214 PUBLIC PAPERS OF GOVERNOR ROOSEVELT
desired by the Astoria Company, was made at a price of about $19.83
an acre. Since then the price has been raised and within the last two
years the price of these lands under water in the Greater New York has
averaged about $87.00 an acre. When only a small fraction of an acre
has been sold, the price has sometimes been more than this, but no
considerable tract of land of the size now granted to the Astoria
Company has been sold by the State at as high a rate as it now
demands of the Astoria Gas Company. It has always been the policy of
the State, and is obviously the proper policy, to build up the water
front, and therefore, wherever it did not desire to acquire the land
itself for purposes of improvement, to sell it to owners who would
improve it. Prior to the action of the present Land Board the custom
was to make these grants without restrictions. The present Board has
adopted the wise rule of making the grant on condition that it lapses
within a fixed period unless the land under water is actually reclaimed
and used for the purposes set forth in the grant. The Land Board has
no power to grant leases with rights of renewal. Where the land is
granted, not for the purpose of improvement, it is my belief that the
Land Board should have power to make a lease with right of renewal.
It does not seem to me that as yet it would be wise to introduce the
lease system in cases where the grantee fills in the land and builds
docks, warehouses or similar structures upon it.
Within the past few months the State has made numerous grants
within the limits of the Greater New York, exactly similar in character
to the Astoria grant, and of tracts of land of about the same size. The
conditions under which these grants have been made have been more
favor-