1912 AND FISHEKIES COMMISSION. 253 



The organization of the outside service of the Department of Game 

 and Fisheries is not the creation of one man or of one political party. 

 It is, on the contrary, the child of circumstance, nurtured by the parti- 

 zan spirit of political patronage, and handed down from one Adminis- 

 tration to another. Though of late years a very distinct improvement 

 has taken place, the briefest study of the system will disclose the neces- 

 sity for radical reform. 



That the men entrusted by the Government with the enforcement of 

 the law on the waters of the Province or in its woods should be expert 

 sailors or woodsmen, as the case may be, and physically capable of dis- 

 charging their duties, none will be found to deny; as likewise the fact 

 that to employ those who are not, is, in the efficacy of its pecuniary 

 investment, closely akin to casting gold into a bottomless pit. And 

 yet, owing to the exigencies of political life in this Province, these ele- 

 mentary considerations have been in the past all too frequently disre- 

 garded in the selection of officers for the warden services. 



That a subordinate officer, entrusted with the enforcement of the 

 game and fishery regulations over a district comprising many miles of 

 lake and woodland, should be 90 years of age; that an officer of the out- 

 side service, occupying a position of some importance, should generally 

 have the reputation among persons in his district of being unused to the 

 handling of a boat, and timid of venturing his person on the water ; that 

 another fishery officer should be very intimate with the agent of a 

 foreign company, trading as a Shylock among the simple fisherfolk of 

 his district; that a game warden should have no woodcraft, and be 

 afraid to venture alone into the woods; that another should attach him- 

 self to a shooting party and indulge with them in the illegal destruction 

 of game during the closed season — ^these are, to say the least of it, 

 absurdities; and yet they are but a few of the instances brought to the 

 attention of your Commissioner, and are the inevitable and direct out- 

 come of a system in which the most obvious and indispensable qualifica- 

 tions have been brushed aside in favor of a party rosette. 



That any man will work, or even devote much time or energy, or? 

 that for which he is not paid at least a living wage, is open to the gravest 

 doubt; but where something is offered for nothing, even though that 

 something be the most paltry pittance, the applicants will undoubtedly 

 be numerous, and but rarely of a truly desirable class. The paying of 

 stipends, ranging from .f 25.00 to |200.00 (stipends such as those with 

 which the pay sheet of the Game and Fisheries Department abounds), 

 appears so closely aiin to paying something for nothing that the differ- 

 ence is almost indistinguishable. 



In the selection of officers for the outside service of the Department 

 of Game and Fisheries it would seem that the principal general require- 

 ments to be looked for are good character and sobriety, health, energy, 

 strength, fearlessness, tact, thorough knowledge of the game laws and 

 fishery regulations, and education sufficient to read and write; and 



