
FOREST AND STREAM. 



[APRIL 14, 1906. 




The Attack Upon Quebec 'License Fees. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Worsted in his arguments with the Hon. Mr. 
Prevost on the subject of the Quebec license fees 
upon non-resident members of fish and game 
clubs leasing territory from the Province, both 
in the discussion at the Montreal Fish and Game 
Convention and also in that before the Ontario 
Game Commission at Ottawa, Mr. White, of 
Pembroke, is continuing his attacks upon the 
Minister in some of the newspapers of both this 
country and the United States. Being a lawyer, 
Mr. White must very well know that he cannot 
expect to entgage a Cabinet Minister in a pro- 
tracted newspaper discussion upon a matter of 
ministerial policy; but what he forgets to tell the 
public before whom he is assailing Mr. Prevost, 
is the fact that the Minister made a complete re- 
ply in the Quebec Legislature to all the charges 
which Mr. White has since repeated in the Min- 
ister’s absence from the country in a number of 
Canadian and American newspapers. 
Mr. Prevost is at present in Europe, but even 
were he here, he could scarcely be expected to 
follow Mr. White in his repeated attacks, when 
he has already replied to him through the official 
channel, namely, from his seat in the House of 
Assembly on the ministerial benches. 
In the Minister’s absence I beg to send you the 
following extracts from his speech in the House 
in introducing his new game law, which reply to 
the arguments, so oft repeated by Mr. White. 
(Extracts from the speech of Hon. Jean Pre- 
vost in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, Feb. 
22, 1900.) 
“From the fees charged to non-resident sports- 
men, which is one of the principal sources of 
revenue to the fish and game departments of the 
sister Provinces of Newfoundland and of the 
United States, we receive very little revenue. 
“In a brochure published by the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington I find that the States 
of Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Minne- 
sota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah ex- 
act from non-residents a hunting license of $25. 
In some instances a difference is made between 
non-residents of the State and foreigners, the 
charge to the latter being $50, as in the States 
of Wyoming and the Territory (sic) of Wash- 
ington. Other States charge license fees running 
from $10 to $15. The Government of Newfound- 
land only permits hunting on the island so far as 
non-residents are concerned, after the issue of a 
license that costs $75. 
“Now, let us examine the policy of our sister 
Provinces in this matter. Manitoba exacts from 
a non-resident of the Province the sum of $25, 
and from a foreigner $100. British Columbia 
charges non-residents $50; so does New Bruns- 
wick. The Western Provinces collect $25 for 
each hunting license, Nova Scotia $30, and the 
sister Province of Ontario $25. 
“Nearly all these States and Provinces impose 
also a tax of $1 to $3 upon residents. Several 
of them also oblige the visiting hunter to pay 
certain fixed charges for the use of camps and 
also to guides. From this source their fish and 
game departments derive the best part of their 
incomes. 
“Now, notwithstanding the fact that Article 
1415 of our Revised Statutes requires all those 
who are not domiciled in the Province to pay a 
license fixed by the Lieutenant-Governor in 
Council before hunting in it, we have only col- 
lected from this source the sum of $2,56r. 
“The reason is very simple. It is because the 
Lieutenant-Governor in Council, on June 1, 1901, 
taking into consideration the sums paid to the 
Province by holders of leases, exempted the 
hunters of the Province of Ontario and of the 
United States who were members of hunting and 
|| SEA AND RIVERTISHING 
fishing clubs in our Province from paying the 
license in question. : 
“This Order-in-Council was based on Article 
1416, which says: ‘Every such license shall be 
issued by the Minister or by other person desig- 
nated by him, upon payment of fees according to 
the tariff established by the Lieutenant-Governor 
in Council. The fee may be reduced if the license 
is issued to a member of any fish and game club, 
which is incorporated under the laws of the 
Province, and has complied with the provisions 
of such laws; but on condition that such club is 
lessee of a hunting reserve in accordance with 
Article 1417a.’ 
“Why was this exemption given? It is, says 
the Order-in-Council, because these clubs pay a 
considerable revenue to the Province. 
“Now, in consequence of increased demands, 
better means of communication and the diminu- 
tion of game and fish, both in Canada and the 
United States, the value of our territories under 
lease has very much increased. I therefore be- 
lieve that it is decidedly improper to any longer 
exempt the members of clubs from paying the 
license that our Province imposes upon them, 
but that it is quite permissible to take advantage 
of the letter of the law which permits the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor in Council to reduce the fee 
which may have been fixed in favor of these club 
members. 
“Now, in the course of last summer the Gov- 
ernment fixed a fee of $25 for a hunting license 
and of $10 for fishing. I believe that it is only 
just that the non-resident members of clubs 
should contribute their fair part, and, like the 
others who have their domicile outside of the 
Province, pay us $25 a year. We intend, how- 
ever, to make certain reductions from this sum 
to those of our lessees who hunt upon their own 
preserves. With the assent of the Prime Min- 
ister and of my colleagues JI announced. this 
policy at the Fish and Game Congress in Mon- 
treal, before the Ontario Commission at Ottawa 
and to a large number of sportsmen at Boston, 
Mass. 
“The Big Game Congress at the Montreal con- 
vention, largely composed of non-residents com- 
ing from both the Province of Ontario and the 
United States, confirmed this policy by a very 
explicit resolution. 
“Our American neighbors have expressed their 
entire satisfaction by naming the Minister of 
Fisheries of the Province of Quebec to the presi- 
dency of the North American Fish and Game 
Protective Association. 
“And I echo the sentiments of the immense 
majority of the sportsmen of the Province of 
Ontario in reading, with the permission of this 
House, an extract from an article in Rod and 
Gun, the most accredited sporting paper in Can- 
ada, as follows: 
_ “Mr. White, of Pembroke, showed himself 
irreconcilable and wanted to argue that the 
Province, having once made a bargain, was con- 
strained forever from altering it, which, of 
course, would bring all government to an end. 
It may interest Mr. White to learn that in the 
old countries a man may not do as he pleases 
even on his own property. In England, not only 
gun licenses but game license have to be taken 
out annually before a landlord may shoot over 
his own property, and men like the Duke of 
Devonshire, although they bring up birds artifi- 
cially, and pay for protecting them, have further 
to pay the State for the right to shoot their own 
birds on their own lands. 
““Mr. Prevost’s proposals are so eminently fair 
and reasonable that we are sure sportsmen as a 
body will be found agreeable to their acceptance 
and willing to work harmoniously with him in 
all he may find himself able to do for the more 
efficient protection. of the fish and game of that 

