Forest Fires axd their Preyextiox. 27 



This question was answered in the negative by 195 of the correspond- 

 ents. Out of the 218 who answered this question usually in one word as 

 ''Xo," '^Xone/' or "Nobody," only 23 mentioned any action being taken 

 against those who set out fire, and of these only nine could have been 

 brought under the law against setting fires, the rest being civil suits for 

 damages, chiefly against railroads and lumber companies. The sum 

 total of convictions, for the careless or intentional setting of at least 

 700 fires in this State during 1910 is four; two in the mountains, in 

 which the parties were "fined light, say $5 each and costs," and two in 

 the Coastal Plain region, one of whom was let off by pa^dng "good" 

 costs; and the other, to the honor of Pitt County be it said, was given 

 the maximum fine, $50 and costs. The other suits wei*e, in the words 

 of the correspondents, "j^ol prossed," "Compromised, defendant paying 

 $37.50 damages," "Case before grand jury, hut no bill found," "Xot a 

 true bill/' "Case not yet tried." 



The apparent inefliciency of the law is due to the inadequacy of the 

 laws themselves and to the indifference of the people in the matter of 

 burning the woods. This is well illustrated by the folloAving replies 

 from a few of the correspondents in answer to the above question in 

 regard to prosecutions under the fire laws: "IN'ot one. We need more 

 stringent laws as to the careless handling of fire" ; "]^^o one. ISTeed 

 more laAvs" ; "Cannot get sufficient i^roof to get true bill or convict"; 

 "Xobody prosecuted, everybody seems to be afraid to prosecute for fear 

 of being burned out" ; "I think not. It would be difficult to convict as 

 it is a 'sport' engaged in by a large percent of our people"; "Xo ; but 

 ought to have been"; "Don't know of any. They are hard to catch 

 and hard to convict in a fence-law territory" ; "One was threatened with 

 prosecution" ; "Xo ; only for want of officers to enforce the law." 



The General Assembly of 1909 passed a law allowing the Governor, 

 at his discretion and on application of the owner, to declare any wooded 

 land which lies above 2,000 feet above sea level a "State forest." The 

 Governor may then, at the request of the owner, appoint such forest 

 wardens as the owner of the land may request, said wardens to have the 

 power of arrest without warrant and to be paid entirely by the owner. 

 For this privilege the landowner pays an annual tax of half a cent per 

 acre into the county treasury for the benefit of the school fund. 



Xo property owner has yet taken advantage of this law, and it is prac- 

 tically a dead letter, the owners probably thinking that the efficiency 

 gained by giving the wardens power of arrest is not worth such a sub- 

 stantial tax. 



