64 First Annual Report of the 



CODIFICATION OF THE GAME LAWS. 



The law passed at the last session of the Legislature, providing 

 for the codification of the Game Law, should have the indorsement 

 of every sportsman of the .State of New York, as the present law 

 is very complicated, and not readily understood by the sportsmen 

 at large. As the codified laws are to he reported to the Governor 

 of the State of New York not later than January 15th, and as 

 the Conservation Commission employed experts to have charge, 

 under its direction, of the codification, assisted by the heads of 

 the different departments of the Division of Fish and Game, it will 

 therefore be unnecessary to make any recommendation in rela- 

 tion to game law amendments in the annual report, as all such 

 recommendations will be made to the committee having the codi- 

 fication of the game laws in charge. In placing this matter before 

 the codification committee, I endeavored to make it plain that 

 the game laws can only be enforced when they appeal to the 

 common sense of the sportsmen. If they are considered unjust 

 and ill advised, an army of protectors cannot enforce them. As 

 the department has only ninety-five game protectors at the present 

 time, and as there are more than 200,000 sportsmen in the State, 

 who hunt, fish and trap, it is a difficult problem to apprehend 

 every violator of the law. The majority of sportsmen desire to 

 see game increase by the enforcement of proper common sense 

 laws. Unwise laws are apt to be dead letters, observed by a few 

 honorable sportsmen, it is true, but violated without hesitation by 

 the many, who consider them unjust, and realize that the danger 

 of detection and of punishment is improbable, save when one of 

 the game protectors happens to be on the spot. 



Every time the Game Law is violated with impunity, the moral 

 sense of the violator is weakened and his respect for the law is les- 

 sened ; but if the sense of the community in which he resides is in 

 favor of a strict enforcement of the law, the breaker of that law 

 will be severely judged by his associates. Let the game laws be 

 so worded as to meet the wishes of conservative sportsmen, and 

 there will be less flagrant violations than there are at the present 

 time. 



