Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-08-24


permission of private associations
which owned them. On the recon- :
mendation of the commissioners the
State then undertook to establish It's
| own hatcheries 1t began with -FOUR
and the number has since been IN
| creased from time to time, according
| to needs. There are now nine. we be-
lieve, and the Legislature has custom
| arily voted $4,000 a year for their
support. that is. to maintain the
! hatcheries and feeding stations.
Last year the gross expenses of the
department We're $4,000 and the Ar
gus calls this enormous and eX-
cessivc.'' and thinks $4,000 would be
enough But out of the amount eX-
pended, $4,000 was for renewals re-
pairs and $4,000 each for
enlarging and completing the Range
ley and Raymond hatcheries, $1,000 10
rebuild the burned Moosehead hatch
cry, and $4,000 for the erection of a
hatchery to reStock the waters OF
Somerset county. That left $4,000
for the ordinary expenses. Deductlng
$4,000 for the maintenance of the
hatcheries, we have left $4,000. This
SptS Ipi SttldiiS', "dSNF', i'i 49, ii'
lection of game, for damage to grow
ing crops by deer, and for the eX-
penses of administering the hunting
license law and for other expenses.
The salaries of commissioners and
clerk amount to $4,000. About hum
dred WardenS are employed in The
work of protecting game, and TINS Is
work which costs the State practlcal-
ly nothing. for by the law the re-
ccipts from nonresident hunters IL
cenScS are used for the protection Of
moose and deer, for damage done by
deer and for the expenses of admin
istering the law. The license receipts
were $43 900 in 1907, and out of them
was paid $4,000 This leaves the net
cost to the State of carrying on the
department s44 1000, which is made up
of the items of $4,000 for mainte-
nance, $4,000 for extraordinary re-
pairs, renewals and additions and
$4,000 for salaries.
But. says the Argus, $4,000 would
be enough. and if the expenditures
were cut to that figure the license re-
ceipts would reduce the actual cost to
the state to Il low figure. That might
be done, but it would be at the cost
of crippling the service, which in
view of the great territory it has to
cover, is none too large. The Legis-
lature might have cut out the $l5,-
900 for building account, but that
would have cramped the facilities for
propagation and restocking. 1t might
have reduced the number of commits
sioners or the warden force. That
l,r,. Of
it would work. There are three COM
missioners. One attends to the Office
work, another devotcs his time to the
hatcheries and feeding stations, and
the third combines in his office the
duties of secretary and treasurer of
the commission and those of the land
agent and forest commissioner. 1t IS
not easy to see how these manifold
duties could be shifted to the shOul-
dcrs of one or two men without i'm
pairing the efficiency of the Office, and
at the salary of $1,000, too-the man
who does the work of the forest COM
missioner and land agent gets some
what more. Then take the warden
force. a hundred men have not proved
too many to protect the long eastern
and northern border from poachers,
to patrol the territories frequented by
the big game and check illegal kill
ing; they are rather too few. 1t takes
considerable money to maintain so
large a force, and yet the pay is not
larse-$2 a day for actual time and
allowance for actual expenses. The
figure mentioned by the Argus would
be insufficient to maintain an effective
service. 1t would necessitate the Grip
pling of the work Of either propaga-
ton or protection, or both.
The State is actually paying 100000
to $4,000 a year for this work-to
What end? TO conserve the fish and
game as important public assets i'll
providing food and pleasure for the
people and in attracting visitors to
the State, who come to hunt and fish
and who pay we'll for their sport. 1t
is policy that pays well, and the
contention that the department is ex-
travasanty managed falls to the
ground on the examination Of tho
facts 1t is not fair test to go back
q dozen years to the time when the
policy was in it's infancy, for figures
with which to compare the present
operations.