1913 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 197 



stables and the clerks of the organized districts nearest to the areas 

 which have been selected for privileged treatment by the Department, 

 but it should be clearly impressed on each such official that not more 

 than one such permit was to be issued to a family residing together, and 

 that no permit was to be renewed until such conditions as might be 

 required of the settler had been discharged. 



The question next arises as to what amount of game the settler 

 should be entitled to kill under his permit. Attention has been called to 

 the fact that while undoubtedly moose, caribou and deer may occur to- 

 gether or in adjacent localities, this is not the rule, but rather that where 

 one is abundant the others will be comparatively scarce. In regard to 

 moose and caribou, to the taking of which the settlers' permit does not 

 at present extend, it is plain that if either of these is the animal chiefly 

 to be found in the district, the privilege extended to the bona fide settler 

 should include these animals. The great size of the creatures should pre- 

 clude any necessity of the settler requiring more than one in the course 

 of a winter, if care is taken not to waste the meat, for it niay here be ob- 

 served that whatever the privilege extended to the settler he must in no 

 way be allowed to take game other than in the legal open season. The 

 moose or caribou will produce an enormous amount of meat, and if shot 

 in the open season, when the weather is cold, the meat can easily be 

 maintained in good condition throughout the winter. To shoot these 

 large animals in the summer is bound almost to entail the waste of an 

 enormous amount of meat, so that for this reason, if for no other, the 

 taking of deer in the summer months must be most rigidly suppressed. 

 Moreover, it is in the winter especially that the settler can be expected 

 to feel the pinch of necessity, and it is to meet this condition that the 

 privilege is accorded him. In the summer months the fruits of his own 

 labor should produce him sufficient upon which to live, and in any case 

 the practically free gift of so great and valuable a creature as either a 

 moose or caribou cannot but be considered an ample discharge of its 

 duties in this direction in regard to the settler on the part of the general 

 public. While, therefore, the privilege extended to the settler might well 

 include moose and caribou, one specimen of either one or the other 

 variety, but not of both, must be deemed ample for his needs. 



In regard to deer the recent reduction of the legal limit to one, in- 

 stead of as formerly two, will undoubtedly have effected a hardship in 

 the case of some settlers should they have abided by the law. Two deer 

 will afford a reasonable amount of meat for a settler's family during the 

 winter months, but one deer, in the case of fair-sized families, at least, is 

 bound to reduce the daily ration to very small proportions. Undoubtedly 

 even this meagre allowance will be considered a great help, but it would 

 seem that if there is a real necessity for granting a privilege to the set- 

 tler at all, that privilege might well be enlarged to meet the necessities 

 of his case to the full. Where, therefore, the settler kills only deer under 

 his permit, it would appear that he should be allowed to take two, and 



