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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the uppir left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmis d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 A partir de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 -^ The EDITH and LORNE PIERCE COLLECTION of CANADI ANA ilueerCs University at Kingston QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Kingston, Ontario Canada L CO . ,,M ■'!:, Oox MOWAT • • • AND * Good Government. '» *m ^ LICENSE QUESTION; CONSTITUTIONAL, FINANCIAL, MUNICIPAL AND SOCIAL. Conseivative Attacks Disposed of. JANUARY, 1893- iJiUiitmtmm^ ik / f-ZOPS /88ZM^^, ISinitsoi.Oi THE ■*.,../ rBICENSE QUESTION! ^lj^j|rief History of the Operation of the •.'i V License La-ws in, Ontario. GOVERNMENTAL & MUNICIPAL CONTROL CONTRASTED ^ . Ever since the irtterests of public order and sobriety in Ontario rendered the regulation by law of the liquor traffic necessary, the Provincial Legis- latures of the day have claimed and exercised supreme authority to deal with the issue of licenses. Prior to 1873, however, the enforcement of the law, in so far as the details were concerned, was almost wholIy^ left in the hands of Municipal Councils. They fixed the fees, except those payable to Government, imposed such conditions as they saw fit, and, if they chose, appointed Inspectors. Practically every man who had the limited accom- modation provided by Statute could have a license for the asking. The result was no substantial inspection or supervision and laeflLolenoT and Zllloit Liquor SelUngr Frevailed ErerTwliere. The provisions of the law were lax. The Inspectors were not expected by the Councils to perform their duty, while the Councillors themselves in cities, towns and villages were too ofteh dependent upon the holders of li- censes and the ward politicians who surrounded them, for their own exist- ence as Councillors. Feeble and spasmodic attempts at the enforcement of the law, such as it was, were occasionally made, but they resulted in failures. Public complaints were loud and deep. A growing and indig- nant public opinion demanded a change for the better. A Vicious Principle underlay its administration. License matters were in this shape in 1867, the year of the confederation of the Provinces. But if in this respect the British North America Act did nothing more, it secured to the Legislature and people of this Province wtf/t all the force of a written constitution the control of the issue of licenses, as the following extract will show : — B. N. Act, Sec. 92, Sub-Sfx. 9. ** In each Province the Legislature may make laws in relation to shop, " saloon, tavern, and auctioneer licenses in order to the raising of a revenue '* for Provincial, Local or Municipal purposes." It further gave exclusive power to the Provinces to legislate as to " all matters of a merely local or private nature in the Province." The license laws were amended by the Ontario Legislature in 1867, in 1868-9, and in 1869. The state of affairs in cities Beoame so Bad that'the'control'ofilicensesVas'taken away from the Councils and given to the Boards of Police Commissioners. There was, however, no improve- ment until the Mowat Administration, which entered office late in 1872, took the first step in the session of 1873 towards grappling with the whole question of regulating the traffic in an effectual manner. They struck boldly at the root of the trouble by substituting for Municipal, control the sound principle of Provincial control, and from that day to this the history of the management of the traffic has from all points of view been a history of •uccett. (X " Si 1 m % 4 ^ > a -;. 1 i The "Crooks Act." In the first Session of 1874 the laws regulating the sale of intcx\,.>!fJa' liquors were consolidated ; and in the Session of 1875-6, the Gove iyf]'^ made a further successful effort to solve some very difficult problems ^jp),^: yet remained to be dealt with. The Act then passed placed the authOi i ■ ..■ grant licenses in the hands of three unpaid Commissioners for each electort division. It limited the number of licenses to be issued in cities, towr and villages, and rave the Commissioners and Councils power to iurt' . limit the number. Power was also given to Municipal Councils and to ; s Commissioners to limit the number to be issued in rural municipa' - . Being in no sense a prohibitory measure, it provided a just scale fo ..ne increase of licenses in any municipality where the demands of a growing population justified it. The enforcement of the law in each License District was entrusted to a paid Inspector also appointed by the Grown. Ffegula- tions as to the hours of sale, the qualifications required from vendors, and the licensing fee, were also adc led, as well as provisions to secure, as far as possible, the conviction of ofienders. Fu1)Uo Opinioa. Prior to the introduction