wonderful Province of Quebec, of which, even 
at the present day, we know all too little.’ 
“There are undoubtedly to be heard some 
isolated recriminations from certain irreconcil- 
ables of the sister Province, but they proceed 
only from those who spend the hunting season 
in the valley of the Ottawa near the frontier. 
One of them has cavalierly published his com- 
plaints in the newspapers. I quite understand 
this manner of acting, for these gentlemen only 
consider their own private interests, ignoring al- 
together those of the Province at large. 
“Mr. White, advocate, of Pembroke, has pub- 
lished in a number of Canadian and American 
newspapers an open letter addressed to the Min- 
ister of Fisheries. Leaving aside certain pas- 
sages which furnish opportunity for admiring 
the inherent arrogance of some of our Ontario 
fellow-citizens, his arguments may be resumed 
as follows: 
“tst. The lease gives to the lessee certain 
vested rights to hunt and fish on reserves with- 
out paying any license. 
“2d. The imposition of a license fee on the 
non-resident will be a breach of faith on the part 
of the Crown, and more than that, a spoliation 
and a confiscation. 
“3d. Why not rather increase the price of 
existing leases as they come to expire? 
“ath. No country in the civilized world, at 
least in the British Empire, would perpetrate so 
monstrous an injustice. 
“Mr. White, who I am told is an eminent law- 
yer, evidently forgot to study our statutes before 
inundating the American and Canadian press 
with his categorical pretensions. He has not even 
read his lease, for two of its clauses cut away 
the whole groundwork of his arguments at a 
single stroke. I cite them textually: 
“That the said lessee shall, in the use and 
occupation of lands hereby leased, and in the ex- 
ercise of his fishing rights, conform in every re- 
spect to the provisions and requirements of the 
fishery laws, Federal and Provincial, which are 
now, or may hereafter be in force and comply 
with all rules and regulations made or that may 
hereafter be made by the Governor-General or the 
Lieutenant-Governor in Council in_ relation 
thereto. 
“Tt shall be lawful to His Majesty, represented 
as above, to terminate the present lease at any 
time by giving one month’s notice to the lessee.’ 
“Mr. White, in his quality of president of the 
Nekabong Club, has then signed a lease in which 
he obliges himself to conform to the laws enacted 
or to be enacted by the Government of this Prov- - 
ince. In the same document he submits his pos- 
session to the regulations of the Province, 
whether already passed or to be passed. Now, 
our laws are promulgated by this Legislature and 
the regulations are fixed by Order-in-Council or 
by the Minister as the case may be. 
“Mr. White knows, too, that the Lieutenant- 
Governor in Council may, if he thinks fit, put an 
end to his lease. He has himself signed this 
clause. 
“Now, when this lease was signed by Mr. 
White, Article 1415 of our statutes was in force 
just as it is to-day. 
““No person,’ says this article, ‘not domiciled 
in the Province of Quebec, can hunt therein un- 
less he holds a license.’ This is our law. 
“The Lieutenant-Governor in Council, may, 
however, by Order-in-Council, reduce the fee, if 
the license is issued to a member of a fish and 
game club incorporated under the laws of our 
Province. There is the regulation. 
“Then in principle every non-resident pays, 
whether he be a member of a club or not, Mr. 
» White like the others. 
“The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may, as 
he thinks proper, impose a license upon non- 
