3!? 5 



A. Under. the permits from the land office, the action of the land office 

 was two-fold, first, they would pass a resolution appointing a man cus- 

 todian of an island or a portion of an island ; that gave him no right to 

 build, but they almost invariably supplemented it with another resolu- 

 tion permitting him to erect a cottage; here is a recital of these facts I 

 have stated and a concurrent resolution proposed, reciting the forest 

 commission have now the care, custody and control of such lands, but 

 those resolutions were never passed; the first act for the purchase of 

 land was introduced in the Senate, April -2, 1889, and was prepared 

 under our instructions and provided $10,000; one of the measures 

 that we proposed in 1889 provided for making the compensation to 

 fire wardens a county charge instead of a town charge; that did not 

 pass. 



Q. What was the object of that ? 



A. These men, finding it impossible to get from their towns any 

 compensation for labor done in that way, were unwilling to go out in 

 case of fire. 



Q. Thought if it was made a county charge it would be more likely 

 to be paid ? 



A. Make it more efficient and make it possible to g6t good men to 

 take the office. 



Chairman Evan. — As the law is now, it is a town charge? 



A. Yes. 



Mr. Hessberg. — In 1889 the Legislature did come to the relief of 

 the forest commission and they passed an act continuing these 

 officers as town officers, giving town boards the right to audit 

 and limit their compensation to a dollar a day when they were 

 actually employed in putting out fires and making it the duty of 

 these parties to come to the rescue of the fire wardens when there 

 was any conflagration; in that relation it is still a town charge; 

 the agreement was made in the small towns, there is very little land 

 taxed and towns couldn't stand the burden; they drafted a bill, but 

 the legislative committee thought otherwise and continued it as it 

 was provided for in the original act; we prepared an act in 1889 

 which failed to become a law; an amendment to our original act makes 

 section 34 read: "Any person violating any rule or regulation of the 

 forest commission shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall 

 be liable upon conviction therefor before any justice of the peace of 

 the county wherein the offense may be committed, to a fine not to 

 exceed $50 for every offense or to be subject to not more than three 

 months imprisonment in the county jail." That did not pass. 



Q. What was the occasion for that? 



