196 EEPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



idea of the numbers which annually are being slaughtered, and yet with- 

 out such information suitable legislation can only by hazard be enacted. 

 When a license is in force, it is plainly feasible and advantageous that 

 the licensee should be required to furnish information as to his kill to 

 the Department concerned, so that the authorities may be advised as to 

 the numbers of any particular variety of animal killed during any one 

 open season. It can scarcely be denied that such information should be 

 in the hands of the authorities, and seeing, therefore, that no small per- 

 centage of the big game annually slaughtered in this Province meets 

 death at the hands of some settler, provision should be made to obtain 

 figures of the kill effected by settlers as well as of that effected by the 

 ordinary hunter. It is, moreover, to be observed that the possession of 

 a permit, even though that permit costs little or nothing, is calculated 

 in some degree to impress the holder with the extenr of the privilege 

 accorded him, and the trouble to the settler in obtaining such a permit 

 is more than offset by this advantage. Pecuniary considerations, how- 

 ever, will often largely influence the value attached to any particular 

 article. It would seem, therefore, that where the settler is to be granted 

 a privilege, not only should he be required to have in his possession a 

 permit granting him the privilege, but that he should be required to fur- 

 nish statistics of his kill to the Department before such permit is re- 

 newed each succeeding year, and further, that to enhance the value of 

 the privilege in his eyes and to educate him to its responsibilities, as well 

 as to cover the cost of the issuance of the permit, some small registration 

 fee might also well be required of him. The actual amount of such fee 

 would not appear to be of material importance, provided only that it was 

 small, and 25 to 50 cents should be amply sufficient for the purpose. In 

 addition to these things it might, perhaps, also be required of the settler 

 that he check, as far as possible, all illegalities and report all infractions 

 of the law that come under his notice to the proper authorities at the 

 first opportunity, but in any case he should be given to understand that 

 any infraction of the game law on his part, or should he connive at or 

 abet such infraction on the part of others, not only will disqualify him 

 or any member of his family resident with him from obtaining the re- 

 newal of such permit, but will be likely to influence the authorities in 

 the matter of renewing the permits of his neighbors in the district, or, in 

 other words, that the exemption accorded him is a privilege and in no 

 sense a right appertaining to his mode of life or to the locality in which 

 he happens to live. Where, indeed, in any district offences against the 

 game laws or abuse of the settlers' privilege were found to be at all com- 

 mon or numerous, it would seem that all settlers' permits should at once 

 be cancelled, regardless of the hardship entailed on, perhaps, one or two 

 law-abiding citizens therein. 



In the matter of the issuance of permits to settlers, the authority 

 should plainly be made as broad as possible consistent with due caution, 

 and be vested in such officials as magistrates, overseers, provincial con- 



