_ thing and which allowed them to claim that they were fishing with a net of the 
- regulation size. The result of all this legislation has been that we have come to 
_ believe that the point toward which we must devote our energies for the present, 
_ must not be the question of securing laws affecting regulation, no matter how 
perfect they may be, but that we must seek first of all for a rigid enforcement of 
the laws which we have. 
Five or six years ago our Commission prepared a well digested bill which 
provided for the appointment of a fish warden whose compensation should be an 
amount fixed by the Bill to be paid out of the treasury of the State. It further 
provided for the appointment by the board of six or eight deputies, who should 
be paid a stated salary from the State treasury, anil whose jurisdiction should be 
co-extensive with State lines, and who might ve sent into any part of the State 
to perform their functions. Such appointment permitted, in case of complaint, 
_ the sending of a deputy into the neighbourhood where a complaint was made 
who was a Y stranger to the community, and over whom no one would have influ- 
ence in connection with the discharge of his duties. The Bill came before the 
House and after due consideration was passed by a large majority and was then 
sent to the Senate. In the meantime, the sportsmen who were interested in 
game came to us and asked us to incorporate a game protection clause in the Bill. 
This we refused to do on the ground that the State was not engaged in the propa- 
gation of birds or game, and that such additional duties as we should be required | 
to perform with that addition would be imposing more upon an unpaid board 
than we cared to assume. Asa result of this decision our bill was killed, and in 
its stead a.most pernicious bill was passed which provided for the appointment 
of one or more wardens in each county in the State, whose compensation was to 
be fixed by the boards of supervisors. This bill received the signature of the 
governor and became a law. The result has proved what we anticipated. The 
boards of supervisors having in almost every instance refused to fix any adequate 
compensation, and the result is that, with the exception of one or two localities 
in the state, there is no enforcement of the laws. So strong has become the op- 
position to the warden law as it stands to-day that the governor in his last 
- message recommended to the legislature that a bill be introduced abolishing the 
warden and his deputies. 
We are somewhat hopeful that we may yet have an efficient enforcement of 
such laws as we have, by the adoption of a better plan, and to secure this we 
shall undoubtedly encourage the formation of sportsmen’s associations in the 
different localities of the state among those people who feel a keen interest in 
the question, and thereby secure the needed legislation. 
The only efficient protection we have in Michigan to-day is the protection 
that is enforced by such bodies of men as these that now exist in several loeali- 
ties in the State. As it stands now it is everybody’s business and therefore 
nobody’s business, and the laws are practically unenforced, except in occasional 
instances. I have never yet known of a complaint being made against persons 
who are engaged in net fishing in the great lakes. Such cases as have been 
brought for i iolations of the fae have bean almost universally those that have 
~ occurred in the inland waters. 
We propose to correspond with men in every part of the State who are 
known to be interested in the enforcement of the laws, asking them to or ganize 
_ sportsmen’s associations, and to select and send dele; cates to: a State convention 
_ which shali meet at some central point in the State to consider the various ques- 
_ tions in which we are all interested and in this way we shall secure a force of 
