The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1922-10-19
MUST OBSERVE GAME LAWS

The hunting season for quail and
migratory birds viii soon be open,
and | am appealing to the sportsmen
and farmers and citizens generally
over this county to assist me in en-
forcing the game and fish laws and
thereby protect the game to the full
est extent,
appointed deputies all over the
state last year to enforce these laws
and urged them to do so on a high
plane and disregard frivolous cases.
] lind that great many Of these
deputies were worthless, and | have
weeded a great many of them out
and am still wedding them. | am APP
pointing new deputies in the place of
the old ones, who were worthless and
| believe this year the laws will be
better enforced than ever before.
1t is not the purpose Of the de
partment to persecute anybody but
on the other hand, it is our intention
to try to educate the people up to
the high standard of protection Of the
game and fish, and | am instructing
my deputies to enforce the law
where a violator knows it is a viola
tion and where they have no shoot
ing license.
The birds and fish have been de-
clared the property of the state and
a license is required during the open
season to shoot them, and it is dis
tressing how small the amount of
revenue was received from the sale
of licenses last year. am compelled
to resort to the method of appoint
ing secret service men in every
county, and while | dislike to do this,
it seems the only way that | can
compel the hunters to buy their Ii
censes and observe the law.
The county court clerk sells the Ii
censes, and am requesting that
every man who shoots a gun 90 to
the county court clerk and obtain a
shooting license before the season
opens, because, as | said before, there
will be some secret service men in
your county, unknown to anyone, who
will enforce this law
| am particularly anxious to pro
tect the farmers. 1t has been demon
strated that the quail is one of the
farmers best assets. They destroy
insects and bugs on his farm and
garden, and no hunter has right to
invade his premises without the per-
mission Of the farmer himself. |
have received numerous complaints
from the farmers, stating that their
lands were being overrun by hunters
shooting promiscuously and without
permission, and this year | am de-
termined, after full warning, to en-
force this law to the letter. 1t is
wrong in principle, and there are a
few sportsmen who purchase their
hunting licenses and observe the law,
and other men who willfully violate
the game laws. 1t is an imposition
on the man who buys his license,
for he is protecting the game fer
himself, as well as the man who will
not buy his license, and it is only
fair and right to this department
that every shooter who has a license
to report the man whom he knows is
hunting without one.
| want to see if your county this
time will not furnish it's quota of
hunting licenses so that the depart
ment may be better equipped to en-
force the law and to carry on the
plan we have inaugurated.
| am making preparations to build
a fish hatchery. These fish are to go to
every stream in Tennessee free, and
the only thing we ask is that they
be protected. 1t will be impossible,
however, to stock these streams as
long as your local law allows seining
and dynamiting by outlaws.
Be good sport, buy your licenses,
observe the law and protect the game
and fish.
C. P. WILLIAMS,
Came Warden