Fes. 10, 1906. ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

was willing to take up our holding upon payment 
for the permanent improvements above men- 
tioned, would not the value of these improve- 
ments be greatly diminished by the fact that the 
new lessee might at any time have additional 
burdens placed upon him during the pendency of 
the new lease? For there would be no warrant 
that this Government, having violated its writ- 
ten contract with us, another Government in the 
same Province might not do even worse with our 
successors. 
“T can understand and appreciate fully that the 
Province of Quebec is not receiving from the 
areas leased anything like an adequate revenue. 
But I most respectfully submit that, because im- 
provident bargains have been made by your pre- 
decessors and principalities leased to a favored 
few for a few dollars per annum, you will not be 
adopting a just or fair remedy by penalizing all 
non-residents, members of clubs, by the impo- 
sition of the proposed license fee. 
“Is not the true remedy this? Keep faith with 
all lessees until their leases expire, and then 
proper examination of all leased country having 
been made in the meantime, when the lease falls 
in put the rental up to such a reasonable figure 
as it is worth, giving to the retiring lessee the 
right to renew at the new rental, or, failing that, 
lease to some other club or person. This strikes 
me as an eminently fair and reasonable course to 
pursue, and one that is open to no objection by 
anyone. 
“The gradual extinction of the old leases must 
be only a matter of a few months, and I may be 
pardoned if I cannot see the necessity of such a 
drastic remedy for the deficiency in revenue as 
that proposed. I am led to this latter conclusion 
by a careful examination of the departmental re- 
port for 1904—the last I have. I find that the 
revenue derived by the Province of Quebec from 
hunting territories leased is as follows: 
Rental of hunting territories.......... $11,655.25 
Less salaries paid game and fish over- 
seers 
$8,605.25 
AI ATIGOMTOVEIUUIC. « «oo oe vos esle s weiee s 
“Your fishing leases were even more profitable, 
as the following statement shows: 
Total revenue from fishing leases...... $46,558.00 
Less salaries paid fishery overseers.. 4,501.00 
PARE OMPCVCMUC.. 26... ns. owes wee $42,057.00 
“So that, as appears by the report referred to, 
the Province received $50,662.25 revenue from 
fish and game leases over and above the salaries 
paid to outside officials. What the cost of ad- 
ministration of the department is, I have no 
means of judging. You must also remember that 
the many lessees of hunting territory have ex- 
pended and will expend many thousands of dol-, 
lars annually in protecting the game upon their 
respective holdings. And as game is not to be 
confined within invisible lines. it is beyond a 
doubt that it is the lessees who are protecting the 
game, and not the Province, and that the Prov- 
ince derives enormous benefit from that protec- 
tion. 
“Many members outside of the Province, who 
like myself, are members of clubs, or personally 
lease territory, have only a few days wrung from 
a busy life in which to hunt deer. The chances 
are 100 to I that after paying the license fee of 
$25, we get no venison. If you are determined to 
extract a greater revenue from us, why not make 
a regulation that each person taking the carcass 
of a deer out of the Province should pay, say, $2 
or $3 for doing so? This tax, although perhaps, 
not strictly a just one. has something to recom- 
mend it. A great deal has been said about ‘no 
sportsman objecting to pay this license fee.’ I 
fancy I am as good a sportsman, and perhaps as 
good an all- "round sport as we breed in this 
country, and I met dozens of others at the Con- 
gress of the same type, and I say to you now, 
sir, on behalf of myself and of every club mem- 
ber or lessee I spoke to there or since, that, one 
and all, decidedly objected to this license fee. It 
is not to the millionaire, a question of amount 
but, to him, as well as to the ordinary toiler, 
either with brain or hands who seeks rest and 
recreation in fishing lakes, or hunting on lands 
he has leased, there is the question of principle 
involved. Can you take from us the rights you 
have sold us and that we have paid for, and are 
paying for? If you have the power, is it con- 
sistent with the eternal principles of justice and 
equity that you should do so? 
“In closing, permit me to hope that you will 
take no umbrage at anything set out in this paper. 
It is intended only as a friendly remonstrance 
against injustice, by one affected by the injustice. 
I have endeavored to couch my arguments, such 
as they are, in respectful and friendly words. 
But, Mr. Minister, you know the English lan- 
guage is a harsh one, and lacks the polish of your 
native tongue, and I can only hope that you will 
find nothing offensive in this letter. Should you 
do so, I hope you will attribute it to my awkward 
handling of an awkward language. 
“T intended publishing this in the form of an 
open letter to you, but have thought it due to you 
to first ask your permission. Should you give 
me such reasonable assurances as the circum- 
stances permit that you do not intend imposing 
this license fee, of course the question of pub- 
lishing this need not be considered. Just before 
closing, one other idea suggests 
Many of the incorporated clubs in the Ottawa 
Valley, especially, one composed of members, 
some residents of the Province, and some non- 
residents, each member pays his equal share, both 
on capital account, and on maintenance account, 
yet by the operation of the proposed tax the 
members resident in the Province could hunt 
without restriction, and the non-resident members 
would have to pay for the privilege. Is there 
any precedent for such a class distinction being 
made between the members of any other joint 
stock company? 
“Hoping that you will be good enough to con- 
sider this matter carefully and favorably and give 
me your assurance that this tax will not be im- 
posed, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obe- 
dient servant. W. R. Waite.” 
