33 2 Sport and Life. 



The following tabulated statement is based upon the public 

 accounts for 1892, and the census of 1891 : 



Revenue : Customs 

 Province. Population. and Excise. Per Capt. 



Ontario ^114,321 $12,054,411 $5.70 



Quebec 1,488,535 10,509,632 7.06 



Nova Scotia 450,396 1,689,242 3.75 



New Brunswick 321,263 I >336,745 4.16 



Manitoba 152,506 1,145,189 7.50 



British Columbia 97-613 1,656,156 J 6-97 



P. E. Island 109,078 212.135 1.94 



N. W. Territories ... 98,967 16,649 - I 7 



Dominion of Canada 4,832,679 28,631,166 5.92 



That the revenue of a country should, if needful, be raised by a 

 stiff tariff is quite reasonable, but the authorities should not evince 

 the excessively petty spirit of exaction of which all settlers in the 

 interior of the country so loudly complain. A sixpenny book, a 

 shilling doll, a Christmas plum-pudding, nay, even a single pair of 

 gloves sent by post in a letter, are stopped at the frontier and a 

 notice sent to the addressee, and till the money is received the 

 articles and letter, if there be one, are retained. In a country 

 where the more isolated settlers receive perhaps only one mail in a 

 month such delay is exceedingly irritating, particularly as the 

 regulations require that the money must be sent, not in stamps, 

 but by postal order or cash, which latter again means registering 

 the letter and obliging the settler to ride, drive, or walk to the 

 nearest post-office, perhaps forty or tifty miles or more from his 

 cabin. I have heard from English and American settlers in British 

 Columbia more angry comment anent this pettifogging meanness 

 of the " smallest government God ever allowed to exist," than 

 about anything else. Most men would prefer to pay one dollar in 

 direct taxes than have 10 cents exacted by such irritating 

 proceedings. 