of the Act, the Government were, by influential delegations, by petitions, by the action of the leadins; temperance advocates, by temperance organizations — indeed, by the friends of temperance of every class — constantly urged to take the issue of licenses and inspection under their own immediate control ; and since its passage, and after a fair trial, it is safe to say that the " Crooks Act," has been almost universally approved by the leaders and friends of the temperance movement of every political opinion throughout the Province, and generally by those who, while not identified with any temperance organization, yet look to the Government to regulate and keep within due bounds the traffic in intoxicating liquors. It was in obedience to the general wish that the Government accepted the duties and responsibilities which the new law imposed upon them, and no doubt they would gladly be relieved of them if the public interest per- mitted and public sentiment would justify it. The UoeaseA Tiotuallers' SCemorlaL Some of the provisions of the Crooks Act were suggested by the '* Li- censed Victuallers of Canada," through an influential deputation of their members, who waited on Attorney-General Mowat on the 6th of January, 1876, and presented an elaborate memorial unon the subject. The me* morial in addition to other statements contained this paragraph : — " We are quite prepared to concede that the * Liquor Question,' as it ha^ been affectedly called, is becoming a question indeed. People are now be- ginning to allow that it is a question. They confess, and we affirm, that it is a question which must be attended to ; that it is one which is growing and strengthening and deepening, and which cannot any longer be paltered with or avoided. People of all classes and all parties are beginning to see that something is needed to check the growing evils of intemperance, and something more on the one hand than mere conversation, and something else on the other hand than simple attempts at legislation, is required to meet and remedy this great social evil under which we are laboring. This 18 a truth which is now beginning tc spread." And acjain : " We are agreed in this, that the Act of the Ontario Legis< lature known as the 'Crooks Act' is, on the whole, a fair and just enact- ment, and if its provisions were Strictly carried out and enforced (with some slight alterations, to which we shall hereafter refer), we think that intem- perance would greatly decrease, and the public on the one hand, and the tavern keepers on the other, would be generally satisfied." The memorial further urged more rigorous inspection, and that not ome but fnquently during the year ; it asked for statutory provisions requiring bettor «ccomino4%ti9n on ths part of tayern keepers, and declared that 322236 the character of the persons applying for licenses should be fully considered before the applications should be entertained. Further, it suggested : — "That the honses of parties selling without license should be closely watched, and the law strictly enforced.'' And after pointing out certain grave evils arising from unlicensed traffic, the memorial proceeded to say : *' To coun- teract this, we think that Government Inspectors should be appointed. Ex- perience has shown that such officers are far more efficient in suppressing such tropic and bringing the offenders to justice than the police force^ which is required for the discharge of other duties.^' This memorial was published at length in the Toronto daily papers of the yth January, 1876, and is duly signed by the President and Secretary of the Licensed Victuallers' Association. FuUlo SatiafooUon with the Aot. That the Crooks Act has given general satisfaction is proven by the following facts : 1. No municipal council has petitioned the Legislature to revert to the former state of affairs. 2. No petition from any quarter has been received by the Legislature for the repeal of the Crooks Act. 3. The Licensed Victuallers themselves have not disapproved of the prin- ciples ot the Act itself. 4. On January 6th, 1876, the Toronto Mail said : '* // was a step in the right direction when the issjte 0/ licenses was taken from the municipalities. ***** ^ great point to ^ain is to wholly dissociate the granting of licenses from the financial advantages which local treasuries derive from multiplying drinking houses." On March 6th, 1876, the Mail referred to the previous method of issuing licenses as ^^ the old system 0/ granting licenses to almost every applicant?