90. V ouR ISLAND STORY

plied by means of the Scott Act and afterwards by meansof the Provincial law, there has been an evident lessening of intemper- ance. The convictions for drunkenness in Charlottetown in- creased during the three years in which the Scott 'Act was not in ' operation there, by nearly a hundred per cent. Since the passage , of the Provincial Prohibitory Law there has been a gradual de- crease in the number of these convictions. In the year 1900 they

numbered 207; in the year 1910, 173; in the year 1920, 109; in 1923, 173; and in 1924, 63.

Even though the activity of the police may not have been so pronounced in later years as it was before the Prohibitory Law Was

enacted, and even though a greater latitude may have been given

. to men on the street who had indulged too freely 1n intoxicants,

the statistics of the Stipendiary Magistrate 8 Court indicate cer- tainly that Prohibition has resulted in a considerable diminution of the evil of intemperance in the City of Charlottetown. Poverty in Charlottetown was more prevalent before than since the Pro- hibitory Liquor Law was enacted, and deaths due to intemperance were in c0nsiderably larger number. If improvement in respect to the liquor evil resulted in Charlottetown and Summerside, it was much more apparent in the country districts. There the difficulty of discovering and prosecuting offenders against the law is not so great as in the towns. A betterment of conditions over the whole Province, not merely in individual cases, but in many settlements has been made evident since the passage of the Pro— hibitory Liquor Law. The Liquor Evil has not been abolished in Prince Edward Island, but compared with the destruction of-

_life and the loss of property resulting from it in the days of the

tavern, it has been minimized. Proportionately to pOpulation there has, in recent years, been less crime punished by the courts in Prince Edward Island than in any other Province of Canada. Not infrequently at the opening of sessions of the court the presiding Judge hasbeen presented with white kid gloves because there was no criminal case to be tried before him.