10 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



game birds or animals. Such a license plan is in operation in six- 

 teen of the states of the Union and four provinces of Canada, and is 

 working very satisfactorily, besides producing a large revenue, which 

 enables the commissioners to better patrol their states by a considerable 

 increase in their force of deputies, without a tax on the general fund. 

 Such a. law would be of great value in our State, owing to its size. But 

 few of the counties appoint game wardens, and in most cases they are 

 selected merely to pay off some political obligation, and consequently 

 good results do not follow. The office, therefore, falls into disfavor, the 

 people realizing that, for the additional tax imposed upon them to 

 maintain a game warden, who is often incompetent or worse, they are 

 receiving no benefit. Another reason why this measure should commend 

 itself to the Legislature is that this slight tax of $1 would fall only on 

 the men who shoot protected game, and does not apply to the individual 

 who does not hunt or has no interest in sport of that kind. 



ARRESTS AND FINES. 



We are proud to submit the following record of the arrests made dur- 

 ing the past two years and the aggregate amount of fines imposed for 

 violations of the fish and game laws. A close reading of this table will 

 be interesting to those who desire to learn to what extent we have 

 enforced the law, and is our reply to a question frequently asked. It will 

 also indicate something of the great variety of work our patrol force is 

 called upon to perform. This statement is taken from our docket of 

 prosecutions, which shows the cases in detail. The work has been far- 

 reaching and thorough. By far the larger number of arrests have been 

 made by our regular patrolmen; though some have been made by men 

 of the Forest Service, and others interested in this work, who have been 

 empowered by us with authority to make arrests for violation of the 

 fish and game laws. In our opinion, all of the cases made throughout 

 the State are directly traceable to the salutary influence created by 

 some important arrest made by one of our older and more experienced 

 deputies. 



In a large number of cases, pleas of "guilty" were entered, which in- 

 dicates that the evidence had been carefully collected, and was so com- 

 plete that the defendants were glad to throw themselves upon the mercy 

 of the court. Sometimes, we have regretted that this was done, as it 

 gave the court opportunity to show more leniency than in our opinion 

 was warranted by the gravity of the offense, resulting in a small fine. 

 We have investigated hundreds of complaints not all of which were 

 made in good faith. Some we found grew out of spite work, and there 

 was not sufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution. 