^ After the first of these quotations it went on to advocate that the whole of the funds raised by the issue of licenses should be taken from the municipalities and be used to maintain a provincial police force. That the Act from the first gave general satisfaction is further evidenced by the fact that in the summer of 1877 petitions signed by over 5,000 of the citizens of Toronto, including all or nearly all the hotel keepers and other Licensed Victuallers, licensed grocers and brewers of the city, were pre- sented to the City Council, in which, referring to the License Law, it was deliberately stated that " the Crooks Act has been the most successful meas- ure so far adopted^ If further testimony be required, it will be found in the indignant and al- most universal protest which has been made by the people against the threatened usurpation of the control of liquor licenses by the Prime Minis- ter of the Dominion Government, who recently, for political purposes, pro- mised his partisans by legislation at Ottawa, to abolish the Crooks Act and restore the old state of affairs, with municipal mismanagement and pro- bably lengthened hours for selling on Saturday nights, and their attendant evils. With regard to this, his Ontario lieutenant, in a recent speech at St. Thomas, is reported to have said : " What we propose to do is to give " back to the municipalities the rights of which they have been de- *' prived ; to e^ive them the control of the liquor traffic, and the right to say " who shall receive licenses, and to whom shall be entrusted the power of " carrying on the trade.^' The careful, thoughtful attention of every sober, respectable man in the community, and of the License'' Victuallers them- 'selves, is asked to the plainly expressed determination on the part of the Conservative party to go back, if put into power, to the state of affairs prior to 1875. Among the bodies which entered formal and solemn protests was the General Conference ofthe Methodist Church, which last September adopted the following resolution : — Ruolmd—'ThaX, although we cannot accept as righteous absolutely any License L^w, yet if we must tolerate some one as the tentative regulator of an evil till we can ACLveit removed, we mvui regard the " Crook$ Act" at the 6e«t i/i$trument/or thi9 n auppre$»ionthe Pmvine* of Ontario ever had. We would emphatically deprecate any legislation that would impair its efficiency, and we would respectfully recommend our people, where this law obtains, to use thetr voice andjranehise to prevent the eotUrolq/ the license eyttem reverting to themunieip• o a> CO n ^ us t- 55 el S oi 3 8 S< CO c» a S) ■^ay s](0OJQ aq) o% joud aajo} m ^ay aq^ Japan X^anoa aqt^ oi sai^nvd -laimiin ituaAas aq^ o) pivd n'aaq aA«q p]noM. %'m{% saaj •mox d 8 3 8 8 I ^ i ^ » t» >-< FN 00 CO CO s g 8 IS ■asaaaiq apraajoq^ 00 00 I CO.. H 2 3 2^28 o H S ^ ^ gl S ^ ^1 W MS SJ r« i-H o <-t ei i Conservatives 67 .9 Reformers 27 13 ii ' .-. Non-politicians ........ 6 ^ . 21 The following table exhibits these statistics in a complete and consice form : — \ 0k Class. No. of appli- cants for licenses. No. of licenses granted Proportion of applications from each class to total number of appli- cations. Percentage. Proportion of licenses in each class to total No. of licenses. Per- centage. Proportion of the applications from each class granted. Percentage. Reformers Conservatives . . Non-politicians . . 1,266 2,978 319 1,102 2,704 252 27-74 65-26 7 00 27 16 66-63 6*21 87-04 90-BO 79 00 - Total .... 4,563 4,058 100 00 100-00 • • t • MisrepresozLtations. The Conservative organs, with endless repetition, recklessly and absurdly charge the increase of drunkenness, vagrancy and crime against the Mowat Government and the Crooks Act. Why not charge it against Sir John A. Macdonald and his Government ? Sir John has been in power for the last five years. His Government alone deal with the laws relating to crimes, and almost exclusively with those relating to vagrancy. The Ontario Legislature cannot pass a single measure relating to crime or even criminal procedure. If any Government, therefore, are to be held responsible for the increase of crime, it is the Government at Ottawa, and not that at Toronto. Strange, is it not, that the Conservative leader is thus wounded in the house of his friends, it having remained for his chief organ to point out hi* delin- quency. Vaffraacy. It is patent to everybody that the increase in vagrancy from 1869 to 1877 was due very largely, if not wholly, to causes beyond the control of the Government either at Ottawa or Toronto. The chief causes of vagrancy were : ' ., 1. " Hard times " in Canada and the United States. 2. Thousands of men out of employment who previously earned a living by steady work, but being out of work and destitute, went " on the tramp." 3. The influx from the United States of thousands of tramps, driven from that country by hard times and the severity of the laws against " tramps and vagrants," and by fear of the prison and workhouse. Vagrancy is found by experience to be influenced greatly by the labor market, which in turn is largely controlled by good and bad times, and consequently, owing to renewed prosperity, has everywhere been on the decline since 1877. The Reports show that the commitments to prison of vagrants in 1877, durincrbad times, were 3,888 {sie Report of Inspector of Prisons foriSyQf page 6S), v/htxtA.