regarding 

 the Central avenue parkway. The committee urged that 

 the commission could, in its opinion, "as trustees of the 

 people of the county, consistently, and very properly, de- 

 fend both the parks and the parkways"; that "many be- 

 lieved this to be an obligation under the trust imposed and 

 accepted by the commission under the law for establish- 

 ing the park system," and under their oath of office, which 

 prescribed that they were to "preserve and care for, lay out 

 and improve, any such parks and places," as provided in 

 their charter; "and that the appropriations voted by the 

 people had been made with the expectation that the com- 

 mission would preserve as well as create the desired parks 

 and designated parkways." 



The commission was, as it had been theretofore, wholly 

 non-committal. No assurance was given the committee, 

 other than that the request would have "due consideration." , 



The following day the published reports of the confer- 

 ence were so entirely misleading — putting words in the 



