pany uses ten broad-tired wagonettes and seven electric automobiles, the latter having a capacity of twenty-five passengers each. Fifteen cents is charged for a round trip by wagonette and twenty-five cents by automobile. The trip starts from the Inclined Railway building in Prospect Park, makes a complete circuit of the Reservation, including Goat Island, and returns to the starting point. Passengers are allowed to stop off at various intermediate points and resume their journey by a succeeding vehicle. This reform has greatly diminished the expenses of visitors to Niagara.

NEEDLESS AND IRRELEVANT USES PREVENTED.

The policy of the Commission has been the exclusion of all catch-penny enterprises, of all artificial structures foreign to the needs of the Reservation, and of all uses except those strictly pertaining to the enjoyment of the scenery. Places of refreshment are not far from the Reservation and no hardship is caused to the public by this denial. The Commission has also adopted the policy that no monuments, memorials, or gifts of any character, either ornamental or practical, shall be accepted or placed upon the grounds of the Reservation. The object of this has been to keep everything as simple and as close to nature as is reasonable and practicable.

GOVERNMENT SURVEY MADE.

At the solicitation of the Commission, the engineers of the United States government and the State of New York, co-operating, made a survey of Niagara Falls which was completed in 1905, in the course of which they established points for the scientific measurement of the recession of the falls in years to

come.

DEATH OF MR. GREEN AND MR. WELCH.

While the incumbent Commissioners retain many pleasant memories of their ten years' service in behalf of the State for the public, they carry with them the sense of the great sorrow experienced in the loss of two men who had been associated with the Reservation from its beginning. The Hon. Andrew H. Green,

who died on November 13, 1903, had been a member of the Commission for a period of over twenty years and its President for over fifteen years. Hon. Thomas V. Welch, who died on October 20, 1903, had been Superintendent of the Reservation for over eighteen years. Much of what the Niagara Reservation is to-day is the result of the intelligent direction of the one and the faithful execution of the other of these two men. As a slight evidence of appreciation, the remaining Commissioners erected in the hallway of the Administration Building, and dedicated on November 16, 1906, a bronze tablet bearing these words:

The present members of the Commission have maintained unbroken its traditional policy of opposition to the diversion of water from the Falls in sufficient volume to impair their grandeur. In our Twenty-first Annual Report presented to the Legislature in 1905, we recapitulated the various efforts made by the Commission from the year 1885 up to the year 1904 to prevent the diminution of the flow of the cataract, and in our last two reports we have recorded the measures taken in the same line up to the year 1907. As a late illustration of this policy of the Commission may be quoted the following resolution which was unanimously adopted on April 4, 1903:

“Resolved, That the Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara, have learned of the introduction by Assemblyman Leggett of a bill to amend the charter of the Lower Niagara River Power and Water Company so as to authorize the taking by that Company of water in unlimited volume from the Niagara River above the Falls.

"That the Commission has long been observant of the serious consequences of the withdrawal of waters from the Niagara River that naturally form the volume of the Falls, and have heretofore constantly opposed and they still continue to interpose their urgent remonstrance against the passage of grants giving rights for diversion and diminution of these waters from their natural channel. They have no doubt that the very existence of the Falls is seriously threatened by privileges to take these waters that have already been granted by the Legislative action.

"Further Resolved, That a copy of this action of the Board of Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara be transmitted to the Legislature and that the Superintendent of the Reservation be instructed to appear before the Committee of the Legislature to present the remonstrance of the Commissioners of the Reservation and oppose the enactment of the proposed act."

While in the consistent adherence to its policy the Commission has always been ready to oppose individual efforts like the foregoing to secure unlimited privileges to abstract the water of the river above the Falls, it soon realized that a more comprehensive plan should be devised and that powers greater than those of the Commission should be invoked. This conviction led the Commission, on December 15, 1900, to record its sentiments in the following resolution:

Resolved, That in the opinion of the Board the question of the diversion of the waters from the Great Lakes and rivers tributary thereto is one of vital importance for the preservation of the river and falls at Niagara in their present volume and beauty and for the purposes for which the reservation at Niagara was created. And we earnestly request that our representatives in Congress be urged to secure the passage of the joint resolution already passed by the Senate for the appointment of a joint commission by the United States and Canada which will secure this end.”

