1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 157 



dents and chief rangers, but also on all applicants for and appointees to 

 the position of ranger. 



Practically all the big game and no small proportion of the small 

 game of the Province is to be found in the forest regions, and in add- 

 tion to this the angling in these districts is often first class. There can 

 be no question that at the present time neither the game nor the fishery 

 laws of the Province are very well observed in the wilder regions, and 

 the difficulties attendant on their proper enforcement in these districts 

 are too obvious to need recapitulation. The inland fisheries, both sport- 

 ing and commercial, the game of all descriptions, and the fur-bearing 

 animal's to be found in the forest areas unquestionably constitute a very 

 great asset which it is of the utmost importance to conserve, and it is 

 plainly expedient that to this end every government official, whose duties 

 lie in the woods, should be an active agent in their protection. At the 

 present time the fire rangers are, indeed, supposed to enforce the game 

 laws and fishery regulations, but it is to be noted that these laws and 

 regulations are numerous and complex, that it is not to be expected 

 tliat a novice in the woods shall have leisure and time to master them 

 thoroughly, and that in all too many instances, even though the ranger 

 detects an infraction of the law, he has little or no facility for bringing 

 home the offence to the offender. Trapping and shooting through the 

 close seasons and the netting or dynamiting of streams are all calcu- 

 lated materially to impair the resources of the Province in fish, game 

 and fur-bearing animals, and yet all these operations occur and reeur 

 throughout the forests, if, perhaps, not quite so much during the fire 

 ranging season, at least with considerable frequency both prior to it 

 and after its close. Such a state of affairs is plainly to be deplored, for in 

 addition to the obvious evil of allowing the laws to be set at naught and 

 treated with contempt, these resources are far from being inexhaustible, 

 and it is lamentable that the greed or slaughter lust of a few individuals 

 should be allowed to perhaps ruin them irretrievably. In the interests, 

 therefore, of economy in the protection of game it must be apparent how 

 great a factor would be a permanent forestry corps, thoroughly 

 acquainted with the forests, equipped with the means of observation 

 and communication, and versed not only in the forestry regulations, but 

 in those appertaining to the fisheries and game also. In fact, the insti- 

 tution of such a corps, when inter-departmental co-operation had been 

 thoroughly attained, would in large measure obviate the necessity of 

 maintaining great numbers of game and fishery overseers in these dis- 

 tricts, and seeing that if the game, fisheries and fur-bearing animals of 

 these regions are to be conserved greater expenditures on the service 

 to protect them are quite inevitable, it is plain that a saving would be 

 effected if this additional expenditure could, in part at least, be merged 

 in that necessary to secure the adequate protection of the forests. Under 

 the present system a copy of the game laws should be in the possession 

 of every ranger, and it should be explained to him that the enforcement 



13 F.c. 



