FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 49 



of the department is to make substantial improvements in the service and 

 results each succeeding year. We feel that in these respects the year just 

 closed is no exception, and that marked progress has been made. The 

 records show an increased efficiency in the force of protectors ; their present 

 organization is better than it has been heretofore ; the personnel of the force 

 is higher; the interest of each person in the work, from the head of that 

 branch of the service to the last man, is greater than ever before. I am 

 pleased to report this fact, because it is true and because the men have 

 earned more than honorable mention. 



Marine Fisheries 



The marine fisheries department has made a fine record this year. 

 The titles to many pieces of land under water heretofore leased or alien- 

 ated by grant, have been recovered to the State on account of nonuse, 

 nonpayment of rentals or other causes; the ownership under leases made 

 during past years, and which have been sold, subdivided and transferred 

 from one person to another, have all been located in the names of present 

 owners. A much larger revenue has been obtained and the work of the 

 department placed on a sound business basis under the revised law of two 

 years ago. To bring this branch of the work from a chaotic condition to 

 a business basis only required a law giving reasonable power to the Com- 

 mission, and providing reasonable rules under which the business could 

 be managed. That branch of the service is practically self-sustaining, and 

 in time, with slight amendments to the law will produce a considerable 

 annual revenue over and above the cost of running the department. 



The legal department has handled an unusually large number of cases 

 during the year in a successful and satisfactory manner, saving to the 

 State much valuable property, successfully prosecuting offenders, without 

 persecuting them, which has produced a more wholesome respect for the 

 law and its enforcement. 



Work everywhere in the department is rapidly increasing; the office 

 force in the main office at Albany is no longer large enough to dispose of 

 the current day's business in a satisfactory manner. We badly need two 

 more stenographers and one more good accountant. 

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