and the Maritime Provinces. 463 



sportsmen, and others who take what may be called a sentimental view of 

 the subject, and who, while not shooting at all themselves, wish to see 

 the game of this State protected as far as reasonable. 



"There is no question at all but what as our game decreases, laws for 

 its protection must be made more stringent from time to time. In my 

 own experience I have seen the season for woodcock shooting, which 

 formerly opened the first of July, gradually shortened so that for several 

 years it was made to open the first of August, and then later still to the 

 first of September, and then shortened still more to our present season, 

 which opens the fifteenth day of September ; while on partridges the 

 law which for a great many years opened on the first of September has 

 also been shortened so that it opens on the fifteenth day of September. 

 It is quite probable that it may be necessary even now to shorten that 

 still more, and possibly to go as far as the bill proposed which allows 

 simply the months of October and November for shooting. There is a 

 very natural difference of opinion as to whether December should be made 

 a close month or not. I am inclined to think that even if you leave that 

 open a few years longer, it may then become necessary to close it. These 

 gentlemen, with their somewhat diverse views as to shooting, all believe, 

 however, that the seasons for allowing shooting and for allowing sale should 

 coincide. . . . 



" Our friends, the marketmen, have spoken to you of the magnitude 

 of the commercial interests involved in game, and I have no doubt of 

 the correctness of the statement made here, that the business amounts 

 to $400,000 a year. I would suggest to you thai that sum does not begin 

 to represent the actual cash value of the sport to those who indulge in it. 

 It is said on the best authority that in the State of Maine over $2,000,000 

 a year is left behind by sportsmen from other States who go there for health 

 and recreation. Of course people do not come to Massachusetts for that 

 purpose to any great degree, but our own people — those who for business 

 or money reasons are unable to go away long enough to take a vacation in 

 the large northern woods — get that which they would not sacrifice for 

 much money here at home. I feel sure that double the amount stated by 

 the marketmen as their business in game would be a small sum to repre- 

 sent the pecuniary value of shooting to those who value it as a sport. It 

 is by no means a rich man's sport exclusively ; far from it. The majority 

 of our rich men who shoot and fish go far away from home for their sport. 

 It is the man of limited means who gets the pleasure here at home. As to 

 the standing of sportsmen, as a class, it is sufficient to say that Presidents 

 Arthur, Harrison and Cleveland have, for the last sixteen years, shown that 

 it is, at least, respectable to get recreation and health, shooting and 

 fishing. . . . 



" But there are men, however, who shoot, and they comprise a class 