Albany Fish and Game Club. 
ALBANY, N. Y., Feb. 5.—Editor Forest and 
Siream: For the purpose of restoring the game 
to the covers and the fish to the waters of Albany 
county, a fish and game club was organized there 
in the fall of 1903. The club at once became in- 
corporated and secured membership in the State 
Fish, Game and Forest League. It now has a 
membership of 485 earnest and aggressive sports- 
men, and every section of the county is repre- 
sented. At the regular quartely meeting held on 
Friday evening last, action was taken to secure 
the federation of the nine other incorporated fish 
and game clubs in the six counties immediately 
bordering on Albany, for the purpose of uniform 
action on all matters of common interest. It is 
proposed to have a Federation Council to consist 
of two delegates from each club, to meet at the 
call of any of the clubs in the Federation, to act 
on such matters as may arise. This plan will 
give a membership of more than 3,000 sportsmen 
in the proposed local combination for mutual 
benefit, and the first motion will be to secure uni- 
form laws for all the counties represented. 
Important action was taken also by the club at 
its meeting to relieve the political leaders of the 
county from the importunities of those who are 
caught violating the fish and game law and who 
endeavor too often to secure immunity from the 
punishment they so richly deserve. To secure 
this end the club unanimously adopted the fol- 
lowing resolution: 
“Whereas, Citizens and taxpayers of the county 
of Anbany to the number of 450 or more have in- 
corporated under the laws of the State of New 
York as the Albany County Fish and Game Club, 
having for their object to secure the return of 
the game to the woods and fields of the county 
and the fish to its waters, thus restoring to the 
people a valuable pronerty which has long been 
neglected and almost destroyed; and 
“Whereas, The work of the Club has received 
the approval and the indorsement of the residents 
of the county, as is shown by the marked interest 
taken in its doings and by the number of those 
who have voluntarily joined its ranks from all 
parts of the county; and 
itself ito (mie, 
“Whereas, The time has come when the only 
thing necessary to secure the successful outcome 
of the labors of the Club is to have a faithful exe- 
cution of the laws for the protection of fish and 
game; 
“Resolved, That the Albany County Fish and 
Game Club hereby petitions the chairman of the 
Republican County and City Committees, the 
chairman of the Democratic County and City 
Committees, the Senator and the Members of As- 
sembly from this county to co-operate with the 
Club in the protection of fish and game, and in 
the strict enforcement of the laws relative thereto. 
“Resolved, That a copy of this preamble and 
resolution be sent by the secretary, under the seal 
of the Club, to each of those mentioned in the 
resolution, and that copies be given to each news- 
paper in the county.” 
Massachusetts Association. 
AN interesting review of the work of the Mas- 
sachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association 
was given in the address of ex-President George 
W. Wiggin at the Association banquet. Mr. 
Wiggin said: 
For the thirty-second time the members of this 
Association are assembled around the festive 
board. 
On occasions like this it has been customary 
for our president to review the past and in a 
measure forecast the future work of the Asso- 
ciation, but as our president is unavoidably ab- 
sent, and since I am here only temporarily to take 
his place, it can hardly be expected that I shall 
occupy very much of your time. 
Tn the first place, in behalf of the Association, 
I tender to our invited guests a most cordial wel- 
come and our welcome is all the more hearty be- 
cause we fully appreciate the fact that you are 
engaged in a work kindred to our own, and are 
fully alive to the necessity of carrytng on that 
work in the future. 
We have come to a full realization of the fact 
that when the struggle for further and better 
legislation is On we can implicitly rely upon your 
aid in securing it. 
It has been said, and truthfully so, that ours 
is one of the pioneer associations in the great 
work of preserving fish and game. 
Its first charter was approved March 18, 1874. 
The name of the corporation was the “Massachu- 
setts Anglers’ Association.” 
Its purpose was: that “of securing and enforc- 
ing proper restrictions upon the taking and kill- 
ing of fish, shellfish and bivalves, the promotion 
of fishculture and the introduction of new species 
and varieties of fish, and to disseminate informa- 
tion relating thereto.” 
Three years later the charter was amended by 
adding the care of “game’”’ to its objects, and by 
changing the title of the Association to that under 
which it operates at the present time. 
From the very beginning of its existence the 
Association entered vigorously upon the work for 
which it was chartered; and our records show 
that the work was begun none too soon. 
A single quotation from those records will show 
the condition existing at that time. It is as fol- 
lows: 
“But the most important phase of the subject 
relates to the future supply of fish. Last year 
(1874) we were nearly deprived of smelt; full- 
grown lobsters are now almost unknown; while 
trout and salmon have hardly yet, under the in- 
fluence of stringent protective laws for several 
years, recovered from the effects of their almost 
total annihilation by . being caught while in 
spawn.” 
Our path has been truly a thorny one. We 
were beset on all sides by vigilant, active and 
powerful antagonists, who, as is usual, were actu- 
ated mainly by their own selfish interests. 
The first efforts of the Association were almost 
wholly directed to the securing and enforcing of 
wholesome restrictive laws and in those efforts 
it has had to encounter the active opposition of 
the fishermen, the marketmen, the farmers and 
the poachers, and sometimes, I am sorry to say, 
the opnosition of sportsmen. 
Smelts were taken by the boatload with seines; 
trout were caught with nets and set lines; short 
