296 EEPOKT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



Resident Hunting License. 



Among the many causes which have worked for the protection of 

 game and birds on this continent one of the most powerful has been 

 the gradual arousing of the people to the value of human life. The 

 opening up of its vast areas was only accomplished by the adoption of 

 a policy which courted immigration, and which resulted in the arri- 

 val O'f thousands upon thousands of aliens, of all nationalities and 

 clas'ses, to spread over the land. Vast numbers of these immigrants 

 belonged to the fiery-tempered peoples of Southern and Eastern Europe, 

 accustomed in their own countries to the vendetta, the secret societies, 

 and the family feud, and consequently bred and reared in the belief that 

 each male, at least, should carry with him always the wherewithal to 

 slay. The settler inhabitants of the land, living in the more or less 

 secluded loneliness of the great wildSj dependent to a certain extent on 

 the game resources of the district for their food, and with the recollec- 

 tions and traditions of Indian forays still fresh in their minds, naturally 

 enough were practically all provided with firearms, and the wave of alien 

 immigration unfortunately but confirmed them in the advisability of 

 such precaution. Consequently at one time, outside of the big cities, 

 every man was armed. The possession of a firearm is a direct incentive 

 to shoot, if only for practice, so that, with the incoming of the immi- 

 gra,tion wave, there swept over the continent also a tempest of ruthless 

 slaughter, not only of the big game and game birds, but of every living 

 creature that could run or fly. 



Demand will always create supply, so that, naturally enough, a 

 great interest developed in the manufacture and sale of firearms, spread- 

 ing its Ramifications over the whole country, gathering into its net every 

 hardware merchant on the continent, ready to resist tooth and nail 

 attempts at legislation detrimental in the slightest degree to its trade 

 interests. 



The universal possession of firearms, however, led not only to the 

 indiscriminate slaughter of bird and beast, but, as was to be expected, 

 to a terrible waste of human life, with the result that, as the population 

 gradually increased, and newB facilities grew greater, the folly of the 

 sanctioning of the universal carrying of firearms dawned on a people 

 just awakening to the value of human life. In spite of the efforts of the 

 firearms interests, legislation was passed, restricting the carrying and 

 possession of firearms, and thus one great step towards the protection 

 of game and birds was taken, for there is no greater menace to the game 

 and bird life of a district than the Italian or other Southern European, 

 wandering over it armed with a gun, and no legislation more difficult to 

 introduce than that which antagonizes an interest whose representatives 

 are to be found in every town and village. 



The evolution of game protection has been traced in another sec- 

 tion of this report, so that here it will suffice to note that accompany- 