^ in 1 881, during good times, they had SB li decreased to 1,587 {see Report for 18S1, page 133. The Inspector of Prisons' Report for 1877 "s up to the 30th of September of that year. The Crooks Adt had then been in force seventeen months. In 1881 it had been in force five years and a half. The decrease between '77 and '81 was 59 per cent. If the Crooks Act is to be charged with the increase, then by the same rule it must obtain the benefit of the decrease ! Perhaps the captious supporters of this new theory will explain how it came to pass that in the Eastern States, where they had no Crooks Act, but in several of which prohibition prevailed, the country five years ago was overrun with tramps and vagrants, while at the present time the decrease is quite as great as in Ontario ! Committals for Dnmkenziess. The charge that to the Crooks Act is due increased drunkenness, is equally false. The accusation is as follows : " Licenses issued in 1876, the first year under the Crooks Act . . 3,938 ** Licenses issued in 1880 4>049 " Increase in four years in" Therefore, according to the chief organ, increase in drunkenness is the re- sult of the Crooks Act, which permitted an increase in four years of in licenses. The very slight increase of 1 11 licenses in four years is elsewhere accounted for, the act itself having regard to population as the basis of the issue. TheiJ/a//, in its issue of the 13th of September, 1882, in quoting the above figures, asks : " Could proof more damning than this be demanded " at once of the increase of licenses, of the partisan character of the working ^^ o{i\\Q\3ivr ^ and 0/ the increase of drunkenness to 'which we called atten- ''tionf' The organ, therefore, boldly charges increase of drunkenness as a consequence of an increase of m licenses within four years; that is, be- tween 1876 and 1880. What is the result of this admission ? Simply this, that if the issue of 111 additional licenses increases drunkenness, a diminution of the number of licenses must cause a corresponding decrease in drunkenness. The figures are as follows : . Licenses (tavern, shop, &c.), issued in 1874 under the old Act ... 6,185 '• ** " issued in 1880, under Crooks Act... 4,049 ' Decrease 2,136 Percentage of decrease, 35 per cent. The question is a very simple one, and may be put as a proposi- tion in the rule of three, namely : If the issue of in more licenses causes an increase of drunkenness, by how much more will a decrease of 2,136 licenses lessen drunkenness ? Judged by the rule thus laid down by the opponents of the Crooks Act, the decrease by the non-issue of the 2,136 licenses, will be more than 19 times greater than the increase caused by the issue of the additional ili in four years, of which the organ in hypocritical tones affects to complain. If the Mail's standard is at all reliable, drunken- ness in Ontario in 1880, with an increased population of 120,000, was one- third less than in 1874 under the old Act, with a much smaller popula- tion. It is not difficult to give reasons for this slight increase : In 1876 the Dunkin Act was in force in the County of Prince Edward, and in ten town- ships not belonging to that county. The Act has been repealed in all of these municipalities, and 64 licenses have been issued therein. This ac- counts for over one-half of the increase. Between 1876 and 1881, 28 new municipalities were formed in the Province, and 91 licenses were issued within them. It is estimated that at least 37 of these were new licenses re- *\ 9 ) ^' suiting from the formation of the new municipalities. In the new Districts of Algoma, Thunder Bay, Muskoka and Parry Sound, 64 new licenses were issued, and under the Act, between 1876 and 1 881, 40 Municipal Councils petitioned for and obtained the authority of the Lieutenant-Govemor-in- Council to take a new census in each of these municipalities. The increase on this account is estimated at about 30. This it will be seen accounts for at least an increase in the issue of 195 licenses — or considerably more than the III. Doubtless a reduction in the number was made in other localities which will account for the difference. Referring to this increase of iii licenses in four years, the chief Conser- vative organ says that " this was not the result expected ; it was a decrease the friends of the Act expected, not an increase," The answer to this is that they " expected " nothing of the kind, as the Act made no provision whatever for a decrease after the first and second years of its existence. The aim was to decrease the number of taverns in existence when the Act was passed in January, 1876, and the reduction was to take place, and was in fact accomplished during the first and second years of the operation of the Act, namely in 1876 and 1877. No provision whatever was made for a continuing decrease ; but, on the contrary, it was distinctly recognized that as the issue was on the basis of population a slight increase would neces- sarily take place as population increased. Reverting to the charge that drunkenness increased under the Crooks Act, the facts are clear, and the statistics abundantly establish, not only that the Crooks Act, after it had been fairly put in force and had begun to be recognized as not merely a temporary law, did actually check the in- creasing number of committals for drunkenness, and from 1877 — the first full year after the Crooks Act came into force — down to 1881, the number has very greatly decreased. The figures are as follows : Committals. . 