SECRETARY'S REPORT. 65 



believe that not more than half the dogs at that time paid the 

 tax, and that the number in the Commonwealth has not much 

 diminished. 



Your committee do not believe that this open neglect of a law 

 would exist if those who are called upon to execute it fully 

 understood its provisions, and were aware of the penalties 

 incurred by a neglect of its enforcement ; otherwise such 

 returns as the following would not have been made : " There 

 was nothing received on account of license this year, because 

 the town voted that those who had licensed previously should 

 be allowed a free license this year, on account of surplus ;" or 

 returns like the following : " no notice taken of the law in this 

 town the present year," and many others of a similar purport. 

 Nor, were the law better understood, is it believed that the 

 payment of the tax would have been left, as has evidently been 

 the case in many towns, to the voluntary act of a few individuals. 

 The sixty-sixth section, chapter 88, General Statutes, must 

 have escaped the notice of the town authorities, otherwise this 

 salutary law would not, like many others upon our statute 

 books, have been made only to be broken. That section 

 provides " that the mayor and aldermen of each city, and the 

 selectmen of each town, shall require all dogs not licensed and 

 collared according to the foregoing provisions, to be destroyed ; 

 and shall enforce all penalties herein provided. Any officer 

 refusing or neglecting to perform the duties herein imposed upon 

 him, shall be punished by fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars, 

 to be paid into the city or town treasury." By the provisions 

 of this Act, no city or town has any right to alter or repeal any 

 portion of the law which requires that " every owner or keeper 

 of a dog shall annually, on or before the thirtieth of April, 

 cause it to be registered, numbered, described and licensed." 

 The whole method of proceeding under this law is so plain and 

 unmistakable in its intention and purpose, that it is almost 

 inconceivable how any town officer should hesitate in carry- 

 ing it out to the very letter. Believing it for the interest of 

 the farmer, as it certainly is to the general tax-payer, that 

 the provisions of the law be strictly observed, your commit- 

 tee would recommend that measures be taken to insure its 

 observance, and, in case of future neglect, that the penalties 

 for such cases provided be exacted. How this shall be done, 



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