34(5 



MANITOBA, PROVINCE OP. 



To incorporate the Winnipeg, Selkirk and Lake 

 Winnipeg Railway Company. 



To amend the Manitoba insurance act. 



The liquor act. 



To amend the shops regulation act. 



Respecting writs of execution against land. 



To amend the Lord's Day act. 



Respecting real property in the province of Mani- 

 toba. 



To consolidate and amend the acts relating to 

 the property of married women. 



1; expecting the protection of game. 



To incorporate Brandon College. 



Prohibition. One of the chief subjects of dis- 

 < u^sion in the province was Mr. Macdonald's pro- 

 hibitory liquor law. Manitoba is strongly in favor 

 of prohibition, and had voted in two plebiscites 

 a Dominion and a provincial one in favor of the 

 principle. Mr. Macdonald had declared before the 

 election that, although not personally in favor of 

 it, lie would abide by a distinct expression of 

 public opinion in the choice of representatives, and 

 would present such a law if the majority of the 

 new members were in its favor. When he became 

 Premier he found that such was the case, and at 

 once proceeded to put his pledge into operation. 

 The measure was prepared by a leading Manitoba 

 lawyer, Mr. J. A. M. Aikins, Q. C., and it prohib- 

 ited the wholesale or retail sale of intoxicating 

 liquors within the province as a beverage. The 

 measure was introduced June 1, and appears to 

 have been sufficiently definite and to have been 

 really intended to effect the purpose aimed at. 



The sale of liquor was to be permitted for use 

 in arts, medicine, and sacraments only, although 

 the act did not apparently aim to prevent abso- 

 lutely its use in private hospitality. Druggists 

 were placed under a stringent license law, with 

 -evere penalties, and the giving away of liquor 

 in any public place, office, factory, hall, club, hotel, 

 store, or house where there was a boarder or 

 roomer, or a gathering of people, was strictly for- 

 bidden. The penalties were not less than $200 and 

 costs and not more than $1,000 for the first offense 

 all offenses to be registered; for the second 

 offense, not less than six months in jail nor more 

 than two years. A corps of salaried inspectors 

 was to be appointed, responsible to the Attorney- 

 general's office, and they were to have power of 

 search. While the province could not prevent im- 

 portation of liquors for export or sale outside its 

 boundaries, it was proposed to place a heavy tax 

 upon such traffic. There were weighty protests, 

 and the License Holders' Association presented a 

 petition to the Legislature, claiming to represent 

 an investment of $2,000,000, and demanding com- 

 pensation. On June 20 a large deputation waited 

 on the Legislative Committee having the measure 

 in hand and protested vigorously against it. F. H. 

 Phippen, Q. C., made the principal speech. He de- 

 clared that the bill was in no sense a prohibition 

 measure, and that the only effect would be to drive 

 the venders from the province to adjoining parts 

 of Ontario or the Northwest Territories. The act, 

 if passed, would not hinder any man from obtain- 

 ing any quantity of liquor he might desire, the 

 only change was that he had to buy outside of 

 the province. This might be called prohibition if 

 it were necessary to purchase in the Transvaal, 

 but when people were allowed to buy from adja- 

 cent territories it was simply leaving licenses to 

 other provinces. It placed liquor in every man's 

 house, a bottle in every man's sideboard. The 

 lighter beverages wines and ales would be pro- 

 hibited, as the expense of importing them would 

 be greater, and people would be driven to drink- 

 ing heavier liquors. It had been said the present 



law was not strictly administered; if so, there 

 would be innumerable breaches of the proposed 

 law, as every person would have an opportunity 

 to carry on illicit business. The measure finally 

 passed the House, with the approval of a great 

 majority of the people, as shown by the press, the 

 platform utterances, and the result of ensuing by- 

 elections, in all of which the Government were 

 sustained. It was not to become law until June 1 , 

 1901, and a new development has since appeared 

 in the protest of the Hudson's Bay Company and 

 their claim that the legislation infringes the trad- 

 ing privileges granted them under Dominion en- 

 actment when the province entered Confederation. 

 This point has been referred to the courts. 



The Federal Elections. Manitoba was greatly 

 affected by, and in turn considerably iniluenced, 

 the Dominion elections of October and November, 

 1900. Partly because Sir Charles Tupper had been 

 for thirty years a chief supporter and friend of his 

 father's, partly because Sir Charles had helped in 

 the provincial elections, partly because he had been 

 with him previously in Dominion politics, Mr. 

 Hugh J. Macdonald consented in September to re- 

 tire from the Manitoba premiership and help the 

 veteran Conservative leader in the Federal cam- 

 paign. Before definitely resigning, however, he ac- 

 companied Sir Charles and the Hon. George E. 

 Foster in a tour of Ontario. In the later an- 

 nouncement that he was to be a candidate in the 

 Liberal constituency of Brandon against the Hon. 

 Charles Sifton, a clever member of the Dominion 

 Government and the Liberal leader in the West, 

 came one of the most dramatic incidents of the 

 campaign. The battle in Brandon was keen and 

 vigorous. It resulted in a victory for Mr. Sifton, 

 and was one of the most significant Liberal suc- 

 cesses of the campaign. For the time Mr. Mac- 

 donald retired from public life. His action neces- 

 sitated his retirement from the Manitoba Govern- 

 ment, and, on Oct. 29, a new Conservative ministry 

 Avas sworn in, with R. P. Roblin as Premier and 

 President of the Council, J. A. Davidson as Pro- 

 vincial Treasurer and Minister of Agriculture, 

 D. H. McFadden as Provincial Secretary and Min- 

 ister of Public Works, and the Hon. C. H. Camp- 

 bell, Q. C., as Attorney-General, Railway Com 

 missioner, and Minister of Education. Robert 

 Rogers became a minister without portfolio, and 

 Mr. Johnson retired from his similar place in the 

 previous ministry. All the new ministers were 

 re-elected. 



Finances. The financial situation in Manitoba, 

 as shown on Dec. 31, 1899, indicated receipts of 

 $776,234 and expenditures of $972,462 for the cur- 

 rent year. The former sum included the Dominion 

 subsidy of $483,687, interest on school lands of 

 $23,196, land title fees of $65,786, liquor licenses 

 $27,487, miscellaneous receipts making up the re- 

 mainder. The chief items of expenditure were 

 $155,691 charged to the Finance Department, 

 $154,508 upon education, $101,128 upon agricul- 

 ture and immigration, $59,780 paid to the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railroad and $100,500 to the Northern 

 Pacific, $124,516 charged to the Attorney-General's 

 department and $187,524 to the Public Works De- 

 partment. The gross debt of the province was 

 given as $8,190,688, and against this was a Do- 

 minion debt allowance of $3,707,196. The position 

 of the province in a financial sense was not satis- 

 factory when the Macdonald Government took 

 office. It was declared by the Conservative that 

 Mr. Greenway's legacy in this connection included 

 a bonded indebtedness of $2,500,000, drainage de- 

 bentures of $300,000, unpaid railway subsidies of 

 $148,000, bank overdrafts of $80,000, 'unpaid school 

 grants of $100,000, unpaid election expenses of 