1877 4,032 1878 3.78s 1879 3.581 . I880 3,795 1881 3,328 Between 1877 and 1881, therefore, under the Crooks Act, the decrease waa no less than 704, or 17 per cent. On the other hand, under the old law, between 1869 and 1875, the com- mittals for drunkenness increased irom. 1,793 to 3,363, a total increase during that period of 1,570, or 87 per cent., a considerable increase taking place every year, with but one exception.* So that under the old Act a constant increase between i86g and 1875, amounting to no less than 1,570, or 87 per cent., took place, while under the Crooks Act, from its first full year (1877) down to 1881, there was as constant a decrease, amounting in all to no less than 704 cases, or 17 per cent. If, however, account is taken of the increase of population between 1877 and 1881, both inclusive, according to the last census about 150,000, or 8 per cent, of the entire population of the Province, the decrease was no less than 341 additional committals, or a total decrease between 1877 and 1881 of 1045, as against an actual increase under the old law of 1,570 between 1869 and 1875. Increase under the old law 8*7 per cent. Decrease under Crooks Act 17 " Or, taking into account increase in population, a decrease of. . 26 " To expect prohibition under a license law is a contradiction of terms. Licenses and license laws imply commerce in liquor of one sort or another. • The years 186910 1875, inclusive, and 1877 to 1881, inclusive, are Riven, and the year 1876 omitted because the Crooks Act was not put in operation by the issue of licenses until May, 1876, and that year is therefore a broken year, and was partly \inder one system and partly under the other. -14 No license law that has ever been framed was able absolutely to prevent drunkenness. I'he most such a statute can do is to regulate the trade ; cause the observance of law and the maintenance of order and decency ; sur- round the public with such safeguards as are possible under a license sys- tem, and limit the sale to the legitimate requirements of the public. In these respects it is claimed for the Crooks Act that it has been a great promoter of temperance as well as of order and sobriety, and that it has largely limited the sale of liquor. The Provincial Legislature is not authorized by its constitution to pass a prohibitory measure ; that power rests solely with the Dominion Parlia- ment. The Ontario Legislature in the Crooks Act, and the amendments thereto, has gone to the very verge of its authority — perhaps even beyond it on some points, as some of the Courts have held. It is not as a prohibi- tory law that the supporters of the Crooks Act claim for it its marked suc- cess, but as a restrictive law, as a license law administered under a license system — the only system within the constitutional power of the Provincial Legislature to adopt. That it has accomplished much in the right direc- tion is beyond question. The foregoing data show with a positiveness which neither abuse nor misrepresentation can successfully controvert : ist. That the Act has reduced the number of licensed drinking places in the Province by no less than 35 per cent. 2nd. That it has done much to arrest and permanently stay the there- fore constantly increasing tide of drunkenness, which had increased between 1869 and 1875 no less than 87 per cent., and 3rd. That it has, in conjunction with better times and fewer licenses, caused an actual decrease in the number of committals for drunkenness ; turning an increase of Z*7 per cent, between 1869 and 1875 into a decrease of 17 per cent, between 1879 and 1881 ; or,taking into account the increased population, into a decrease of 25 per cent, during this latter period. A Conservative Compliment to the Leadinff Frinoiple of tlid Crooks Act. One of the greatest tributes that could be paid to the Act was that of the Conservative Convention,which, while professing a desire to place the issue of licenses in the hands of the Municipal Council, was compelled by force of public opinion to leave untouched the clause of the Act limiting the num- ber of licenses. Depend upon it, the two must stand or fall together. If the issue goes Lack