LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 61 
and of all other matters that were essentially of a local character. Whenever it was necessary 
to establish a market, the legislature had to pass a special act giving the requisite power 
to the court of sessions. For instance, we find an act authorising the justices in this 
court ‘‘to fix, open and establish some convenient place in the town of Kingston as a 
market, where butcher’s meat, butter, eggs, poultry, fish and vegetables, shall be exposed 
to sale, and to appoint such days and hours as shall be suitable for that purpose, and to 
make such other orders and regulations relative thereto as they shall deem expedient.” ! 
The justices of the peace had also other important functions to discharge out of the ses- 
sions. For instance, it was on their certificate that the secretary of state granted licenses 
to public houses. These licenses were only granted after full inquiry and discussion at 
public meetings duly called for that purpose by the high constable or other public 
officer Thejustices in quarter sessions also appointed surveyors of highways to lay out, and 
regulate statute labour on the*public roads. All persons were liable to work on the roads, 
in proportion to the assessment on their real and personal property.’ 
For the first fifteen or twenty years of the history of the administration of civil affairs 
in Upper Canada, the burdens of the people were exceedingly small. A Canadian his- 
torian says on this point: “No civilised country in the world was less burdened with 
taxes than Canada West at this period. A small direct tax on property, levied by the 
district courts of sessions, and not amounting to £3,500 for the whole country, sufficed 
for all local expenses. There was no poor rate, no capitation tax, no tithes, no ecclesias- 
tical rates of any kind. Instead of a road tax, a few days of statute labour annually 
sufficed.’ 
Under such circumstances we can easily understand why the condition of Kingston, 
for many years the most important town of Upper Canada, should have been so pitiable 
according to a writer of those early times: “The streets [in 1815] require very great 
repairs, as in the rainy seasons it is scarcely possible to move about without being in 
mud to the ankles. Lamps are required.... But first the legislature must form a code 
of laws, forming a complete police. To meet expense, government might lay a rate upon 
every inhabitant householder in proportion to value of property in house.’°’ Subse- 
quently, when Kingston became the seat of government, the municipal authorities were 
encouraged to make improvements in streets, drainage, sidewalks, and otherwise. When 
the town of York was incorporated as a city, in 1834, under the name of Toronto, it had 
not a single sidewalk within its limits, and the first mayor, Mr. W. Lyon Mackenzie, had 
to initiate a system of local improvements under great difficulties.° 
As the country filled up, and the necessity arose for roads and bridges and other 
local improvements, the taxes increased ; although they never became heavy under the 
unsatisfactory system that prevailed, until after the reunion of the Canadas in 1841. The 
time of the legislature was constantly occupied in passing acts for the construction of public 
works necessary for the comfort, safety and convenience of particular localities. A large 
amount of “parish” business was transacted in those days by the legislature which 
might as well have been done by local councils. As compared with Lower Canada, how- 


‘ Upp. Can Stat. 41 Geo. ITI, c. 3. * Ibid., 34 Geo. III, ec. 12 
# Tind., 48 Geo. ITI, c. 12. * MceMullen’s History, p. 247. 
5 Canniff, p. 432. 5 Lindsey’s Life of Mackenzie, i. 312. 
