The sun., 1896-10-16
One Constitutional Amendment.

The amendments to the State Constitu-
tion of New York, proposed by the Consti-
tutional Convention of 1894, were ratified
by the voters Of the State on the 9th of
November of that year. The expectation
of the people then was that no further or
radical changes would be made until the
next meeting of Constitutional Conven-
tion in 1917.
This proved to be Misrepresentation, for
at the very next succeeding election, that of
year ago, there was submitted to the
voters supplementary proposition to issue
bonds for the improvement Of the Erie,
Champlain, and Oswego canals, and 1t re-
ceived the assent OF the majority. This
year. the second following the adoption of
the amended State Constitution, PROPOSE
tion to amend section of Article VII. is to
be submitted to the people, and every cleo
tor in New York, to the number OF ,50O,-
900, will be furnished with a separate
Constitutional amendment ticket" In ad-
dition to his regular ticket, so that he may
vote yes" or mo" on the proposed
amendment 1t relates to lands held by
the State of New York in the region Of the
Adirondacks, aud this is the clause which
it is proposed to amend:
"The lands of the State. now owned or hereafter
acquired. constituting the forest preserve as now
fixed by law, shall pe forever kept rs wild forest
land. They shall not he leased sold. or exchanged,
be taken by any corporation. public or private.
shall the timber thereon be sold removed, or
destroyed"
The proposition submitted this year as to
the Adirondack land question is: Shall
the following clause be added to the section
of the Constitution as it now exsts|'
"Thc Legislature may authorize the leasing for
such term II may by law nx. parcel OF not more
than five OF .and in the crest preserve any
person for camp and cottage purposes. The Leg
islature may also authorize the exchange o. land
owned by the State situated outside the forest pre-.
for lands not owned by the State situated within
the forest preserve The Legislature also author
ize the SAFE OF lands belonging to the State situated
outside the forest preserve, but tho money so OBJ
taned shall not be used except for the purchase OF
Ia nds situated within the forest preserve and which
when so purchased shall become part OF the forest
preserve"
All this must be clear to the mind of every
eiectot. ~ ~ NSBSIIzE
The Electoral Code makes this provision
as to the precise manner Of submitting the
proposed amendment:
Opposite and before such amendment shall be
printed two squares enclosed in ruled lines above
the other Preceding the upper OF such
squares shall he printed the word Yes and preceding
the lower ono of such squares shall be printed the
word No. For an Affirmative vote upon the question
submitted make tXl mark in the square after
the word Yes For negative vote make u similar
mark in the square following the word No."
Understanding these preliminaries and
formalities, every voter can determine for
himself what he thinks about amending
the Constitution so far as it relates to the
public lands owned by the State. If he re-
turns his Constitutional amendment ticket
without any mark upon it, his vote will
not count either in the affirmative or the
negative, and there will probably be many
such votes next month.