The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-06-16
Friday, June 16, 1916.
Revising Fish and Came Laws

Revising Fish and Game Laws
The legislature of 1915 passed an
act (No 242) authorizing the JUS
tees of the supreme court to appoint
a commissioner ito revise, re.draft, H
compile, consolidate and arrange in
methodical order, and in plain and
simple language, the public statutes
OF this state, upon the basis, plan and
general form Of the Public Statutes
of Vermont, with authority to omit
iedunant enactments, reject super
lluous words, circutous and ambigu
Gus phraseology recommend amend
ments, and condense the whole into
concise ana comprehensive form as
is consistent with full and clear
expression Of the will of the legila
ture, and report the same to the gen
eral assembly at its next biennial
session"
In accordance with that law the
justices have appointed Hon. Hale X,
Darling commissioner and for
months he has been engaged on this
important work We have no means
of knowing how much revision he
has made. but are informed that he
has rewritten the fish and game laws
of the state, changing them from
statutes that prohibit everything that
is not permitted in the statutes to
statutes prohibiting certain acts by
| fishermen and hunters and allowing
them to do everything not expressly
prohibited In other words he has
rewritten the fish and game laws Of
the state, making them an entirely
different set OF laws from those en-
acted by the state legislature. He
proposes to submit in a separate re
port, however, a revision of the fish
and game laws in their present per
missiye form that the legislature may
\ adopt in place of the entirely new
code OF these laws he has made
This was done in face of the protest
of Fish and Game Commissioner j.
! w Titcomb, who wrote the present
form of the laws, and against the eX.
y pressed wish Of every fish and game
- organization in the state OF Vermont
v "Why has the commissioner done
= this?" becomes an interesting ques--
= ton What authority has he for
" changing a statute enacted by the
, general assembly? The statute de.
u finding his authority says his revision
- shall be "a full and clear expression
y of the will of the legislature" The
~ expression of the legislature was the
y pefmissiye form OF the fish and game
% laws as they stand on the statute
u books. made by the legislature of 1872
!, after iull and fair discussion before
=, both bodies of that legislature. The
~ Hon. Hale X. Darling was chairman
of the committee on revision at that
i" time and approved of the law as il
% was written and enacted. Now he
ne proposes. at a considerable expense
y to the state, to undo the work of the
- legislature and substitute a one man
act for the work of an entire assembly
~ fully empowered to enact the laws fol
~ the people Of Vermont.
- To our mind Mr. Darling is brazenly
~ defying the thousands of members Of
~ the fish and game organizations of the
- state and the only legal authority foi
" =, enacting law in Vermont, as well as
" the legislature which defined his au
80 thority in revising the statutes of tn,
state. This seems an uncalled fOl
-, exhibition Of dictatorship and an un
20 necessary affront to the fish anl
ri m of hn gfa IL
T." Titcomb has given a tremendous
amount of work and thought durin!
-. the past twenty-five years to the de
.'e veopment of the fish and game in
~ terests of the state. He rewrote AM
W codifed the fish and game laws 9
- the state, formulating them in CON
~ pliance with the Judgment of tn
"a. best fish and game authorities of tn
-, whole country. He changed the law
Nv from complicated regulations whic
~ gave rise to considerable expensiv
~ litigation to clear and explicit regula
W tons that the common man could III
- derstand and observe. Now an a
III torney is dictatorially changing tn
laws back into the form that brough
fat fees to attorneys in defiance G
public sentiment and the legally Ell
on acted statutes
ew We do not believe the people wi
m stand for such high handed proceed
Id ings. Mr.. Darling as revisor of tn
VS. statutes should embody in the revi
We ed statutes the present law and, if h
six wishes to do so, submit his propose
ION new laws in "a separate report. Thi
,te will be all the expense he is warran
,er ed in making the state and all he ha
mi a moral right to do to promote tn
has interests of pettifogging attorneys
st. Johnsbury Caledonia.