40 Th irticth A n niial Meeting 



portation companies no arrest need be made, or it may be made 

 at the institution of the suit. The technicalities of criminal pro- 

 cedure can, to a large extent, be avoided by the mode of prosecu- 

 tion here suggested. 



3. The statutes asserting the right of the state in wild game 

 and fish to regulate caption, should be clear in declaring the 

 terms on wliicli they nu\y be taken in open season, should speci- 

 fically declare the conditions on which the state parts with its 

 property. The right to ship out of the state should be qualified, 

 or altogether restricted in clear terms. 



3. A limited ]>eriod of time after the termination of 

 the open season siiould be fixed in which fish and game lawfully 

 taken may l)e used or disposed of. 



4. The plan of requiring license to hunt or fish to be taken 

 out, by both residents and non-residents, is a good one. The 

 small fee required should be used as a fund to defray expenses of 

 protection. 



5. Where fisli or game are in possession in the close season, 

 the burden of proof should be thrown on the possessor to show 

 that they were caught in lawful time, or beyond the state and 

 that they were lawfully ship})ed into the state from Ijeyond its- 

 borders. 



6. TIk' laws should not apply to private hatcheries or waters- 

 isolated from others and owned and artificially stocked by pri- 

 vate individuals. The private propagation of food fish should 

 be encouraged rather than crippled. But care should be taken 

 that this right be not made the cloak for illegal fishing. 



7. The laws declaring nets, seines, etc., ])ublie nuisances 

 and authorizing their summary destruction, should apply only 

 to such as are actually taken while unlawfully set or in use, and, 

 I think, it would be wiser, wliere they are of considerable value, 

 to require a judicial condemnation before they are destroyed or 

 confiscated. Where the illegally used articles are boats, guns, 

 vessels, or long stretches of nets, it would be well to have them 

 adjudged forfeited l)y a court of competent jurisdiction, under 

 simple and speedy proceedings which give the offender his day in. 

 court, Ix'fore they are adjudged to be destroyed or sold. These 

 proceedings sliould afford right of trial l)y jury at some stage. 



