A Rod Tax for Newfoundland. 
St. John's, N. F., Feb. 21.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: For many years the desirability of 
levying a rod tax on visiting sportsmen has been 
discussed in this city. There were no two opin¬ 
ions as to the justice of so doing, as it was 
recognized that all sportsmen, especially those 
from places outside our own borders, should 
contribute to preserve a fishery that was such a 
source of pleasure to all those who participated 
in it. Local sportsmen, by paying their ordi¬ 
nary taxes, contributed fairly to the expense of 
keeping wardens, protecting fish and game and 
preserving rivers, and it has often been pointed 
out that it was generosity verging on the borders 
of foolishness to pay for, protect and preserve 
our salmon and sea trout waters for the free 
use of visiting sportsmen without fee or charge. 
It is to be regretted that many visiting sports¬ 
men ignored the common decencies of sport and 
abused the privileges so freely and generously 
tendered them. 
The very few opponents of the tax contended 
that it would be a great advertisement for the 
country and a great inducement for visitors to 
come when it was generally known that the 
numerous streams of the island that teem with 
salmon and sea trout could be fished by anyone, 
no matter where he came from, with as much 
freedom as the Governor of the island. 
Flowever, the matter never took definite shape 
until the meeting of the Game and Inland Fish¬ 
eries Board on Feb. 18, when the whole question 
was calmly and dispassionately considered. The 
board consists of about a dozen men who are 
among the highest representatives on the island 
of the cult devoted to rod and gun. 
It was unanimously decided, there being not 
one dissenting voice, that beginning on March 1, 
1910, a rod tax of $10 be levied on all visiting 
sportsmen. The board has appointed a secretary 
at a fair salary. It is intended to appoint war¬ 
dens sufficient to protect and preserve all the 
rivers; it is further intended that two or three 
supervisors be appointed to keep the wardens 
up to their duties. In the future, wardens will 
have to devote all their time to work on the 
rivers, and will not, as heretofore, be permitted 
to act as guides. 
Attention will also be given to the propaga¬ 
tion of rainbow and other game fishes. Up to 
the present time the work of stocking depleted 
streams and lakes has been done as a labor of 
love by local enthusiasts, the representatives of 
•whom to-day are Dr. L. E. Keegan and Mr. 
McNeily, K. C. 
This work will be developed on more gener¬ 
ous lines, and in a more systematic and compre¬ 
hensive manner for the future. All these changes 
and improvements will cost a good deal of 
money, and now it has been definitely decided 
that visiting anglers shall contribute their quota. 
It is further hoped that the levying of a small 
rod tax will keep out an undesirable element 
that has been increasing somewhat of late. Regu¬ 
lations will be enforced dealing with the catch 
and disposal of salmon and sea trout so that a 
stop will be put to the practice adopted by cer¬ 
tain anglers who fish till they have more than 
they can handle, and then leave them to rot on 
the bank and poison the air, or throw them into 
the river and pollute the waters. Prospective 
visitors will govern themselves according to the 
new arrangements. 
Anyone wanting reliable and official informa¬ 
tion as to game and game fishes should write 
I. M. Mercer, Secretary Game and Inland Fish¬ 
eries Board, Marine and Fisheries Department, 
St. John’s, N. F. W. J. Carroll. 
Omaha Rod and Gun Club. 
Omaha, Neb., Feb. 18.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Omaha Rod and Gun Club at 
its regular annual meeting, which was held on 
Feb. 17, elected officers, heard reports from the 
various retiring officers and authorized negotia¬ 
tions for the purchase of additional adjoining 
property on which to continue its hitherto steady 
expansion. The following officers were elected 
for terms of one year: President, W. S. Shel¬ 
don; Vice-President, Charles L. Dundey; Sec¬ 
retary, A. L. Timblin; Treasurer, A. E. Ander¬ 
son. Five directors to serve two years and four 
for one year were also elected. 
Retiring Secretary Alvin Bloom’s report shows 
the club to be growing rapidly, with a total 
present membership of 740, a recent increase of 
173. Treasurer Anderson shows the finances to 
be in good shape. 
