6 Jh Oame of any Value to the Fanner / 



the privacy of an<l freedom from intrusion upon property 

 where game is^ as well as upon laws regulating close 

 seasons. The ordinary law of trespass and the " Petty 

 Trespass Act" are not sufficient for the purpose ; all wild 

 birds and animals become restive if their solitude is con- 

 tinually broken. Trespasses are frequently committed 

 in which little or no damage can be shewn, but distur- 

 bances have been created or information has been 

 obtained by scouts or the idle, leading to subsequent 

 serious damage. Man does so much to destroy and so 

 little to protect game that it follows as a consequence 

 that as far as possible they should be left undisturbed, 

 and niore particularly during the periods of incubation 

 or nesting season. 



The friction which occurred in days long past in 

 Britain in connection with the game laws was not be- 

 tween the owners of the land and the public, but be- 

 tween landlords and tenants; Here we are free from 

 those complications, and legislatiou is greatly simplified. 

 Pot-hunters bear no resemblance to the poacher. The 

 British poacher sleeps all day, is a hanger-on of small 

 taverns, and works by night with nets and snares and 

 traps. He is in fact the common thief inseparable from 

 overcrowded communities. At the present date, for 

 attack, defence, or retreat, he carries a bag of stones to 

 avoid the penalty of going armed by night. Our pot- 

 hunters, equally effective as game exterminaters, are 

 usually temperate, active, intelligent liien, country-bred. 

 It is of such men that head game-keepers and kennel 

 managers, and assistants and other well paid employes 

 are made, where the production of game is an established 

 business. 



The destruction of our trout streams and river fish 

 can only be described as an infamy. Drugs and nets 

 have been freelj^used, water drawn off, and the law as to 

 seasons habitually disregarded. Seine drawing in or near 

 the breeding places in the lakes and bays and at the 



