52 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



only be taken by licensed trappers (Act 127 of 1912, Sec- 

 tions 9, 13 and 14) but the legislators failed to specifically 

 fix a trapping license or its cost although it did provide for 

 necessary hunting licenses. This law gave the residents 

 of a parish the right to hunt in their own parish for 50 

 cents, made hunting free in the ward in which they lived, 

 a state-wide hunting license cost $3.00, and the price of 

 "market hunting," those persons who hunt for profit, was 

 fixed at $10.00. On the subject of trapping licenses the 

 sections were mum. 



Soon after this law went into effect a trapper named 

 Morgan was arrested for having trapped ten minks, six 

 otters and three raccoons without having secured a "mar- 

 ket hunter's license." Although the Legislature had failed 

 to provide a trapping license fee, the officers of the con- 

 servation commission charged the trapper of "unlawfully 

 taking with traps for profit (market hunting) during the 

 open season ten minks, six otters and three raccoons, with- 

 out then and there first procuring a license." 



When brought to trial counsel for the trappers asked 

 to have the information quashed on the grounds that the 

 Legislature had made no provision for the payment of a 

 trapper's license and that the trapper was not guilty of 

 violating any law. This motion was overruled and the 

 defendant invoked the supervisory jurisdiction of the su- 

 preme court of the State and asked for a reversal of the 

 judgment of the district court. The high court held 13 that 

 even though the Legislature had failed to provide for the 

 payment of license taxes for the taking of certain game by 

 traps during an open season that it followed by necessary 

 inference that this method of hunting or trapping could not 

 be indulged in at any time and that, as the defendant had 

 trapped the animals named in the bill of indictment, he had 

 violated the law. 



At the 1914 session of the Legislature, this defect in 

 the law was remedied (Act 293 of 1914) by fixing the cost 

 of trapping licenses at $2.00, and the season for trapping 



"State of La. vs. Mortimer Morgan, No. 19,950. 



