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ONTARIO GAME AND FISH COMMISSION. 



Memorandum on Protective Laws, etc. 



The following will be found a convenient compendium of information as to 

 the Game and Fish protection laws and services of this Province, the other Pro- 

 vinces of Canada, and the neighbouring States of the Union. In the following 

 statement, for brevity's sake, the legal phraseology of the various statutes is 

 abandoned, and the information set sorth summarily in the vernacular. The plan 

 on which this statement has been prepared is a simple one. In dealing with each 

 subject, the practice of Ontario in that matter is first set forth, and then, under the 

 same head, are mentioned any notable points wherein the practice of other Pro- 

 vinces or States differs from or is more comprehensive than that of Ontario. 



It may be expedient to remark upon a presumption common to all the Game 

 -and Fish Protection Acts of the neighbouring States, viz., the presumption (some- 

 times stated in so many words) that all wild beasts, biids, and fishes, are common 

 property while at large, and private property only when killed and reduced to 

 possession by individuals. Hence the common basis of all State Game and Fish 

 Acts is that the public interest will be served by laws protecting the selected 

 wild creatures in their natural multiplication, or increasing that multiplication 

 -artificially. Tiiere is no appearance of an opinion in any of these Acts, that 

 sportsmen, anglers, or fishermen, have interests apart from the public, and even 

 the laws that, in some commonwealths, give landed proprietors exclusive property 

 in Game or Fish bred or found on their domains, go on the presumption that such 

 .provisions serve the common interest in Game and Fish multiplication. The 

 notion that the ferae naturae on private lands can pertain to these lands without 

 a special concession from the people, appears foreign to American and Canadian 

 legislation. 



It may be desirable for the Commission to lose no opportunity to explain 

 and publish that Game or Fish protection laws and services are not designed for 

 the peculiar gratification of sportsmen, anglers, nor any special class, but for the 

 purpose of making more valuable the common property of all cla.sses in Game and 

 Fish. The purposes of the Commission are likely to be misunderstood, and the 

 usefulness of its labours impaired, if farmers, pioneers, lumbermen, or any other 

 •class obtain or retain a belief that persons who shoot or fish for amusement or 

 recreation are particularly objects of the Commission's care. The economic pur- 

 po.se of the Commission may be described as that of recommending means by 

 which the edible or otherwise valuable wild creatures of the Province may be so 

 preserved or multiplied as to be easily and cheaply obtained by all. 



The scheme of almost any set of Game and Fish Protection Acts may be 

 generally and shortly described as embracing : 



1. The selection and specification of certain wild creatures considered valuable 

 •either because they afford good food or good clothing, or both, to human beings. 



2. The protection of the selected creatures by enactments which 



(a) Forbid molestation of them during stated seasons, days, or hours ; or 



(b) Forbid pursuit or capture or killing of them by methods or engines pe- 

 •culiarly likely to hinder their multiplication ; or 



