The Board will also need an extension of its powers to enable it to exercise more complete and efficient supervision of its wards. Several suggested changes are under careful consideration, but I am advised they are not in sufficiently definite form to be recommended for enactment at the present time.

The school facilities at this institution are inadequate. Funds are needed for the enlargement of the building, for additional equipment, and for an increased teaching force. Manual and industrial training, for both boys and girls, should be extended. With the exception of the building now under construction, all the cottages which provide living accommodations for the children are old and ill-adapted to present needs, and should be remodelled and renovated.

METROPOLITAN PARK SYSTEM.

Popular approval of the Metropolitan Park project was conclusively indicated by the endorsement of the proposed public bond issue of $300,000, to continue the work. This approval appeared approximately in a ratio of four to one of all the electors who voted upon the proposition, and is to be contrasted with a popular vote of two to one for the former bond issue before the work was begun.

The cities and towns of the Metropolitan District, which benefit most directly, and which are eventually to repay the State for the necessary outlays, all gave especially heavy majorities in favor, and all but nine of the other cities and towns of the State voted approval. By

this vote the General Assembly is authorized and directed to issue bonds to the amount of $300,000 for the acquirement and improvement of public reservations within the Metropolitan Park District, and I accordingly recommend the necessary legislation.

With this expenditure it is hoped to provide a much better balanced distribution of public areas, and thus make the possible apportionment of assessments against these cities and towns more satisfactory and uniform.

In response to certain questions propounded by the Governor, regarding the powers of the Metropolitan Park Commissioners and the legality of some of the enactments of the General Assembly upon Metropolitan Park matters, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, in April, 1912, rendered an opinion fully sustaining all acts in relation thereto. This decision removed all doubt regarding the full propriety of proceeding with the work as originally contemplated, and settled questions that had caused hesitancy at several previous sessions.

Thus far, by public appropriation and private donation, ten reservations have been secured, containing a total of 869 acres. The sum of $158,000 has been expended for land, and about $122,000 for improvements. The latter include an avenue two and a half miles in length through the Barrington Parkway, which furnishes a highway link, shortening the distance and providing a boulevard of commanding beauty between Providence and the towns of Bristol county. At present, it is the only avenue running for any considerable distance within sight of the upper part of the bay. The question has been

raised, and is worthy of consideration, whether such a highway as this, which immediately upon its partial completion became the most popular travel route in its vicinity, should not be finished and maintained as a part of the State highway system.

The commission has made other expenditures for building about four miles of roads through the Lincoln woods reservation, now the largest public park in the State; for improvements at Merino Flats park, near the populous industrial district of Olneyville, and at Edgewood Beach, in Cranston, south of the Providence city line.

The protection of property, maintenance of law and order, provision of shelters and such conveniences as are required by great numbers of visitors; the maintenance of roads and paths; better bathing facilities for the thousands who visit Edgewood Beach in spite of its undeveloped condition; all call for a more liberal appropriation for general expenses. It is necessary also, in order that due economy be observed in future extensions, that expert service and planning be maintained for the scientific carrying on of the work. None of these purposes can by law be provided for out of the bond issue receipts.

It is requested by the Commission, that a suitable amount for such expenses as are not chargeable against the bond issue, be made a regular item in the annual appropriation bill.

The Commission has also requested the appointment of certain of their employes as Metropolitan Park police, with jurisdiction in any of the towns in which their reservations are located. It is not proposed to create any regular

force for police duties exclusively, but to give to responsible men police power incidental to their other duties. Several of the reservations are located in more than one town, and employes are necessarily shifted from one reservation to another, wherever their services are most needed. The power to compel obedience to rules and to suppress disorder, therefore, seems a reasonable function.

FEDERAL AID IN ROAD CONSTRUCTION.

The Honorable Postmaster General and the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture have informed me that the Federal government is ready to contribute $10,000 toward the improvement and maintenance of post roads in Rhode Island, provided the State will contribute twice that amount, making a joint fund of $30,000. This proposal is made under the provisions of the following item in the last postal appropriation bill:

"That a joint committee shall be appointed, composed of five members of the Senate to be designated by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, and five members of the House to be designated by the chairman of the House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, to make inquiry into the subject of federal aid in the construction of post roads and report at the earliest practicable date, and for this purpose they are authorized by sub-committee or otherwise to sit during the sessions or recess of Congress, at such times and places as they may deem advisable, to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, to summons and compel the attendance of witnesses, and to employ such clerical, expert and stenographic assistance as shall be necessary, and to pay the necessary expenses of such inquiry, there is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars to be paid out upon the audit and order of the chairman or acting chairman of said committee:

Provided, That there is hereby appropriated the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be expended by the Secretary of Agriculture in coöperation with the Postmaster General in improving the conditions of roads to be selected by them over which rural delivery is or may hereafter be established, such improvement to be for the purpose of ascertaining the increase in the territory which could be served by each carrier as a result of such improvement, the possible increase of the number of delivery days in each year, the amount required in excess of local expenditures for the proper maintenance of such roads, and the relative saving to the Government in the operation of the Rural Delivery Service, and to the local inhabitants in the transportation of their products by reason of such improvement and report the results in detail to Congress: Provided, That the State or the local subdivision thereof in which such improvement is made under this provision shall furnish double the amount of money for the improvement of the road or roads so selected. Such improvement shall be made under the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture. "That the Secretary of Agriculture and the Postmaster General are hereby directed to report to Congress, within one year after the ratification of this Act, the result of their operations under this Act, the number of miles of road improved, the cost of same, and such other information as they may have acquired in connection with the operation of this Act, together with such recommendations as shall seem wise for providing a general plan of national aid for the improvement of postal roads in coöperation with the States and counties, and to bring about as near as possible such coöperation among the various States as will insure uniform and equitable interstate highway regulations, and for providing necessary funds for carrying out such plans of national aid, if it shall be deemed feasible to provide the same or any part thereof otherwise than by appropriation from the Treasury for that purpose."

It is intended, as far as practicable, to expend this appropriation in equal amounts in the several states. I am advised that if Rhode Island will cause to be selected a suitable road, about fifty miles long, over the entire length of which there is delivery of mail by rural carriers,