The joint resolution referred to above was introduced by Senator Platt of New York at the request of the President of this Commission, and it is the source of no little satisfaction to the incumbent Commissioners that this movement for the exercise of national and international control originated in this Commission and, with the co-operation of other helpful agencies, was brought to fruition during their term of service.

After unsuccessful efforts had been made to secure congressional action in the form of a joint resolution, the proposition was embodied in the River and Harbor Bill which became a law with the executive approval June 13, 1902. The American members of the International Waterways Commission authorized by

this act were appointed in 1903, but it was not until 1905 that the Canadian representatives were appointed by the Dominion government and the Commission organized for work.

The Waterways Commission met for the first time on May 25, 1905, at which time the President of the Niagara Commission telegraphed to the former urging the present as the proper time to recommend that no further grants for the diversion of water from Niagara river be made. This was followed the next day by the following letter:

NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y., May 26, 1905. General O. H. Ernst, President of the Deep Waterways Commission, Washington, D. C.:

DEAR SIR. Confirming my wire of yesterday as follows:

"This Commission respectfully suggests now as the proper time to recommend that no further grants for diversion of water from the Niagara River above the Falls be permitted either by the United States, the State of New York or the Dominion Government. We trust that your Commission will give the matter of preserving the Falls of Niagara the most earnest consideration. Please acknowledge receipt. Confirmatory letter to follow. The Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara,

by Charles M. Dow, President."

For your information I will state that there are now chartered and in course of construction, upon the Canadian side of the river three Electrical Development Companies whose charters permit them to take sufficient water from the Niagara River above the Falls to generate, in the aggregate, 375,000 electric horsepower. On the American side there are now two companies doing business whose charters permit them to develop, in the aggregate, 400,000 electric horsepower. In addition there are two other companies, viz.: The Niagara, Lockport and Ontario Power Co., and Model Town Co., who now hold charters from the State of New York authorizing them to take unlimited amounts of water from the Niagara River above the Falls of Niagara for the generation of electricity and other purposes.

This Commission having been appointed by the Governor of the State of New York, as authorized by Chapter 286 of the Laws of 1885, to manage and maintain the State Reservation at Niagara, deems it its paramount duty to protect the Falls of Niagara from injury in any manner whatsoever, and, should all the corporations now chartered by the State of New York and the Dominion Government enter upon the privileges granted, sufficient water would be extracted from the river above the Falls to practically lay dry the American Channel and American Fall and seriously affect the Horseshoe Fall.

We sincerely hope that your Commission will devise some means for preventing further grants for water diversion either by the State of New York or the Canadian Government.

Very truly yours,

The Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara,

by Charles M. Dow, President."

During the ensuing year, public sentiment became acute upon the subject of Niagara's integrity and this Commission exercised its fullest influence to encourage the enactment of the much de sired federal legislation. The members attended the hearings before the Waterways Commission and before the Rivers and Harbors Committee of Congress when the recommendations of the Waterways Commission had been embodied in Congressman Burton's bill. The passage of the latter and its approval June 29, 1906, and the subsequent action of the Secretary of War restricting the amount of water to be diverted from the river above the Falls are matters of recent public knowledge.

The Burton bill is only a temporary measure, its force being limited to a term of three years. Nearly two-thirds of that period has elapsed; and the Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara, whose terms will expire soon after the rendering of this report, earnestly commend to their successors in office the urgent need and duty of obtaining broad International action by the governments of the United States and Great Britain for the protection of Niagara.

PRESERVING THE SCENERY BEYOND THE RESERVATION.

As the Commission has taken cognizance of conditions beyond the limits of their jurisdiction with respect to the diversion of water, so it has also entertained and expressed its solicitude for the preservation of the natural scenery of the river from disfigurement by artificial constructions. As a single concrete example may be mentioned the Commission's opposition in the spring of 1907 to the bill proposing to incorporate the Lower Bridge Company. This project appeared to have no justification in a general commercial need. It would have defaced the scenery of one of the most wonderful parts of the Niagara river, in order that an opportunity might be given to collect petty tolls from visitors, notwithstanding many private citizens were co-operating at their own expense with the plan of the Reservation Commission to increase the beauties of the scenery along the whole length of the river from the Reservation to Lake Ontario. This bill having passed the Legislature and reached the Governor, the Commission forwarded to him its earnest protest against approval, and the bill was vetoed by Governor Hughes, July 26, 1907, among