The petition brought some time ago by the President and Fellows of Harvard against the Boston Park Commissioners has been denied by Judge Barker of the Supreme Court. The petition was for a writ of certiorari to quash the proceedings of the Park Board in taking a tract of land belonging to the Bussey Institution farm for a public playground. The case is an interesting one and unusual in several particulars. It was contended by the petitioner that the commissioners had violated the statute authorizing them to take land for such purposes as public playgrounds. The question was whether the statute should be interpreted to mean that the Park Commission should not take more than $200,000 worth of land in one year, or that they should not expend money at a greater rate than $200,000 a year for land so taken. The respondents claimed that the latter was the true interpretation of the law, and that they were therefore entitled to purchase the tract of land in question; for as the board expended but 463,000 last year, there was a balance of $137,000 in the treasury which could be legally devoted to their purposes this year, in addition to the annual sum of $200,000. The petitioner contended, however, that the former view was the correct one, and, being so, that the respondents had gone beyond the law by expending more than $200,000 this year, leaving nothing with which to play its claim for damages for the land taken, the market value of which is $89,000.

After a hearing last Wednesday, the court declined to issue the writ and dismissed the petition. This leaves the College free to proceed either in equity or by a petition for a jury at the bar of the Superior Court. Further action will be begun at once.