into the hands of the Clerks of Councils, it will doubtless go accom- panied by free trade in licenses, and the country would again be overfun with houses carried on for the purposes of liquor-selling alone — groggeries, pure and simple. The interests of every class are opposed to this. To revert to the old system would be reactionary, and a severe blow to the cause of temperance. Temperance people of all classes and all shades of political opinion denounce the proposition. Municipal Councils, compelled to go back to the public annually for elec- tion, would object to being placed under compulsion to refuse some applicants, • while granting licenses to others. Under the old system they were not called upon to discriminate. Indeed, the Clerk did the whole business, and the Council was not consulted at all. No one who coiild pay the fee was refused a license The respectable hotel-keeper will not willingly go back to the old system' under which an unlicensed groggery competed against him at every corner. He knows he is better off under the present system, and he is not prepared to destroy the respectability of his business for the sake of putting Mr. Meredith in office. A Conservative Trilsute to the Effeetiveness of the Act.. The Mail newspaper, in its issue of the sth September, 1882, contains an lut^rview with a city ex-unlicensed liquor-seller. The following quotation from the article is an unwilling tribute by that organ to some of the work accomplished by the Crooks Act ; ii " PAST AND GONE. — * ThE OLD HOME AIN't WHAT IT USED TO BE !' — An UNLICENSED WHISKEY-SELLER's LAMENT." * * " Breaking up unlicensed houses was a source of great loss not only to the keepers of these places, but also to a number of so-called 'sporta,' who regularly went down to the Police Court, in case of a raid on the houses by the police, and swore that they were the dona fide owners, thereby, for a consideration, getting themselves imprisoned, while the owners retained their liberty and continued their unlicensed traffic. Many of these houses never sold liquor except when the regularly licensed hotels were closed, namely, from seven o'cock on Saturday night until Monday morning. Their, profits, however, during that time were sufficient to enable them to spend the rest of the week in riotous living, and agreat many of the assaults and cases of drunkenness daily brought before the Police Magistrate were attributable to this source. A few of the old houses still sell on the sly, but the danger of frequenters' names as well as those of the proprietors, ap- pearing in the daily papers, has had the effect of spoiling the trade. In speaking about the profits to be made now from the unlicensed sale of liquor, an old dealer said, ' I would sooner go out and break stones than try to make a living selling liquor without a license. Why, if one is caught, look at the heavy fine, or the alternative of bread and water at the goal.' " The evidence is of value, as coming from an enemy to the Act. A Great Success. Upon the whole, it may be asserted without fear of successful contradic- tion, that the measure is admitted by all — except those who are striving to in- fuse party politics into the question, and who seek only political advantage in their discussion of it — to have proved a great success, and to have met with the approval alike of the friends of the cause of temperance and the respectable dealer. While on the onehand it protects the respectable dealer against mere groggeries, licensed and unlicensed, it extends to the great public a protection not less effectual against the demoralizing practices of the illicit dealer. Rolilsiner Ontario of her Blffhts. One of the grounds upon which Sir John A. Macdonald a few weeks ago is said to have promised a delegation of brewers and partizan politicians, that he would destroy the Crooks Act, is that he is forced by the recent judgment of the Privy Council, in the case of Russell vs. The Queen (46 L T N S45,page 889)known as the City of Fredericton case,to take from the Provincial Legislatures, the power to issue licenses and control the liquor traffic. That case was an appeal from a conviction for violating the Scott Act, by an ex-hotelkeeper in the City of Fredericton, and the Privy Council decided that the Dominion had power to pass the Scott Act as the Act was applicable to the whole Dominion and it, therefore, held the conviction good. It does not decide that the Dominion has power to pass a prohibi- . torylawfor any one province. It does not decide that the Dominion has power to deal with the license question, either as applicable to the whole Dominion, or in relation to any one province. This latter question was not in issue ; it was not argued,, and consequently was not determined and formed no part of the judgment. On the power to license, or to restrict or regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors, their