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ONTARIO GAME AND FISH COMMISSION. 
MEMORANDUM ON PROTECTIVE LAWS, ETC. 
The following will be found a convenient compendium of information as to 
‘the Game and Fish protection laws and services of this Province, the other Pro- 
vinees of Canada, and the neighbouring States of the Union. In the following 
statement, for brevity’s sake, the legal phraseology of the various statutes is 
abandoned, and the information set sorth summarily in the vernacular. The plan 
on which this statement has been prepared is a simple one. In dealing with each 
subject, the practice of Ontario in that matter is first set forth, and then, under the 
same head, are mentioned any notable points wherein the practice of other Pro- — 
vineces or States differs from or is more comprehensive than that of Ontario. 
It may be expedient to remark upon a presumption common to all the Game 
and Fish Protection Acts of the neighbouring States, viz., the presumption (some- 
times stated in so many words) that all wild beasts, birds, and fishes, are common 
property while at large, and private property only when killed and reduced to 
possession by individuals. Hence the common basis of all State Game and Fish 
Acts is that the public interest will be served by laws protecting the selected 
wild creatures in their natural multiplication, or increasing that multiplication 
artificially. There is no appearance of an opinion in any of these Acts, that 
sportsmen, anglers, or fishermen, have interests apart from the public, and even 
the laws that, in some commonwealths, give janded proprietors exclusive property 
in Game or Fish bred or found on their domains, go on the presumption that such 
provisions serve the common interest in Game and Fish multiplication. The 
notion that the ferae naturae on private lands can pertain to these lands without 
a special concession from the people, appears foreign to American and Canadian 
legislation. 
It may be desirable for the Commission to lose no opportunity to explain 
and publish that Game or Fish protection laws and services are not designed for 
the peculiar gratification of sportsmen, anglers, nor any special class, but for the 
purpose of makiag more valuable the common property of all classes in Game and 
Fish. The purposes of the Commission are likely to be misunderstood, and the 
usefuiness of its labours impaired, if farmers, pioneers, lumbermen, or any other 
class obtain or retain a belief that persons who shoot or fish for amusement or 
recreation are particularly objects of the Commission’s care. The economic pur- 
pose of the Commission may be described as: that of recommending means by 
which the edible or otherwise valuable wild creatures of the Province may be so 
preserved or multiplied as to be easily and cheaply obtained by all. 
The scheme of almost any set of Game and Fish Protection Acts may be 
generally and shortly described as embracing : 
1. The selection and specification of certain wild creatures considered valuable 
either because they afford good food or good clothing, or both, to human beings. 
2. The protection of the selected creatures by enactments which 
(a) Forbid molestation of them during stated seasons, days, or hours ; or 
(b) Forbid pursuit or capture or killing of them by methods or engines pe- 
culiarly likely to hinder their multiplication ; or 
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