22 FISH AND OAME COMMISSION 



REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF FINANCE AND ACCOUNTS 



By H. R. Dunbar, In charge 



The Division of Fish and Game is a self-supporting commission, 

 deriving its revenue from certain kinds of licenses that come under its 

 control, fish packers' tax, fines imposed in the justice courts for viola- 

 tions of fish and game laws, and from various miscellaneous sources. 



The work of this bureau is principally to supervise the printing 

 and distribution of licenses throughout the entire state, to see that 

 remittances are made on the sale of same and at the expiration of 

 each kind of license, to obtain settlements from all county clerks and 

 agents so that a full and final accounting can be made with the State 

 Controller. At the present time there are about 2000 agencies selling 

 licenses in the state. 



The county clerks make remittances direct to the State Treasurer, 

 accounting for same to the State Controller, the Controller then 

 notifying this office of each remittance so that the particular account 

 of each county clerk can receive credit. All other remittances for 

 license sales are made direct to this office and this office is required, 

 at the end of each month, to make a remittance of all moneys received 

 during the month, to the State Controller. Fines imposed in the 

 justice courts are remitted direct by the justices to the State Treasurer. 

 The fish packers' tax, which is paid by the fish packers and canners, is 

 remitted to this office through the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries at 

 San Francisco, which office attends to the collecting of same. 



In May of 1929, an unfortunate circumstance arose when it was 

 found that the county clerk of Mendocino County was unable to make 

 a final accounting on his 1928 hunting and angling license accounts 

 and on the early sales on these two accounts for 1929. Shortly after 

 this the grand jury of that county convened and indicted him on four 

 counts. Later he was tried before the superior court and as a result 

 was found guilty on two of the counts. This is the first instance that 

 a county clerk failed to make an accounting in full in over eighteen 

 years. 



The value of licenses distributed throughout the state each year 

 amounts to approximately one million dollars. "When the hunting 

 license law was first enacted in 1907, license distribution was made 

 solely through the county clerks, but after a nujuber of years it was 

 found that in some counties proper distribution was not being made 

 and as a result the law Mas amended, permitting the Fish and Game 

 Commission to distribute licenses direct wherever the occasion required. 

 This condition also applied to the angling licenses in later years. As 

 time went on, certain county clerks were handicapped in the distribu- 

 tion of licenses for the reason that they were required to remit into the 

 county treasury all fees received by them in accordance with certain 

 county charters and county governmental legislation. In 1927, when 

 the citizen hunting and angling licenses were increased from $1 to $2 

 each and the deer tag law was enacted, the commission allowed on the 



