258 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



Pennsylvania has adopted a similar plan. The terms of service of the 

 commissioners vary from two years in Arizona and Connecticut to five 

 years in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Ohio. 



Twenty-three istates and territories provide for a single official 

 to direct the affairs of their game department, the title of the office 

 varying somewhat with each state. In Tennessee the office of State 

 Warden is a cabinet position, the Department of Game, Fish and 

 Forestry having been made one of the departments of state government ; 

 and the same applies to the office of Fish Commissioner in Pennsyl- 

 vania. In every state, with the exception of Alabama, where the war- 

 den is elected by the people, the officer is appointed by the Governor, 

 and with few exceptions confirmed by the Senate. The term of office 

 varies from two to eight years. 



It will be seen, therefore, that the result of experience in the United 

 States is in the direction of creating an office for the control of the 

 fisheries and game removed as far as possible from the influence of 

 party political considerations. 



It may be argued that the creation of some such independent 

 authority in connection with ' this branch of the public service has 

 already been tried in Ontario, as, following the recommendations of 

 the Royal Commission of 1892, a permanent Game Commission was 

 appointed, and remained in force until it was disbanded by the new 

 Game Act. This permanent commission was designed to act princi- 

 pally in an advisory capacity. Its membership was large, its mem- 

 bers scattered throughout the Province, and its chairman deeply 

 immersed in other occupations, so that its usefulness was much im- 

 paired, and-it>*did not constitute a fair test of the commission system. 



The several principal recommendations to follow in this interim 

 report contain in themselves powerful and additional reasons for the 

 adoption of such a course, and your Commissioner . would, therefore, 

 strongly urge upon Your Honour the advisability of placing the 

 Department of Game and Fisheries under the control of a small, work- 

 ing commission, somewhat after the model of the Temiskaming and 

 Northern Ontario Railway Commission, but with its membership 

 reduced to the smallest possible number, and, while this Interim report 

 will be found to contain recommendations for an increased expendi- 

 ture of public moneys by the Department of Game and Fisheries, 

 especially in the establishment of provincial fish hatcheries, an ade- 

 quate equipment for the patrol service, and higher salaries for war- 

 dens, your Commissioner would not recommend these expenditures or 

 improvements unless his recommendation of placing the Department 

 of Game and Fisheries under a commission is acted upon by your Gov- 

 ernment, for the reason that the present system has not produced the 

 most efficient subordinate officers, nor is it calculated to do so in the 

 future, and, failing a supply of thoroughly efficient subordinate officers 

 being assured, he considers the moneys involved in the proposed recom- 

 mendations would be, in all probability, spent in vain. 



