THE GAME BREEDER 



103 



$20 and costs would entitle him to eat 

 his food. The president of the New 

 Jersey Commissioners (like most other 

 game officers in America and Canada) 

 is on the paid subscription list of ",The 

 Game Breeder." He is a friend of the 

 magazine and the paper is his friend, 

 of course. He promised promptly to 

 bring the case of the arrested breeder 

 before his board on the 12th. But he 

 found this would be useless. His let- 

 ter follows : 



Editor, "The Game Breeder" : 



I have \-our letter of December 16th, and 

 beg to advise you that ]Mr. Lawton was not 

 arrested and punished because he was bring- 

 ing game into the* State of New Jersey, as I 

 was informed in your first communication, 

 but because he had in his possession, when 

 apprehended by the warden, two English hen 

 pheasants, and our law approved February 

 28th. 1912. reads as follows: 



"It shall be unlawful for two years from 

 the passage of this act to capture, kill, injure, 

 destroy or have in possession any female 

 English or ring-neck pheasant, under a pen- 

 altv of twenty dollars for each offense." 



This fine was paid and sent into the State 

 Treasury before this office knew of any pro- 

 test whatever having been made. This gen- 

 tlemen had the right to appeal his case from 

 the decision, of, the court imposing the pen- 

 alt)', and no action on this case was taken 

 before the Beard at its meeting held Decem- 

 ber 10th. 



Respectfully j-ours, 



Ernest Napier, 

 President. 



Our readers will see that it is 

 through no fault of the honorable com- 

 missioners that people who legally 

 bring food into New Jersey are ar- 

 rested because they have it "in pos- 

 session." It is up to them to see 

 that they do not "possess" it after 

 they bring it in. This results in a 

 little legerdemain, which is practiced 

 by many New Jersey residents. The 

 quicker they get their food inside of 

 them and the feathers destroyed the 

 sooner they may be held to be not in 

 possession, for no one can say that a 

 pheasant is a pheasant when it has 

 been digested. 



The point we wish to emphasize is 

 that if a New Jersey man who breeds 

 game in another State may legally 

 bring it into the State as the commis- 

 sioner says, but that after he does he 

 must be fined excessively because he 



has it "in possession," how would a 

 licensed iNlevv Jersey game breeder fare 

 after he had paid his license and had 

 produced some food if the same arrest- 

 ing officer should discover that he had 

 it "in possession." This is what is 

 known as a conflict in the laws, we 

 believe. 



People who have discussed this im- 

 portant case of game preservation have 

 been heard to say that New Jersey 

 is not a desirable place of residence. 

 People who are arrested passing 

 through the State because they have 

 improper fish hooks in their satchels,* 

 can travel around the State by other 

 railways. What we insist is that the 

 commission is an honorable body of 

 men created to execute the laws as 

 they find them and they are doing a 

 lot of good for the "more game" cause, 

 represented by the magazine, when 

 they arrest breeders of game food. 

 A prominent judge, a game breeder, 

 recently telephoned to the office of "The 

 Game Breeder" that one or two more 

 cases like those in New Jersey would 

 soon result in some common sense 

 legislation. 



*See the Fish Hook case reported by Field 

 and Stream and by "The Game Breeder" last 

 month. 



The Amendment Needed. 



The New Jersey legislature should 

 enact our simple game breeders' law ; 

 the form can be had cm application. 

 Briefly it provides that game breeders 

 may secure a license to breed any 

 species of game or game fish and that 

 they may have it in possession, may 

 ship it or sell it, provided it be identi- 

 fied as provided by the commission. 

 In Colorado the breeders use invoices ; 

 in New York tags are used. The pro- 

 posed law provides that game legally 

 produced may be brought into or taken 

 out of the State under regulations 

 made by the game commission. It is 

 fair to say Xew Jersey provides now 

 for the profitable breeding of three 

 species of game food upon the pay- 

 ment of a $2.^ license, but how would 

 the breeder fare if he had it "in pos- 

 session"? 



