6 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Consideration ^^ °^^ ^^^^ Meeting, which I have covered in these 

 of Game brief statements, our time was almost entirely, given to 



the consideration of the fisheries. We are, however, 

 a Committee on Fisheries, Game and Fur-bearing Animals, and it has 

 been thought advisable at this meeting to devote a considerable portion 

 of our time to the discussion of problems in connection with game in 

 Canada. With' that end in view, several gentlemen have been asked 

 to read papers in connection with the various problems dealing with 

 game laws and the preservation of game in the Dominion of Canada. 

 We have all felt, I am sure, that it is rather pathetic that in a country 

 so new as Canada there should be so little wild life, that wild life in 

 Canada, especially bird life, should compare so unfavourably with 

 that of countries in Europe in the same geographical situation but 

 which have been settled for thousands of years. Wild life is there 

 far more abundant than it is in Canada even at the present time. With 

 the example of the United States before Us — a bad example, especially 

 during their early history, and in the western states — the preservation 

 of game and the proper administration of game laws in this Dominion 

 would seem to be one of the very important things to which this 

 Committee might devote its attention. Of course the administration 

 of the game laws is in the hands of the provincial authorities but we 

 are in a position to advise them and to ask them to consider various 

 matters looking towards the protection of game, just as we have been 

 accustomed to do in connection with the Federal Administration. We; 

 have all looked with a good deal of interest at the work that is being 

 done at present in the United States towards retrieving the bad man- 

 agement of their early history and the effort now being made towards 

 restoring their game and administering their ga'me laws properly. We 

 are now looking to the men there to advise us as to methods of best 

 carrying forward the work of preserving our game in Canada and of 

 administering our laws properly here. 



One subject that I think we ought to consider in connection with 

 the proper preservation of game is the possibility of eliminating the 

 market hunter and the marketing of game. More injury is done to 

 game by the market hunter being allowed to destroy game in wholesale 

 quantities and sell the result of his work, than by any other possible 

 means and, if some method can be devised of restricting his opera- 

 tions, it would certainly be the most effective way of preserving our 

 game in Canada. 



Another point is the setting apart of preserves for game, as has 

 been largely done in connection with our forests. But still greater 



