Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-22
STATE PRESERVATION OF GAME

ing 200 common terms. 200 cabot terms, 500
royal terms. 100 laughing gulls, 600 her
ring gulls, 800 brown pelicans and 5000
red-breasted mergansers.
Even more important as breeding
ground for terms. however, are the keys
included in the Breton Island reservati
off the mouth of the Mississippi river,
which were set aside by the federal gov
eminent October 4. 1904. During the win
ter months this reservation becomes the
refuge OF thousands Of ducks, especially
mallards.
The old system Of paying one-half Of
the fine to the game warden and one-half
to the informer upon conviction Of an Of
fender violating the game laws gave rise
to many complications and false prosecu-
TONS but not even all Of the states that
have adopted the license devote the funds
to the propagation of game. A pertinent
fact regarding this is that the records
compiled by the biological survey show
that such states as do not apply their
license funds to the protection and propa-
cation Of game do not collect as large an
amount in fees as do the states which de-
vote the funds to this purpose.
A Good Investment
The receipts of the states that do de-
vote the entire license fund to game pur-
poses are shown by the following:
During the year 1905 license fees in
Maine amounted to $37, S05: in Wisconsin,
s7S 500; in Illinois, $127 600: in California,
the first year the system has been in force
there, $4,000, and in Connecticut, that
states initial year, $4,000. In 1907 Min
nesota collected a revenue of s2O.25O.
Many states, on the other hand. devote
the game income to other purposes Ken
lucky to the general expense fund, Mary
land usually to the county school fund,
Massachusetts to the state fund under the
old system Of half to game warden and
half to state; Missouri to repair of the
county roads, Nebraska to the school
fund. New York state to the state. So
that. generally speaking. where the en-
forcement of game laws is not provided
for by license, it is necessary to operate
under the old rules.
These old rules of dividing the fine
upon conviction of the accused vlolator
of the game laws, between warden and
informer, or warden and state, with its
many and manifold objections, are fast
falling into disrepute, for they have led
and are leading to sort of persecution
of resident and also nonresident hunters
by INSCRIPTIONS game wardenS.
Kinds of License.
The history of license legislation,
which, by reason of the enormous sums
which have accrued to the state treas
uries by reason of the license systems,
cover four classes of licenses. These are
resident, nonresident, market hunting
and alien.
The resident licese was apparently first
suggested in New York in 1864, but the
statute providing for this form of game
protection was repealed before it went
into effect. The first resident license actu-
ally in force seems to have been in Mary
land in 1872, to regulate wild fowl hunt
ing on the Susquehanna flats by retaining
the business for the benefit of residents
and at the same time acquiring revenue
for the enforcement of the game laws.
The nonresident license was apparently
first inaugurated in New Jersey in 1873
in six of the southern counties. but it was
local in character and widely different
from the modern license first adopted in
the United States In 1895. The market
hunting license seems to have had its
inception in Arkansas in 1875, and lastly
in 1903. Pennsylvania extended it's nom
resident license law to include aliens and
unnaturalized foreign-born residents
hunting in the state.
In 1895 license legislation received a
violent impetus in the northwestern
states. and now an almost unbelievable
income is guaranteed a state rich in game
runs and forests. Throughout the history
of the license system but one state or ter
ritory has abandoned it after it's adop-
ton. and that was Hawaii. which fur
nishes the only instance
Year after year the states are falling in
line, and realizing that at their very door
they have remedy in the license system
to the steady depletion of the game COW
erts of the states. which are ravaged by
three million hunters every season. AL
most daily the biological survey of the
Agricultural Department is receiving re-
ports from the state game wardens which
plainly spell that in the course of a few
of the states will have