274 REPOKT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



cient to enable him to dnaw up a scheme for presentation with this 

 interim report, such a scheme will be drawn up and be presented with 

 the full report of this Commission at a later date. 



Co-operation. 



In the enforcement of laAvs the good-will and support of the people 

 is a most important factor, for no government can afford to maintain 

 indefinitely a sufficient force of officials to ensure the obeying of laws 

 of which the general public does not approve. Most particularly does 

 this apply to the enforcement of the game laws and fishery regulations 

 of this Province on the public waters and wild lands. To patrol these 

 vast areas closely would entail an army corps of officials and an expense 

 far in excess of the funds at the disposal of the treasury; while to patrol 

 them with a limited number of officers implies wide districts for the 

 officei^s to cover, and consequently a greater dependency on the people 

 themselves, not only to obey the laws, but to demand their observance 

 by others, resident in or visiting the localities in which they live. 



, There is no more misguided policy for a governmenit than to have 

 laws on the statute book Avhieh it cannot, or does not, enforce, for con- 

 nivance at infractions of the law is S3monymous with connivance at 

 public moral deterioration. 



Hence, in reviewing the question of possible co-operation by officers 

 of otlier departments of the Government, and other corporations, as 

 called for in the instructions of his commission, your Commissioner 

 deems it his first duty to call the attention of Your Honour to the 

 urgency of enlisting the co-operation of that greatest of all provincial 

 corporations, the public of Ontario. 



That the laws and regulations in regard to fish and game of the 

 Province are sound in principle your Commissioner is convinced; as 

 likewise that the great mass of the people are law-abiding, and prepared 

 to support the enforcement of the laws once tihey understand what they 

 are and the purposes for which they have been made. Unfortunately, 

 however, investigation has disclosed to him the fact that not only is 

 there considerable vagueness in the public mind as to the provisions of 

 the laws and regulations, both in their requirements and in their admin- 

 istration, but also a very widespread misapprehension of the purposes 

 for which these laws and regulations have been framed. Unconscious 

 violations of the law are of common occurrence; magistrates all to fre- 

 quently display .their ignorance of its provisions in unauthorized total 

 or partial remissions of its penalties, and the commercial fisherman, 

 the settler, and the potliunter appear more often than not to view those 

 resources of nature in which they are interested as their own peculiar 

 Tiirthright and possession, to be squandered at their pleasure, without 

 regard to vested public rights or to their future economic value, holding, 

 indeed, in many instances that all restrictive laws and regulations are 

 l)ut the device of an unrighteous and selfish band of individuals, known 



