1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 155 



cases were not regarded seriously by either the incumbents of the oflflce 

 or their immediate superiors, and this position of moral responsibility 

 degenerated into a holiday vacation or pleasant and comparatively 

 profitable period of leisure at the expense of the public treasury. Appli- 

 cations for the posts were numerous by various classes of men desirous 

 of pas'sing some months in the woods with the incidental opportunity 

 of making a little money, and personal or party influence was all too fre- 

 quently paramount in securing the nominations, with the results that 

 attendance on the beats was often irregular, appointees entered on or 

 abandoned their duties late or early by several weeks as the case might 

 be, and men were styled and drew pay as fire rangers who were both 

 mentally incapable of appreciating their responsibilities and physically 

 of discharging them, or else, by fault of their youth or inexperience in 

 woodcraft, canoe handling and fire fighting, absolutely inefficient and 

 useless. Days and weeks were passed in angling, canoeing, bathing tind 

 other pleasant pursuits; firearms were carried and discharged indis- 

 criminately to the destruction of small birds, animals and, it is to be 

 feared, of game generally; and, like Nero in his palace, the ranger would 

 sit making music in his tent while some portion of his charge blazed 

 merrily and was consumed and destroyed by fire. Fortunately these 

 matters have come to be fully appreciated by the present Minister in 

 charge of the Department, and under his wise direction most stringent 

 measures have been and are still being devised and enacted to remedy 

 this unsatisfactory state of affairs. Only recently fresh endeavors in 

 this direction were announced in the public press, and it is satisfactory 

 to note that in the approaching fire ranging season the carrying of fire- 

 arms by rangers will be absolutely forbidden, and the men not only com- 

 pelled to be on their beats for the periods for which they are engaged, 

 but have work allotted to them sufficient to keep them busily employed. 

 That the ranger drawing good pay from the Government should be 

 allowed to rest at ease so long as there is no fire isi plainh' an absurdity, 

 for in the forest there will always be more work than can be done in 

 clearing pathways and portages, lopping and burning debris, improving 

 tlie portage landings, making channels for canoes in shallow rapids and 

 an infinity of other occupations tending not only to facilitate easy and 

 rapid progress through the woods, but inasmuch as they do this and also 

 remove a considerable amount of inflammable material, to the lessen- 

 ing of fire risks also. In fact such duties are the obvious routine work 

 of an efficient ranger, for unless they have been conscientiously dis- 

 charged, his most energetic efforts in the case of fire breaking out Avill, 

 in all probability, be of but little avail. There will, however, under the 

 present system alwaj-B remain the difficulty of ascertaining how far a 

 man applying for the post of ranger possesses the necessary qualifica- 

 tions. 



A good proportion of the posts have in the past been filled by stu- 

 dents and other young men from the towns, and while this no doubt will 



