302 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



possibly what we feel you feel. I find in our province, for 

 instance, that when there is a vacancy for the position of 

 fishery overseer, the patronage committee, sending a member 

 to the local house, practically has the appointment in its 

 hands. The committee cares not one whit for the capa- 

 bilities of the man to be employed as fishery overseer ; they 

 look for what he did at the last election. Now, if the general 

 public was more fully seized of the importance of the 

 fisheries, greater interest would be taken in that appointment 

 and there would be an end to that state of affairs whereby 

 some retired butcher, for instance, who never saw a fish 

 in his life except to eat it, and who would be likely to 

 tumble out of a boat on one side if he got in on the other, 

 is appointed a fishery overseer. I realize that New York 

 State has put this matter on a different basis through the 

 Civil Service Commission act. At any rate the men have to 

 pass an examination before they are appointed overseers. 

 We have no such arrangement in our province, and I fancy 

 in a great many of the States of the Union there is nothing 

 of that kind. In my opinion, however, the matter is far too 

 important to allow of purely political considerations deciding 

 the selection of an officer, and some form of board for the 

 examination of applicants for the position of overseer is 

 absolutely indispensable to insure that the officers shall be 

 properly qualified in every respect. 



Now as to unbusinesslike methods: Take, for instance, 

 the equipment of the fishery protective service. I dare say 

 that some of the commissioners present realize how abso- 

 lutely unsuitable many of the boats, used in the fishery pro- 

 tective service on the Great Lakes or on the small lakes, are 

 for the purpose for which they are employed. I have found 

 in our province that all these boats are of different builds 

 and different speeds, and that a considerable proportion of 

 them are ahogether unfitted for the work which they are 

 supposed to perform. There is no businesslike method in 

 the system. When these matters were brought before 

 certain persons who occupy seats of the mighty and when 



