76 GAME COMMISSIONS AND WARDENS. 



no reason why the provision snould be held in such disrepute, and 

 since the purposes of game laws have been better understood and their 

 necessit} T more forcibly demonstrated by the rapid depletion of game, 

 an inducement of this character should accomplish its intended pur- 

 pose. Officers of the law usually are allowed regular fees for their 

 work, and there can be no just complaint against compensation to a 

 private citizen who temporarily abandons his business and appears in 

 court as a witness against the willful violator of a public statute. 



In this connection it should be noted that in some States a constitu- 

 tional provision requires all fines to be paid into the State or county 

 treasury to the credit of certain designated funds, usually the school 

 fund. Before incorporating in a game bill a provision for payment 

 of part of fines to informers or to a special fund, it is essential that 

 the constitution of the State be consulted. It may be that a divi- 

 sion of fines is authorized by some special wording of the constitu- 

 tion, as where it is directed that the 'net proceeds' of fines shall be 

 applied to certain purposes. This question has arisen in the courts, 

 and in Nevada (Ex parte McMahon, 26 Nev., 243 ; 66 Pac, 294) one 

 provision of the game law was declared invalid because it allowed the 

 informer part of the fine when the constitution declares that ' all fines 

 collected under the penal laws of the State * * * shall be and the 

 same are hereby solemnly pledged for educational purposes and shall 

 not be transferred to any other fund for other uses. ' a 



On the other hand, the game law of Wisconsin, one section of which 

 directed that two-thirds of the fines collected should be paid to the 

 informer, was sustained as valid against the contention that it was 

 unconstitutional because the constitution of that State declared that 

 the clear proceeds of all fines collected in the several counties for 

 any breach of the penal laws shall be set apart as a separate fund to 

 be called the 'school fund. 1 (State v. De Lano, 49 N. W., 808.) The 

 court held that 'clear proceeds' meant the amount of such fines left 

 after making authorized deductions. 



Under the Nebraska game law, in obedience to the constitutional 

 provision, all fines collected for violation of the game law must be 

 paid into the school fund, but the corporate authorities of any county, 

 city, or village within whose jurisdiction such fines shall be recovered 

 are required to pay to the complaining witness out of the general fund 

 an amount equivalent to one-half the fine actually recovered. 



A novel contention relating to the subject of payment of rewards 

 to informers was made in the Illinois case of Meul v. People (64 N. E., 

 1106), where the defendant insisted that the game law was invalid, 

 because one section directed that half the fine be paid the informer, 



«See also State ex rel. Rodes v. AVarner, 94 S. W., 962, holding that fines under 

 the game law of Missouri must be paid into the county school fund. 



