567 



This investigation, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, 

 is based upon a resolution where the committee is to inquire con- 

 cerning the administration of the laws relating to the forest pre- 

 serve by the forest commission, and then to report what, if any,' 

 changes in the present laws which, are necessary to better protect 

 the forests belonging to the State. With the second part of that 

 resolution I conceive the counsel has very little to do, but the 

 duty of the counsel is to comment upon the thousand pages of 

 evidence that has been given so as to aid the committee, if that 

 may be, through our efforts to come to a just and correct conclusion. 

 To make such inferences and deductions as are proper and legitimate 

 from this evidence. Now, in the first place, this forestry commission 

 was organized under the act of 1885. They were to fix the number 

 of their officers, to specify what aid and help they desired, and to fix 

 the compensation and the rank according to the supply bills and 

 deficiency bills from .that time down to the last session of the Legis- 

 lature. I find, as was discloced in the testimony, that the expenses of 

 this commission started out . at $37,500, and was that for 

 two years, and since that time it has been $30,000 a 

 year. The organization of the commission has been detailed 

 by ' Warden Garmon and Commisioner Basselin. There was 

 allowed $3,000 in the appropriation for the traveling expenses and 

 incidental expenses of the commissioners; the sum of $2,500 was 

 allowed a year for the traveling expenses of the warden and his 

 assistants; an allowance for counsel fees and witness fees, so that this 

 has been a very expensive institution. 



What has it done ? They all agree, all these commissioners who 

 have testified, agree that Mr. Garmon is the executive officer under 

 the name of warden; that they have given over to him the whole out- 

 door administration of this commission. That they have furnished 

 him with foresters, some thirteen or fourteen or fifteen districts 

 have been made, and they have been assigned to districts, besides 

 a good many special agents for special things and the commis- 

 sioners themselves have been but very little into the forests 

 and I was surprised to see how little they really knew about it at all; 

 Commissioner Cox went up there once, and he had more to say about 

 the black flies than he did about the forests; Commissioner Knevals 

 was up there once or twice and didn't say much about it, and Mr. 

 Basselin, I believe, brought in a bill for expenses twice, and he thinks 

 he has been in the woods ■ twice, he might have combined business 

 with pleasure, so that the actual care and attention they have given 

 to the subject is nothing. 