lordships passed no opinion whatever. Indeed, the principal ground upon which the power of the Dominion Parliament to pass the Scott Act was upheld was that the law * In England licenses are granted not by the Municipal Councils but by Justices of the session, f- In New York and mort of the other States of the Union, they at : not issued by the Municipal Councils, but by commissioners chosen for that purpose. In Quebec the Act of 1878 provides that licenses shall be issued by the License Inspectors (who are appointed by the Government), except in the city of Montreal. Thesame Act provides that in Montreal all tavern licenses shall be issued by a bo«rdof three or more commissioners appointed by the Government. x6 tvas a general law applicable to the ivhok Dominion — to all the provinces and not to any one particular province. The following quotation from the judgment establishes this : "The declared object of Parliament in passing the Scott Act is that there "should be uniform legislation in all the Provinces respecting the traffic in "intoxicating liquors, with a view to promote temperance in the Domin- **ion. Parliament does not treat the promotion of temperance as desirable ''in one Province more than inanother,but as desirable <'z/^/ycyA^rtf Mrtf/zg'A- *'«?«/ the Dominion. The Act, as soon as it was passed, became a law forthe ** whole Dominion, and the enactments of the first part, relating to the ma- "chinery for bringing the second part into force, took effect and might be "put in motion at once and everywhere within it. It is true that the pro- "hibitory and penal parts of the Act are only to come into force in any "county or city upon the adoption of a petition to that effect by a majority "of electors, but this conditional application of these parts of the Act does •'not convert the Act itself into legislation in relation to a merely local mat- *^ter. The object and scope of the legislation are still generil, " viz., to promote temperance by means of a uniform law throughout *^the Dominion. The means of bringing the prohibitions and penalties ol "the Act into force, which Parliament has thought fit to adopt, does not " alter its general and uniform character. Parliament deals with the sub- "ject as one of general concern to the Dominion, upon which uniformity of "legislation is desirable, and the Parliament alone can so deal with it." Sir John's assertion that he is forced by the Privy Council to usurp the functions of the provincial legislatures is, therefore, to give his own words, but " a pretence and a sham." That the Province has legislative jurisdiction over the license question has been directly and indirectly held by the Courts of Queen's Bench and Common Pleas for Ontario scores, perhaps a hundred times. In all the decisions given by these Courts upon the question, not one judgment has been given which has negatived the jurisdiction of the Provincial Legisla- ture. One of the latest decisions upon this point h- s been given by the Court of Appeals of Ontario — the highest Provincia' Court — in the case of Regina vs. Hodge, reported in vol. seven of the Oi tario Appeal Reports. In the judgment in that case, His Lordship, Chief Justice Spragge says ; — " One other consideration presents itself, which is, to my mmd, conclusive, This matter of licensing and of the regulation of places and persons licensed pertains to municipal institutions, and is moreover of a local na. ture. Now, the making of laws in relation to both these subjects being committed exclusively to the Provincial Legislatures, and legislation by any other power being thereby excluded, it follows that the B. N. A. Act operates to withdraw from legislative control by anypower or body what- e^ier the licensing and the regulation of places and persons licensed, powers in regard to which they had theretofore unquestionably exercised. The effect in that case would be more, and other than a disttibution of legislative power, it would be an extinction of legislative power in regard to subjects which, up to Confederation, had been subjects of Provincial Lei^islation. And again, — the Act of iH75-6, by which the Board of License Commissioners was constituted,transferred to that body all powers and duties conferred and imposed upon the Commissioners of Police and Municipal Councils respectively by the Act of 1874. Further^ I do not myself enter' tain any doubt as to the power of the Provincial Legislature to make the change made by the Act of 187^-6 in the municipal law as it then stood. I think it is to be regarded as only a change in the machinery by which the municipal institutions of the Province had theretofore been worked ; and as the power to make laws in relation to municipal institutions was con- ferred upon that Legislature by the Confederation Act, // clearly, in my judgment, had the power to make that change. ^^ In Regina vs. Frawley (reported in the same