FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 85 



were taken off the line and ordered back to the shops to have the screens 

 repaired. 



Our law is satisfactory in all its provisions for extinguishing forest 

 fires, and, also, for their prevention. But it fails to provide for prompt 

 payment of the men who are ordered out by the firewardens on such dutv. 

 As the law stands now the men who work at a forest fire — and whose 

 services are compulsory — cannot be paid until after the annual meeting 

 of the county board of supervisors in November, at which time orders are 

 drawn in pa}7ment of these and all other accounts. Then there is a further 

 delay of two or three months, as these orders cannot be paid until the town 

 collector of taxes has received his warrant or tax-roll and has collected 

 enough money to pay them. The tax collector accepts these " fire orders," 

 as they are called, cashes them and returns them as money to the county 

 treasurer in settlement of his account. Hence, men who fight fires in April 

 and May, the time when most of the fires occur, cannot be paid until the 

 next February. 



Now, under this system of payment it is difficult at times to get the 

 prompt and efficient service which is so necessary in the suppression of 

 forest fires. Men who are " warned out " by a firewarden to go to the 

 place of fire must obey, for they are liable to prosecution and a fine if they 

 refuse. This compulsory feature is bad enough in the opinion of the men 

 without adding the still more objectionable one of long-deferred pay. To 

 secure prompt service at each fire there should be the inducement of prompt 

 pay. 



I recommend, therefore, that some legislation be secured by which the 

 supervisor of each town shall be provided annually by the county with a 

 sum of money sufficient for the immediate payment of men who work at 

 a forest fire in his town or render service as patrols, such pavment to be 

 made on orders signed by the town board of auditors and approved by the 

 town firewarden; and there ought to be a further provision that the town 

 board of auditors shall, on the written request of the firewarden, meet 

 promptly at any time of the year for the purpose of issuing such orders 

 on the supervisor. Under some such system there would be no more 

 money paid out for fighting fire than under the present arrangement. The 

 towns would secure a more prompt and efficient service, and the forests 

 would receive better protection. 



