The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-10-19
coDlFY GAME LAWS
Commissioner Titcomb Will Present
Plan to Legislature.

Montpelier, Oct. 1.-THE fish and
game commissioner has been hover
ing about the capital of late, and it is
whispered that he has up his sleeve
something thoroughgoing in the way
of legislation. 1t is pretty generally
known that Mr.. Titcomb is DESTROYS
of bringing together al the fish and
game legislation into a systematized
whole. Today it was learned through
unauthorized channels that the form
of the codification will be as fol-
lows:
In the first place the laws will be
not merely gathered heller SHELTER un
der one heading but so welded to-
gether as to make them parts of one
comprehensive and logical law. The
manner of stating the laws will be
changed so as to state what is per
mitted, as far as that is possible,
rather than what is prohibited. Eff
Fort will be made to eliminate as
many as possible of the special laws,
applying TO separate localities, so
that the whole State may. in great
measure be brought under one law
and the statutes simplified. At pres
ent the fish and game laws of the
State are said to be about as simple
as the Chinese language and no simp-
Ter. This does not mean that an at
tempt will be made to do away with
all the sectional laws, Lake Cham
plain for instance must always 'be
subject to laws different from those
which govern Lake Mansfield.
The law as it is likely to appear, if
the proposed code is enacted, In
wolves some important changes and
numerous minor ones. An increase
of the license fee from fifty cents to
one dollar is suggested as a definite
revenue measure. 1t is further sug-
gested that the office of deuty COM
missioner be created. One of the
most important changes called for is
.lengthening of the open season on
deer so as to permit of hunting them
from November / TO November 25.
The reason for this heightened sea
son is not that the deer may be de-
stroyed but that there may be less
hunters at any one time in the woods.
II is claimed that with short season
everybody arranges to go hunting the
very first day. the woods are throng-
ed with hunters and so thoroughly
tramped over that it amounts rather
to a drive than TO a legitimate hunt.
With the hunting distributed over
nearly a month, instead of being
crowded into a shorter period, 1t is
urged that these defects in the pres
ent system would be remedied.
Other features of the comprehen-
sive fish and game bill it is said, will
be an open season from September
to April for hare and rabbit hunting,
and an open season on foxes and
skunks from September 10 to March
|.
An original and promising scheme,
which it is said may be given effect
in this bill has to do with the es-
tablishing of game refugees. The
game commissioner, if this were law,
would have power to set aside by
posting certain portions of the pub
lie lands, and private lands if the
owner consented in which hunting
should be forbidden even in the open
| season This would go far to guard
against the extinction of game.
The general arrangement of the
suggested codihcation OF the fish and
game laws is said to be somewhat as
follows: Part l. ownership, manner
of taking limit, possession, sale and
| transportation, definitions and regu-
lations. part II. animals; part III,
birds; part ". fish: part V,'nets and
netting; part VI. hunting licenses;
part VII. preserves; part VIII, pow
ers.