PROHIBITION. 



661 



Nearly the whole island is under cultivation. 

 The climate is agreeable, especially in summer. 

 The ranges of the thermometer are not ex- 

 treme, owing to its insular character. Very 

 little wheat is grown, but this is owing to the 

 extreme moisture of the atmosphere. 



Towns and Ports. Charlottetown, the capi- 

 tal, on Hillsboro Bay, is the largest town on 

 the island; its population is 11,484; Summer- 

 side, 2,853, is connected with Shediac, N. B., 

 by a ferry ; Georgetown, at the western ex- 

 tremity of the island, has a population of 1,200, 

 and is also a packet-station. The minor ports 

 are Alberton, Princetown, and Souris. 



Industries. The agricultural exports in 1882 

 amounted to $1,021,344, of which $630,185 

 was oats, and $368,911 potatoes. Vegetables 

 valued at $13,767, and hay at $6,320, make up 

 the greater part of the remainder. These ex- 

 ports are nearly equally divided between the 

 United States and Great Britain. 



The export value of products of the fisher- 

 ies was $541,585. Of this, $420,430 is on ac- 

 >unt of lobsters, shipped chiefly to Great Brit- 

 nn ; $81,855 of mackerel, shipped to the 

 Jnited States, and $12,264 of codfish. The 

 )roduct of animals amounts to $181,931, of 

 rhich $86,927 was eggs, to the United States; 

 ^14,409, sheep; $9,696, cattle; and $13,722, 

 mtter. Beef, pork, hides, and horses make 



the remainder. The manufactures include 

 lips, $107,867; leather, $4,256; and starch, 

 2,680. The entire exports of Prince Edward 

 3! and manufactures amounted only to $118,- 

 930. The product of the forest exported 

 imounted only to $20,098, chiefly lumber. 



Education. The schools are free. The educa- 

 ion department has been under the control of 



chief superintendent since 1877, and there is a 



rovincial Board of Education. The salaries of 

 jhers are paid chiefly from provincial funds. 



ley range, in the case of first-class teachers, 

 rom $300 to $1,000 for male teachers. Fe- 

 lale teachers holding first-class certificates re- 

 ceive on an average $360 per annum. There 

 were 468 teachers .employed in the public 

 schools in 1882 256 males and 212 females. 

 The attendance in the same*Year was 21,269. 

 The total expenditure for education in 1882 

 was $130,446.96, of wlrch $98,476.48 was paid 

 for teachers 1 salaries. There were 60 teachers 

 in training in the normal department of the 

 Prince of Wales College at the close of 1882, 

 and 33 non-professional students. These in- 

 stitutions were united in 1879, in which year 

 the college was also thrown open for ladies. 

 The Roman Catholics maintain St. Dunstan's 

 College for the higher education of members 

 of that denomination. 



PROHIBITION. The idea of prohibiting the 

 use of or traffic in intoxicating liquor, in some 

 form or to some degree, is as old almost as 

 that kind of liquor itself. 



Early History. Intemperance, from the earli- 

 est days of history, has periodically required 

 some check upon its progress, which religious 



or civil authority has duly presented. The 

 Scriptures contain many proofs of the exces- 

 sive use of wine, even among the chosen peo- 

 ple. Confucius gave sago advice against a like 

 use thereof in China, almost 600 years before 

 Christ. Herodotus, writing about the same 

 time, referred to a liquor drawn from barley, 

 by fermentation, as in common use among the 

 Egyptians. Pliny speaks of 195 kinds of wine 

 used in Rome. Tacitus, describing the man- 

 ners and customs of the Germans in his day, 

 notices their drunken broils from the excessive 

 use of beer. The ancient Britons produced 

 from grain " a pleasant, warming, and strength- 

 ening beverage," which they called curmi, and 

 of which they drank lavishly. Every people, 

 of historical account, have had their favorite 

 stroflg drink, fermented or distilled. 



The earliest forms and applications of pro- 

 hibition were ecclesiastical and personal, and 

 were imposed mainly upon liquor -drinking 

 rather than upon liquor -vending. Ancient 

 Scripture tells of Nazarite and Rechabite, who 

 were forbidden to use wine or strong drink. 

 The Indian Vedas, though allowing wine as an 

 oblation to the gods, forbade its use as a bever- 

 age; and Sukracharaga, a high-priest of the 

 Assurus, declared the most rigid prohibitory 

 law. Buddhist and Brahman monks were 

 bound to abstain wholly from intoxicating 

 drinks; and on all the followers of Buddha 

 abstinence therefrom was rigidly enjoined. 

 Intoxicating wine was forbidden in Egypt, both 

 to priest and king; and from the accession of 

 Menes to the reign of Psammetichus, 600 B. o., 

 a period embracing twenty-five dynasties, total 

 abstinence from intoxicants was taught and 

 practiced by them. The Egyptian priests ob- 

 served personal prohibition even down to the 

 time of Nero. Mohammed said, " Of the fruit 

 of the grape ye obtain an inebriating liquor, 

 and also good nourishment" the former he 

 interdicted, the latter he allowed. 



The first civil law against the manufacture 

 of intoxicating liquor, of which there is any 

 record, was promulgated in China, 1100 B. o. 

 It was an imperial edict called " The Announce- 

 ment against Drunkenness," and directed that 

 " the people " who drank should be put to 

 death. A little of the spirit of it abides in one 

 of the present Chinese enactments, which says, 

 " A man who, intoxicated with liquor, commits 

 outrages against the laws, shall be exiled to a 

 desert country, there to remain in servitude." 

 Among the ancient Mexicans intemperance was 

 accounted a grievous crime, and was punished 

 with the severest penalties. Charlemagne tried 

 by imperial edicts to stop the drinking habits 

 of the early Germans. According to Lecky, 

 one of the safeguards established to preserve 

 female purity in Rome was a"n enactment for- 

 bidding women even to taste the juice of the 

 grape; and this law, ingrafting itself upon 

 early domestic education, became, by habit 

 and tradition, so incorporated with the mor- 

 al sense of the people, that its violation 



