-96—< bad situation infinitely worse. Liquor was more plentiful than ever. The Island had gained the rather dubious distinction of having the highest per capita consumption of intoxicants in the Dominion. It was said that liguor dealers from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia routinely came to the Island to replenish their stocks.

As time passed, thoughtful people began to tire of this state of affairs. The stigma originally attached to violations of the Prohibition Law started to fade. In the popular mind, transgressors took on a sort of Robin Hood aura, until they fell just a trifle short of being considered community benefactors. With the growth of this feeling, the general public began to turn against the Prohibition Law and against everything associated with it.

Influential and strongly organized, the Prohibitionists fought this trend with every weapon at their command, and for a time were successful in blocking all efforts in the direction of reform. The Conservatives, who went to the country in the 1927 eiection campaign on a platform calling for outright repeal, were thrown out of office. Many of the citizens, it would appear, "drank wet and voted dry." It required almost another twenty years before public revulsion brought the fantasy to an end. The year 1945 saw the enactment of a law that permitted the consumption of alcoholic

beverages and provided for the establishment of government liquor stores.

RRC