Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-24

briefly in order not TO take up the
committees time with a hearing
which had already lasted three hours:
II will state briefly for the people
of Newark how anxious we are to
abandon this abomination in our city.
The sentiment is overwhelmingly in
favor of doing away with the canal,
but there is no sentiment for these
bills for obvious reasons. They have
been introduced here in the last few
days of the legislative session, and
we favor the abandonment of the
canal have not been given the time
to appreciate them or to digest them.
ON my way here ] met the corpo-
ration counsel of one of the large
cities of our State, and | asked him
what he thought of these bills. His
answer puts the case very clearly He
said: How can / say anything on
this subject when the whole legal
staff of the Lehigh Valley Railroad
Company have been engaged with
these bills for the last ten months
in which to 20 over them?'
81 think 1t is the duty of this COM
mittee to put these bills over until
another year or to take them up at
a special session of the legislature to
be called for the purpose. The Gov
ernor ought to be interviewed on the
matter. If he declared such a move
is out Of the question, | recommend
that these bills then be laid over until
another year so as to give everybody
interested time to digest this volumi-
nous question"
DIR. Kraemer seemed to have sound
ed the keynote that harmonized the
meeting. Others took up his sugges-
Il n /. h..
al. o. r G.. Megie, of Boonton said:
II would like TO amend that by sug-
costing that an extra session of this
legislature be called after the present
session adjourns and that the subject
of that extra session be these canal
bills solely"
states Duty TO Newark.
City Engineer Morris r. Sherrerd,
OF Newark, said that he spoke to one
of the representatives of Newark in
regard to the matter, and said that
the State owes a certain duty to the
city of Newark. He said there had
been bills introduced In previous Leg
islatures to give the municipalities
Of the State the use of half of any
street in which the canal might be
located He said:
''Those acquainted with the loca-
ton of the canal in Newark know
what a nuisance the canal is in It's
present state. The canal was, years
ago. a factor in the growth of the
city. and afforded transportation ia
ciltties that were novel and of use at
that time. but since then the use of
them has been entirely eliminated.
The present situation is almost in
tolerable, The canal occupies streets
and places where streets ought to
be laid We think Newark should
have the use of those half-streets
when they no longer are of use to
the State, and so bills have been in
troduced before the Legislature in
other years ana we have asked the
return of those rights. In these bills
those right are. / think. protected.
We in Essex County are in favor of
the elimination of that part of the
canal which runs through Newark.
I think any other action by the Leg
stature would be wrong. l would say
that this bill does give these rights
to Newark in the payment by the
Lehigh Valley of at least 81 900 900.
Former bills have about one-half mill
lion dollars and a half of the States
of any property. 1t seems through
these bills that the sale of lands
would give to Newark as much more
money
j. McGregor L,ittell, of East Or
ange. criticized the printing of the
commissions report outside of New
Jersey Any fair sized print shop
in this State could have done as good
work as the Blanchard Press, of New
York city, which printed the report, |
he said