423 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
New York Parks 
The New York Supreme Court 
through Justice Davis has declared the 
ordinance framed by Park Commis- 
sioner Henry Smith of the Boroughg 
of Manhattan and Richmond, New 
York City, prohibiting tire chains 
from being used in parks, invalid and 
unconstitutional. Justice Davis said 
the ordinance was in direct violation 
of the New York State motor vehicle 
law, is in violation of the Constitution 
•of the United States and of the State 
of New York, and that it discriminates 
between various kinds of non-skidding 
devices. 
Plans looking toward the consolida- 
tion of the park systems in the dif- 
ferent boroughs of Greater New York 
are under consideration by the execu- 
tive committee of the Allied Parks 
Association, of which Eugene A. 
Philbin is president, for submission to 
the Charter Revision Commission. 
One plan is that a committee of five 
shall be appointed by the mayor from 
recommendations made by recognized 
organizations, each commissioner to 
be paid a salary of $.5,000 a year. The 
other plan is that a commission of 
eleven shall be appointed by the 
mayor, who shall himself be an ex- 
officio member, the ten others to be 
selected from the directorate of the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New 
York Public Library, the Brooklyn 
Institute, the Chamber of Commerce 
of the Borough of Richmond, the 
United Civic Association of the Bor- 
ough of Queens and the North Side 
Board of Trade, and a citizen, who 
has been a resident at least ten years 
of the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, 
Richmond and the Bronx. These 
commissioners are to serve without 
compensation, except that they shall 
receive $10 for each meeting attend- 
ed, Put in no event shall the amount 
so received by each commissioner ex- 
ceed in any one year $500. 
The Bureau of Municipal Research 
in submitting the second and last sec- 
tion of its report on the parks of New 
York, says that the permanent correc- 
tion of the evils to which it calls at- 
tention “will not be possible unless 
the city’s central business office, the 
department of finance, assumes its re- 
sponsibi]it 3 o But in an addendum the 
bureau says that much has been ac- 
complished lately in Manhattan and 
Richmond, and praises Commissioner 
Smith. Privileges and concessions 
come in for much criticism, and in 
this connection the New York park 
commissioners are invited to a careful 
reading of Superintendent Foster’s pa- 
per on “Concessions’’ on another page 
in this issue of Park and Cemetery. 
Hon. Wm. S. Devery, “Big Bill,” of 
Tammany fame, has some ideas that 
are worthy of the attention of the 
park superintendents of the country. 
Recently, Mr. Devery was told that 
Richard Croker wanted the ruins of 
Philae brought from an island in the 
river Nile and set up in Central Park. 
After a few general remarks he said: 
“I'm not in favor of filling' Central 
Park with any ruins myself.’'' * There 
is enough stuff in Central Park now 
that oughtn’t to be there. A lot of 
those statues up there, scaring horses 
and children, ought to be given the 
run. If they put many more buildings 
and statues and restaurants and boat 
houses and band stands and garages 
in Central Park, the only way poor 
people can get any enjoyment out of 
it is by walking around the outside 
and looking over the wall.” 
* * * 
Massachusetts Park Statistics 
Chief Charles F. Gettemy of the 
bureau of statistics of labor of Mas- 
sachusetts gives some interesting com- 
parative statistics of park expenditures 
in a number of Massachusetts towns, 
from which we quote the following: 
"The aggregate population of the 20 
cities of the commonwealth which are 
not embraced in the Metropolitan park 
district, was estimated in 1906 to be 
961, 170, and they expended in the ag- 
gregate on their local parks, play- 
grounds, etc., $170,208, or an average 
expense per capita of $0.18. Spring- 
field headed the list with a total ex- 
penditure of $37,857, or $0.50 per capi- 
ta, although she ranks fifth in popu- 
lation among these cities. New Bed- 
ford, however, has substantially the 
same population as Springfield, that 
is, between 76,000 and 77,000, but New 
Bedford spent on her parks $15,991.63 
— considerably less than half of 
Springfield’s outlay- — or $0.21 per capi- 
ta. Springfield has an area of nearly 
32 square miles, as against New Bed- 
ford’s less than 20, which very mate- 
rially increases the density of the lat- 
ter, bringing it up to 3,869 per square 
mile, as against 2,382 in Springfield. 
It would seem to be a fair subject of 
inquiry as to whether New Bedford 
has kept pace with her increasing pop- 
ulation in the matter of providing suf- 
ficient parks, playgrounds and other 
breathing spaces. 
“Neither size nor density of popu- 
lation has greatly affected, nor even 
been systematically taken into ac- 
count, in planning expenditures for 
this purpose by our Massachusetts 
municipalities. We find Beverly, for in- 
stance, one of the smallest cities in the 
commonwealth, having a population of 
only 15,614, spending more money for 
this purpose than the industrial city of 
Fitchburg with more than double its 
population, to say nothing of compari- 
sons with Taunton, Gloucester, Pitts- 
field, Northampton, Brockton, Marl- 
borough, Chicopee and North Adams. 
Beverly, perhaps, cannot be considered 
as fairly comparable with Fitchburg in 
character of its population, yet its local 
valuation is not as high as Fitchburg's. 
“Lowell, with a population of 96,011 — 
nearly 20,000 more than Springfield — 
expends less than half per capita what 
Springfield does for this purpose, or 
$0.16 per capita for a population of 6,- 
728 per square mile.” 
* ❖ ^ 
The public works which were pro- 
jected some years ago and whose con- 
struction has made Harrisburg, Pa., 
famous, were recently inspected by 
officials who deal with their control. 
Warren H. Manning, the Boston 
landscape architect who planned the 
park improvements, was one of the 
party, and explained the park plans 
to the officials. He pointed out the 
natural advantages of the Spring 
Creek valley and said that when the 
roadway was finished it would con- 
nect with a driveway projected by 
Steeiton. Wildwood Park will contain 
650 acres. The city now owns or has 
in process of negotiation 500 acres. Not 
over $100 an acre has been paid for 
anj- tract and for some $50 was paid. 
Some donations were made. The park 
has a growth of trees which Mr. Man- 
ning declared were unequalled any- 
where in the state. 
* 
The Surveyor of London, prints a 
report from Paris that the authorities 
of that city had decided to abandon 
tar as a dust-laying material for roads. 
While the admission is made that a 
diminu.tion of dust is obtained, it is 
said to have beem noticed that the 
trees along tarred roads begin to 
“peel” and perish rapidly; in fact, the 
