By the time of the assembling of the Legislature of 1883, the Association felt confident that public opinion in the State at large and official opinion at Albany was sufficiently ripened to warrant a fresh attempt at Legislation. Its Executive Committee, therefore, drafted a bill (given in its final form below) which was introduced in the Assembly by Hon. Jacob F. Miller, of New York, January 30, 1883.

The hearings before the Ways and Means Committee of the Assembly aroused great interest, and among those who attended and advocated the measure were the Right Rev. William C. Doane, Hon. W. A. Dorsheimer, Hon. J. Hampden Robb and Howard Potter. Among those who spoke in favor of the bill before the Senate Finance Committee were: Messrs. Dorsheimer, Robb, James T. Gardner, John Jay and George William Curtis. The Legislature was stormed with petitions from all parts of the State and letters from outside the State. The latter included communications from President Arthur, United States Senator Thomas C. Platt and Warner Miller, ex-Senator Roscoe Conkling, John G. Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William D. Howells, President Andrew D. White of Cornell University, President Charles William Elliot of Harvard University, President Noah Porter of Yale University, ex-President Mark Hopkins of Williams College, and many other prominent citizens throughout the country.

On March 14, 1883, the bill passed the Assembly by a vote of 68 ayes to 39 nays, after speeches in its favor by Messrs. Erastus Brooks, J. Haggerty, Walter Howe, M. Murphy, G. F. Roesch, Thomas V. Welch, and others. In the Senate, it was passed in concurrence April 18th, by a vote of 21 to 10, having had among its most efficient supporters, Senators Covert, Daly, Ellsworth,

Frederick Lansing, Lansing of Albany, McArthur, Thomas and Titus. Messrs. Hubert O. Thompson, of New York, and Hugh McLaughlin, of Brooklyn, also used their influence to forward the measure.

NIAGARA RESCUED.

On April 30, 1883, Governor Cleveland signed the bill and the first signal triumph was achieved. As the New York State Reservation at Niagara is one of the most famous public reservations in the world, and as the act which gave it birth was a conspicuous land mark in civic progress and has served as a precedent for similar legislation elsewhere, it possesses an historic importance which warrants its reproduction here in full. The act is as follows:

CHAPTER 336.

An Act to authorize the selection, location, and appropriation of certain lands in the village of Niagara Falls for a State Reservation and to preserve the scenery of the Falls of Niagara.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. Within ten days after the passage of this act, there shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, five Commissioners, all of whom shall be residents of the State of New York, who are hereby appointed and constituted a Board of Commissioners by the name and style of "The Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara." Said Commissioners shall hold office for the term of five years from and after the passage of this act, and until others are appointed in their places. No member of said Board shall receive any compensation for his services as Commissioner, but each Commissioner shall be entitled to receive his actual disbursements for his expenses in

performing the duties of his office. In case any of the persons so appointed as above will not undertake the office of this Commission, or in case of a vacancy on said Board, such vacancy shall be filled by the Governor, and the person so appointed shall hold his office for the term of five years from the date of his appointment and until another shall be appointed in his place.

§ 2. The said board shall have power to select and locate such lands in the village of Niagara Falls and the County of Niagara and the State of New York as may, in their opinion, be proper and necessary to be reserved for the purpose of preserving the scenery of the Falls of Niagara, and of restoring the said scenery to its natural condition. Before any proceedings shall be taken for acquiring the title to any of said lands, the said Commissioners shall cause to be made a map of the land, by the State Engineer and Surveyor, which they shall determine to take. which shall be certified by a majority of said Commissioners, and filed in the office of the Secretary of State and in the office of the Clerk of the County of Niagara.

§ 3. The said Commissioners shall hold their first meeting at 12 o'clock, noon, at the office of the Secretary of State, on such day as shall be named by the Secretary of State, and within 30 days after the passage of this act. The said Commissioners shall, at said meeting, choose a President of said Board who shall be a member thereof, and shall appoint some person to act as Treas urer and Secretary of said Board. After the filing of the said map above required, the said Commissioners shall publish for 20 consecutive week-days in the State paper, and in a newspaper printed and published in the County of Niagara, a notice declaring that the State of New York intends to take and appropriate the lands described by the said maps, and acquire title thereto,

and that the said Commissioners intend to apply to the Supreme Court, at a special term thereof, to be held in the eighth judicial district, for the appointment of three freeholders, residents of the State of New York, to act as Commissioners of Appraisement, to ascertain and report the just compensation to be paid to the person or persons or corporation owning or having any interest in said property.

§ 4. Upon the day designated in the said notice, or on some other day to be named by the said court, the said court shall hear the application of the said Commissioners, and shall appoint three Commissioners of Appraisement for the purpose aforesaid. And in case any Commissioner of Appraisement shall decline to serve, the said court may, on application of said Board of Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara, upon notice of such vacancy and application to be published in a newspaper in the County of Niagara for ten successive days, appoint another in his place.

§ 5. The Commissioners of Appraisement so appointed shall, before they enter upon their duties, take and subscribe an oath to be administered by some person authorized to administer oaths, faithfully to execute their duties according to the best of their ability. They shall give notice of the time and place of the meeting to view the said property, by publishing the same in a newspaper printed and published in the County of Niagara for twelve successive week-days.

§ 6. The Commissioners shall together view such property and shall receive any legal evidence as to the compensation that should be made therefor, and may adjourn from time to time. They shall ascertain and award to the respective owners of the property to be taken, and to all persons and corporations interested therein, such compensation therefor as in their opinion shall be just and proper, and in fixing the amount of such compensation said Commissioners shall not make any allowance or deduction on account of any real or supposed benefit, which the parties interested may derive from said State Reservation or improvement for which said lands are to be taken. The report of said Commissioners of Appraisement, signed by a majority of said Commissioners, shall be filed in the office of the Clerk of Niagara County as soon as completed, and said report shall be made and filed within six months from the time of their appointment. Their minutes of testimony taken by them, if any, shall be attached to and filed with their said report and form a part thereof.

§ 7. After the report of the said Commissioners of Appraisement shall be so filed, the Board of Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara shall give notice, by publishing the same in ten successive numbers of some newspaper printed and published in the said County of Niagara, that they will, on a day to be specified in said notice, apply to the Supreme Court for an order confirming said report, and on the day so appointed the said court, upon being furnished with proof of the due publications of said notice, as above provided, shall confirm such report, and make an order containing a recital of the substance of the proceedings in the matter of the appraisement, and a description of the real estate appraised, for which compensation is to be made, and shall also direct to whom the money is to be paid.

§ 8. A certified copy of the order so to be made as aforesaid shall be recorded at full length in the office of the clerk of the County of Niagara, and also in the office of the Secretary of State.