OUR ISLAND STORY , * . 97

return to Charlottetown, after an absence of ' six years, he resumed , the 'proprietorship and editorship of The Patriot. But after the . \ fire of 1884, in which The Patriot office was destroyed, a joint stock ‘ ' 1 A company was formed for the continued publication of the paper, 1' ii and Mr. Laird became managing director and editor. In this capa- ' city he continued until, upon the triumph of the Liberal Party in the election of 1896, he was appointed Indian'Commissioner, with headquarters at Winnipeg. . Since then the Patriot has been under _ ‘7. . the editorial management of Mr. Frederick J. Nash; and after the . ‘32 appointment of Mr. Frank Heartz to the office of Lieutenant Gov- ‘ ‘ 8‘ i i

ernor, Mr. Nash. became president of the Patriot Publishing Com- '_ l _ 3 pany. Mr. Reuben McDonald was for many years an active mem- - it '{ ber of the Patriot’s editorial staff; and The Patriot continues to fff s be a leading exponent of the views of the Liberals of this Province, - , . E ' as well as an enterprising and popular newspaper. ‘ i :9

Early in the seventies the Rev. Stephen G. Lawson, a Presr byterian minister, entered the field of Prince Edward Island journ- alism. For some years he published “The Presbyterian}? The l name of the paper was afterwards changed to that of “The Pro— l testant Union.” Circumstances prevailed against Mr. Lawson, i and he was eventually constrained to surrender the paper to the ‘ Rev. William R. Frame,’by whom its publication Was continued , and its name changed to that of The Guardian. Mr. Frame aVoid- ; ed the extremes in politics into which his predecessor fell, and l greatly strengthened the paper’s hold upon the public by his ad- -

. vocacy of temperance and the enforcement of the Canada Temper— ‘ ance Act. At his death on the 50th of June, 1888, Mr. John L. McKinnon, an experienced'journalist, took charge of The Guard- ' ian as general manager and editor. That charge he held until the month of June, 1889, when he gave place to Mr. Benjamin D. Higgs. Mr. Higgs was a young and ardent journalist who received his training in the oflices of The Patriot and The Pioneer, and supplemented it by a special course of study. Seizing a’ favorable opportunity when public opinion was much divided on the question i of The Canada Temperance Act, Mr. Higgs, on the 27th of Janu— ary, 1891, changed the issue of The Guardian from weekly to daily. 'He made itja morning paper independent in politics, and i

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