The record-union., 1896-01-14
END OF The GAME MARKET SEASON.
Under the Law 1t viii Expire at Mid
night Tonight.
Which is Better for the Market Hunter,
Limited Season or Severe
Restriction for Alls

To-day is the last of the season, under
the law, in which ducks and quail may
be shot for the market, and one month
from to-day the open season will ter
inmate
The market dealers in this city viii,
it is understood, comply with the law,
but some of those in San Francisco re-
fuse to do so. They contend that there
is discrimination, and say they viii
contest the law, which of course they
have a right to do provided they do not
keep on violating the statute pending
a decision on that point.
The proba bility is the courts will
hold that there is no discrimination. as
the law grants to everyone the right to
kill game between certain dates. 1t
also grants to everyone the right to kill
game for the market between certain
dates
The point hinges on the power of the
State to regulate the market hunting,
as distinguished from private hunting
or taking of game. In some States the
season for market shooting is much
shorter than in this State, while in
others it is prohibited altogether. The
question is not one that warrants even
emotional persons in working them
selves into fits or spasms over it, for it
can very easily be settled by the courts
if anyone chooses to contest the law.
This clause of the game law is not
the only provision in the statutes of the
State as to the soundness or validity of
which persons disagree, and it is to de-
termine just such issues that courts are
maintained. Market shooting had well
nigh exterminated the wild game in
many localities, and the State conven-
tion that met in San Francisco a year
and a half ago to revise the game law
decided, after long deliberation, to rec
ommend to the Legislature this method
Of partially correcting the evil.
That convention was composed of cit
izens of all classes-some selected by the
Governor and others by the various
Boards of Supervisors, and they were
almost unanimous in favor of this plan.
Attempts have been made to create the
impression that the present State game
law was the work of a few rich men, or
'nabobs," and that it was copied from
some ancient and oppressive statute of
England.
The fact is, however, that the con-
vention which proposed the market
shooting amendment was composed of
everyday sort of citizens who know
nothing about English game laws, any
more than do those who have so much to
say about them The rest of the law is
practically the same as it has been for
years, the chief change made in it being
to prohibit exclusive shooting privi-
leges over salt marsh and tide lands,
and this change was made to appease
what was termed the popular" de-
mand.
However, even Judge Buckles of So
lano, who decided against the Cordelia
Clubs right to exclude outsiders from
grounds leased by its members, took oc-
casiOn to remark that the salt marsh
and tide land" amendment is unconsti-
tutional
As before stated, the only objection
urged to the present law comes from a
few persons who claim that the poor
devil of a hunter who sells his game
has a legal right to shoot for market
just as long as the open season lasts.
If the courts should sustain this view
of the case, then it will be but very
few years until all hunting will prac-
tieally cease, for there will be little or
no game for anyone to shoot.
The Record Unions" proposition
would be, in the premises, to fix such a
limit on the number of birds that any
one may take in a given time-day,
week, or month, or the season. This
would be no hardship on the average
sportsman, for he does not kill as much
game in a whole season as the success
full and unrestricted market hunter
kills in two days. A dozen birds-a-day
limit should please any sportsman. but
it would be ruinous to the market hunt
ing interests.
Under the present law the market
hunter is simply cut short two months
in the season, but during the other two
months he may kill all the birds possi-
bic, and this allows him to keep up to
his average of about a thousand birds a
week while the season lasts. If the
market hunters and dealers succeed in
having the present provision annulled,
they will perhaps regret it in the future,
for there must be restriction or there
will be no game.