Memorial resolutions on the recent death of 
the club’s president, John A. Scott, were adopted 
and a number of eulogies were pronounced by 
individual members. 
Negotiations were authorized for the purchase 
of Courtland Beach with a large and fine water 
front, which property lies adjoining the belong¬ 
ings of the club. This property is held at some¬ 
thing like $50,000 and is one of the most desir¬ 
able pieces of property on the whole lake front. 
The Beach, having been an amusement park for 
years, with a little remodeling, would add im¬ 
mensely to the facilities of the club as well as 
bring in many desirable members, the limit for 
which will probably be placed at 1,000. 
Providing against the possible falling through 
of the deal for the Beach, the officers have re¬ 
newed a lease on additional water front which 
was secured at the beginning of last season, as 
an addition to the club’s original twenty acres, 
which has but a small frontage on the lake. 
The reports from the heads of various com¬ 
mittees show that Carter Lake, or Lake Nakoma 
as it is sometimes called, on which the club’s 
property is located, has for a number of years 
been systematically stocked with bass and other 
desirable game fish, for the protection of which 
a warden service is maintained at the expense 
of the club. During the past season, under the 
supervision of the warden, a large number of 
carp and buffalo were seined from the lake. It 
is the intention that this work will be continued 
until the lake is cleared of these two species. 
Clark. 
North American Fish and Game 
Protective Association. 
Quebec, Canada, Feb. 23.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The tenth annual meeting of the North 
American Fish and Game Protective Association, 
held at Philadelphia on Feb. 9 and 10, was one 
of the most important and most enjoyable ever 
held by that association. 
Addresses by Dr. Hornaday and by William 
Dutcher were interesting features of the conven¬ 
tion, and there was much satisfaction in regard 
to the success of the association’s movement of 
a year ago for the setting apart of the big forest, 
fish and game preserve in the Rainy River dis¬ 
trict, while much interest was aroused by the re¬ 
port and discussion of two recent judgments in 
the courts of the province of Quebec of para¬ 
mount importance to American anglers owning 
and exercising fishing rights in that province. 
There have been of late many important acces¬ 
sions to the membership of the association, and 
the entertainment extended to its members in 
Philadelphia was princely. By the courtesy of 
the University of Pennsylvania the meeting was 
held in the auditorium of Houston Hall and J. 
Levering Jones, one of the trustees, in the ab¬ 
sence of Provost Harrison, welcomed the dele¬ 
gates and expressed the sympathy of the uni¬ 
versity with the association in the great branch 
of human culture and work of conservation in 
which it is engaged. The interest of the univer¬ 
sity in this work was further illustrated by its 
entertainment of the delegates at a luncheon at 
Houston Hall. At night there was a banquet to 
the association in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel 
by Mr. Meehan and other Philadelphia friends, 
and on the following day another luncheon, 
given by the members of the Squatteck Fisli and 
Game Club at the Philadelphia Club. 
W. E. Meehan, Commissioner of Fisheries for 
Pennsylvania, and president of the association, 
presided at the convention, and referring to the 
appropriateness of the meeting being held in 
Philadelphia, claimed that in that city had been 
formed the first association for the protection 
of forests and the first in Pennsylvania for the 
protection of fish, while the strongest and best 
work had been done there in the awakening of 
public sentiment in favor of the work of con¬ 
servation. Speaking of the importance of the 
work for the prevention of the pollution of 
streams, the president said he believed that Penn¬ 
sylvania had the best law ever framed on the 
subject, and that by its more general adoption 
many now polluted streams would be restored to 
their pristine purity. 
Mr. Meehan, in answer to inquiries on this sub¬ 
ject, declared that since last May the commission 
had got rid of some 120 pollutions, and in the 
course of the next six months he believed that 
every oil concern in the State would be provided 
with its own plant for consuming its polluted 
waste matter. The commission had not gone at 
this work like a bull in a china shop, but had 
taken the trouble to show the necessity for the 
movement. It had only been necessary to prose- 
