The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-08-31
FIR lNK B. HOWE. Editor and Publish
THE HUNTERS LICENSE


license law will go into effect The
honor of being the originator of this
bill has been claimed by no less than
four different people, one in Brattle-
borO, one in Rutland, and two in Ben
ningtOn. To the latter town belongs
tae distinction and County Game
Warden Harry Chase has the honor
of being the father.-Manchest
Journal
The honor of being the father of the
bill as it emerged from the legislature
is indeed a doubtful one, although
the faulty construction of the meas
ure itself in no way affects the worth
of the scheme as a whole The legis-
lature made a mistake, however,
when it gave the state fish and game
commissioner the opportunity to re-
quire of every hunter an application
blank of such length and detail as to
make town clerks require an extra
fee for filling it out. AS we under
stand it nearly all of the information
in the application is a repetition OF
what appears in the license itself and
on that account useless.-Brattlebo
Reformer.
The Reformer hits the case about
right. 1t was a mistake that the law
itself did not prescribe the form OF
the license instead of giving the state
fish and game commissioner autnori
ty to infict lot of absurd fol-de-rol
on a defenceless public for no good
reason whatever.
The ridiculous character of the
provisions prepared by the fish and
game commissioner ought to be APP
parent to ten year old boy. AS the
license blanks are prepared the appli
cant is compelled to write out an ap
plication including considerable un
necessary detail. Then the town
clerk has to rewrite this information
| first on the license which is issued ia
the applicant, secondly on duplicate
which is to be retained by the town
clerk, and thirdly on a triplicate
which is TO be sent to the state com
missioner.
This is all nonsense. The town
clerk is left with the two forms con
tanning the same information, not on
ly making extra work. but also clut
tering up his files vita two papers
where one would be enough. Then,
too what does the state commissioner
need of a duplicate of the license? Is
he going to take census of the
color of the eyes of the hunters of
Vermont? lis it important that he
should know what of them are bald
headed and how many limp in their
left leg? The commissioner might
with propriety require a list of those
who take out licenses, but beyond
that he is making unnecessary work
for the town clerk and helping to
bring a good law into disrepute.
If the commissioner was seeking to
make an expensive job OF printing
for some of his friends he has sure
ly succeeded. The printing bill for
getting out the licenses will be fully
three times what it ought to be, and
what it would have been, had he done
what the law contemplated and got
ten out a simple, Straightforward Ii
cense that would have answered ev
cry purpose.
In addition to the other useless fur
niture there is a form of oath at
tached to the application blank and in
some few towns the town clerks are
administering an oath to the appli-
cant and charging an extra twenty
Eve cents in addition to the ten cents
which the law allows them for max
ing out the license. This oath is not
provided for in the law itself. No
body is obliged to subscribe to it un-
less he wishes to and if he does the
town clerk has no authority to charge
twenty-five cents for it. The law pro
yides for the obtaining of a license
FOR resident hunters on a payment of
fifty cents and that is all anybody is
compelled to pay. The wording of
he law on this subject is plain, the |
words of the statute being. He shall |
pay the sum of fifty cents, of which |
he clerk may retain ten cents as a |
ZEE, and said clerk shall thereupon is |
sue a resident hunting license" 1t
S hard on the town clerks to be re-
luired to do a lot of unnecessary |
work for a small fee, but they have
10 recourse if the applicants stand |
Up for their rights.
Some time ago the Rutland Herald
-oiced a demand for state editor |
O put official reports and statements
nto form so that they can be under
TODD without Interpretation by the
upreme court. SUCH an official
night well have been employed to
,repare the hunters license, in
imple direct, disable form without at
aching SO much useless form and
erbiage and without involving so
much unnecessary expense for print
ng.
This example from the state hsh
nd game commissioner is not the
My sample. The documents and
tanks of the state board of health
re of the same class, blind in form,
involved and overloaded. The offlci-