during the twenty years of its existence and the eighteen years of the existence of the Reservation.

But by no means the least important reformation effected has been the protection of the public within the limits of the Reservation from the depredations of the horde of hack drivers, venders and impostors who formerly made life a burden to visitors to the Falls. At first, public carriage stands were established upon the Reservation, but subsequently they were abolished, owing to the licensing of improper persons by the government of the city of Niagara. Unfortunately, the city government has not always co-operated as sympathetically as might have been expected with the State Commissioners, and offensive exhibitions and establishments have been licensed at various times in close proximity to the Reservation limits. But within the Reservation, the Commission is supreme, and there the public is safe from the operations of gamblers and confidence men and from the exasperating importunities and exorbitant exactions which have given the Niagara Falls Jehu a worldwide notoriety. At present, no public carriage is allowed within the Reservation unless it conspicuously displays its number and rates of fare; and in addition to this safeguard, a Reservation carriage service has been established within the Reservation which the Commissioners control and which the public can patronize, if it prefers.

New schemes of greater or lesser magnitude for invading the Reservation with money-making enterprises are constantly being proposed; but the Commissioners, as guardians of the public interests, have resolutely resisted them from the very beginning.

By these and other means, the annoyances to which visitors

were formerly subjected have been reduced to an inappreciable minimum, although it requires constant vigilance and a fearless administration to keep the aggressors at bay and maintain the tolerable conditions which now exist.

GREEN ISLAND.

By resolution of the Commission adopted November 16, 1898, the island between the mainland and Goat Island, previously known as Bath Island, was renamed Green Island, in honor of the Hon. Andrew H. Green, of New York. Mr. Green's associates on the Commission took this means, not only to supplant an unattractive name with one appropriate to the physical appearance of the island; but also to pay a tribute of public respect to their distinguished colleague. Mr. Green is the only Commissioner who has continuously been a member of the Board since its creation in 1883. For twenty years as a Commissioner and for the past fifteen years as President, he has been a most zealous and efficient conservator of the public interests centered in the State Reservation at Niagara; and the application of his name to the island was not only most appropriate to the object, but also a merited tribute to a fearless and faithful public servant.

THE COST OF THE RESERVATION.

Although the demands made upon the Commissioners of the Reservation involve no small sacrifice of convenience and time, their services are rendered gratuitously and in the most willing spirit of public duty.

APPROPRIATIONS FOR ACQUISITION.

Chapter 336 of the Laws of 1883 appropriated for the preliminary work of location and appraise

ment

Chapter 525 of the Laws of 1885 appropriated, to make up the deficiency under the foregoing..... Chapter 182 of the Laws of 1885 appropriated for the purchase of lands constituting the Reservation

....

APPROPRIATIONS FOR MAINTENANCE.

$10,000 00

19,500 00

1.433,429 50

$1,462,929 50

APPROPRIATIONS FOR SPECIAL IMPROVEMENTS.

For special improvements, appropriations have been made as

(The above does not include an unexpended balance of $6,364.27, reappropriated in 1902.)

In compliance with statutory directions, the Commissioners have remitted to the State Treasury receipts from the Reservation, from 1888 to 1902, both inclusive, amounting to $142,918.37.

Recapitulation.

A recapitulation shows that the net cost of the Reservation to

THE CASH VALUE OF THE RESERVATION.

The bald statement of the State's appropriations and receipts on account of the Niagara Reservation, however, conveys an utterly inadequate idea of the actual cash value of the investment to the people as a whole.

In the first place, by giving the public free access to Niagara, the visitors save the amount that they formerly paid for the enjoyment of privileges under much less agreeable conditions. As soon as the Reservation was thrown open the number of visitors more than doubled, and by the end of the first five years the number of visitors was estimated at 500,000 per annum. At the present time, the number under ordinary conditions is estimated at 750,000 per annum. In 1901, which was an exceptional year. on account of the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, the number of visitors ranged from 10,000 to 50,000 a day, between May 20 and November 1, and for the year is estimated to have reached the enormous aggregate of 3,000,000.