116 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



special objectionable features of its own due to the fact that parks, 

 like forest reserves, have many important functions other than that of 

 game preservation, and making game preservation dependent upon the 

 creation of parks is a serious handicap to the proper utilization of the 

 natural resources of the province, as well as to the preservation of the 

 game. 



The Manitoba system is unquestionably the best. Perhaps there 

 are, in Saskatchewan and Alberta, reasons for the policy adopted that 

 do not appear upon the surface. Whatever the reasons, however, it 

 is unquestionable that these provinces should alter their present Game 

 Acts so as to make the creation of game preserves a matter of straight- 

 forward positive action by the parties upon whom the responsibility 

 for game presetvation rests, instead of shifting it on to the Federal 

 Government, which has no constitutional authority with regard to 

 provincial game. Moreover, complicating the problem by involving it 

 with other conservation policies, to which it has little or no direct 

 relation, should be avoided. Game preserves should be created not 

 with the idea of obtaining some political or other irrelevant advantage, 

 but solely for the benefit of the game itself and the numerous interests 

 dependent upon it. 



In British Columbia, as in Manitoba, the province assumes the 

 responsibility for the creation of its own game preserves. Several 

 have been established where there seemed to be some special need, but, 

 while British Columbia has some very commendable features in its 

 game laws, neither in the establishment nor in the maintenance of game 

 preserves is it, as yet, in a leading position. 



Gam P Since game preservation in all the western provinces 



Forest Reserves' is more or less involved with the Dominion Forest 

 and Parks reserves and Dominion parks, it becomes desirable to 



understand the nature and functions of these three forms of special 

 reservations. It must be obvious that each has distinctive functions 

 and, although these functions are not all of them necessarily antag- 

 onistic, nevertheless some of them are, and there is absolutely no 

 warrant for assuming that the establishment of one form of reserva- 

 tion qualifies it to serve in the capacity of either of the others. This 

 whole subject would be the better for some clear thinking and a few 

 definitions, and for action based upon reason rather than upon impulse. 

 A game preserve is a block of land set apart because of special 

 suitability for the protection and propagation of wild game, for the 

 purpose of furnishing a place of refuge where game shall be allowed 

 to breed and increase unmolested, and is administered under regulations 

 designed specifically to promote this purpose. 



