OUTLINE OF TOPICS DISCUSSED. PAGE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION To the Legislature: We take pleasure in submitting this annual report, which while numerically our second, is the first report covering a full year's activities of the Conservation Commission, under the Conservation Law. The intent of its framers, that there should be consolidated into the Conservation Law all laws relating to lands and forests, and fish and game, has now been complied with. The new codification covering these features of the commission's work has been in operation for some months, and has proved, in the main, satisfactory. There yet remains to be enacted conservation legislation covering the all important problem of development and utilization of the State's water resources. No question of graver moment will come before this or any other Legislature of our time. CONSERVATION OF WATER FOR POWER PURPOSES. Those familiar with the movement in New York for the conservation of water for power purposes must recognize the fiscal year ending September 30, 1912, as an epoch making period. The attitude assumed by the Governor, the hearings and report of the Joint Committee of the Legislature on the conservation of water, the hearings before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate on the various bills presented, the debates in the Legislature, the formulation by the Commission of its policy of State development and distribution of power and its announcement and explanation before various official and civic bodies, the unanimous endorsement of the Commission's policy at the Utica meeting of the Mayors of New York and by the State Federation of Labor, have all concentrated attention upon the subject and served to educate the |