volume), a cause which ■rMEMMayy^' I »7 involved the power ot the Local Legislature to pant*h by fine, imprisoif ment and hard labor, infractions of the license laws, the learned Chief ustice further said: — " The powers assigned by the Confederation Act to ' the Provincial Legislature are large and various ; and it is not too much " to say that it is a reasonable contention that Legislatures intrusted with " such powers, on the due execution of which the happiness and prosperity •' of the Provinces so largely depend, must also be entrusted with ample means " for their execution " He further held that sub-sec. 9 of sec. 92 was cumulative to clause eight, and that it was intended to authorize Provincial Legislation in relation to the license question, for the purpose of raising revenue as well as for the regulation ofmattet s 0/ police. In the case of Regina vs.Hodge^ Mr. Justice Burton used the'foUowing language in giving judgment : — "It (the license question) was at that time *' dealt with by the Parliament of the Province of Canada as coming within " what were known as municipal institutions, the power of dealing with " which is now within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Provinces : and it " would certainly come within the general clause which confers exclusive "power on the Provincial Legislature to deal with matters of a merely local " or private nature, and does not fall within any of the subjects with which '* the Dominion Parliament has power to deal, unless, perhaps, by a general " measure affecting the whole Dominion, which has not been done. . . " I come to the conclusion that the Provincial Legislature, and the Provin- ** cial Legislature alone, has the power to pass laws for the infliction of •* penalties or imprisonment for the enforcement of a law of the Province " in relation to a matter coming within a class of subjects with which alone "the Province has the right to deal." Mr. Justice Burton also in Regina va. Frawley,spokc as follows: — •' I was somewhat surprised that we were again •• pressed with the argument that the Liquor License Act was ultra vires " as dealing with trade and commerce, an argument which, if pressed to its "logical conclusion, would eflectually preclude the Local Legislatures from " dealing with any particular trade or business within the Province." Tlie Folioy of the liberal Party. At the Reform Convention held on the 4th of January, 1883, in Toronto the following resolution was adopted unanimously : — *' Resolved. — That this Convention views with gratitude the great improvements which have, under Reform Governments, been made in the laws«939 H 4- From this table it will be seen that : — Immediately upon the passage of the Crooks Act there was a very great fall in the production of spirits and malt liquors. The amount of spirits produced has actually fallen, notwithstanding the large increase in population, till the amount was less in 1880 and 1881 than in 1876. The production of malt liquors fell away^early one-third on the passage of the Crooks Act. The production of malt liquors continued to fall away till 1879, sinc^ which time it has increased. But why has it increased ? This increase in the production of malt liquors will, of course, be chai '."d to the Crooks Act ; whereas in truth // t's clearly chargeable to the Dominic ^ Government^ which in 1879 reduced the excise tax on malt from two cen? a pound to one cent, and thus did its best to neutralize the effec'i OF the temperance legislation of the ONTARIO GOVERNMENT. 8} 81 To Ooaolude, ' It rests with the people of Ontario to affirm whether they will preser^- ' ^ „. -f themselves the local control of so eminently a local right as the regulation i »'■ of the liquor traffic, and whether they will uphold the Crooks Act with ti tii improvements suggested from time to time by experience, or, on the other hand, whether they will permit the license law to be seized upon by the j Ottawa authorities, and after the emasculation of its principles and excision of its wholesome if stringent provisions, entrusted to the administration of a Departmental head who may happen to represent the City of Montreal or some constituency in British Columbia, and over whom the electors of this Province have neither influence nor control ; and whether the door now closed shall be thrown wide open so as to admit of the unlimited issue of licenses and as near a return to free trade in intoxicating liquors as the mo.it violent opponent to law, order, sobriety and the wholesome provisions ± of the Crooks Act could desire. |^ .,..-■» ...*■. \ ■ " ■'. ■'■» i I very great itanding the id 1881 than the passage 1879, sine* be char- -d te Dominio ^ two cen; [E EFFEC! ENT. 81 t^ . preserv.. ' ! regulation ct with ti 1 the other pon by the nd excision tration of a lontreal or ors of this door DOW ed issue of ors as the provisions <»v J. ¥ ■:.v' /■ •.•. •>' W