CHAPTEE XYIII. 



EXPERIENCES ELSEWHERE AXD RECO^IMEXDATIOXS. 



SixcE this history of the Essex Coimty parks was begun, 

 I have received various inquiries and requests, if I would 

 not, in a concluding chapter, indicate, from my intimate 

 knowledge of park affairs, such changes as might be made, 

 in the interest of the public and for the good of the parks. 



As this record deals principally with the past, and the 

 line is therefore drawn on the course of events mainly to 

 the present, I will make here but a brief reference to the 

 points covered in these inquiries. I do not, however, hesi- 

 tate to express the conviction that there are changes which 

 I believe most important, which demand early attention, 

 and that should soon be made. 



First; — Eestrictions and further safeguards by statute 

 should, in my judgment, be throT^m around the present 

 method of selecting park commissioners. When the present 

 plan of leaving the appointment of commissioners entirely 

 to the presiding justice of the Supreme Court was adopted, 

 it was confidently expected that the selections from year to 

 year to fill this responsible position would be made for 

 reasons of special ^'fitness," and that other influences in 

 the determination of that question would be thus effectually 

 eliminated. 



That a different result has obtained, and that this method 

 of creating park commissions has been, in its practical 

 workings in Essex County, a disappointment to the public, 

 is not, I believe, a question of the slightest doubt in the 

 mind of any well-informed person on the subject. 



The manifest tendency of the present system, where the 



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