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vation of any of the hooks, which will be in the hands of Mr. Fox to 

 show to any member of the committee. , 



Chairman Byan. — That includes all the money the commission has 

 handled, excluding the money in the Comptroller's office ? 



Mr. Anibal. — Includes that also; includes not only the appropri- 

 ation, but that which came from lotsters' trespasses and the taking of 

 hay, timber and everything else, also where it has been paid and to 

 whom; it is the cash transaction. 



By Mr. Ahibal: 



Q. Tou have spoken of the trespasses you found, and we have pur- 

 posed somewhat to try and show what we have been doing along as 

 far as the books, records and papers will show; now, what are the 

 conditions, so far as trespassers are concerned, of the present forest 

 preserve at the present time ? 



A. As I. understand it, trespassing on a large scale is entirely 

 stopped; trespassing on a small scale, there is still some going on; 

 we had calculated largely upon the efficacy of the bill passed a year 

 ago, which became a law the first of October, in regard to punishing 

 the small trespassers; as I said before, it was a difficult matter to 

 punish these small trespasses; we have rather been letting small 

 trespasses lay in abeyance, waiting the going into effect of the bill 

 allowing us to take them into adjoining counties, and were preparing 

 to act upon that when our attention was called to the fact the fish and 

 game commission had a suit that had gone to the Court of Appeals on 

 that and the constitutionality of the bill was questioned; since then, 

 we find that the Court of Appeals have decided against the bill, that 

 is, they claim it is unconstitutional to take them into adjoining 

 counties, which throws us back into the old rut, that we have got to 

 go into the counties where the trespasses are committed, and we 

 have got to try them before a jury of their peers, who are neighbors 

 and friends and relatives, and who probably have been doing the 

 same as they have; as far as trespassing is concerned, when we first 

 came in we were very much at a loss to see how we could prevent, by 

 prosecution, trespasses, and we were very much relieved upon discov- 

 ering an old statute, passed in 1856, allowing the State to sue for 

 twenty-five dollars for each tree cut, and most of our suits have been 

 prosecuted under that old law, which has proved a very good thing 

 for the State; 1826, instead of 1856; I thought it was 1856.. 



By Mr. Anibal : 



Q. The statute is referred to in the Forest Commission Report of 

 1888, which contains all of the laws published ? 



