In 1885, by the labours of several distinguished men, principally Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, a bill was passed in the Legislature of New York instructing the commissioners of the State Survey to prepare a report on the conditions and prospects of Niagara. This report was prepared by Mr. James T. Gardner, the director of the New York State Survey, and Mr. Olmsted. It strongly protested against such waste and degradation of the scenery as have been described in this chapter; it set forth the dangers of ultimate destruction, and made an eloquent appeal in favour of State action to preserve this natural treasure. The report strongly urged the establishment of an "International Park," and gave details of its construction with maps and views. It proposed that a strip of land a mile long and varying from one hundred feet to eight hundred feet broad, together with the buildings on it, should be condemned by the State, appraised by a commission, and purchased. The erections on Bath Island and in the Rapids were to be swept away. Trees and shrubberies were to be planted, roads and foot-paths appropriately laid out. The cost was estimated at one million dollars.[11] Why the bill should have met with so much opposition before it was finally passed, is to-day a question hard to answer; at any rate the political history of the bill is interesting. As in the case of most modern propositions the question was generally asked: "Is the game worth the candle? Is it worth while to spend a million dollars--to take twenty-five cents out of the pocket of each tax-payer in the State of New York--in order to destroy a lot of good buildings and plant trees in place of them, and, moreover, to do this for the sake of a few persons whose nerves are so delicate that the sight of a tremendous body of water rushing over a precipice is spoiled for them by a pulp-mill standing on the banks?" Indeed, it is said on good authority, that Governor Cornell, after listening to a description of the shameful condition at the Falls and the surroundings at the time when he sat in the gubernatorial chair remarked: "Well, the water goes over just the same doesn't it?"