CHARLOTTETOWN 69

"I am,’ said Governor Patterson, “obliged as yet to catch people as I can for these purposes. ”

There were no douceurs to expect from attendance, and for men who had some distance to travel, attend- ance at the meetings meant only annoyance and discomfort. A journey from Georgetown to Charlotte- town was a tedious affair. The traveller went to Bay Fortune, to St. Peter's, and then down the Hills- borough River. Often the traveller had to wait a long time for boats. No wonder, then, that the most frequent attendants at the council meetings were men from Charlottetown and Rocky Point.

Once, an undesirable petition from the inhabitants of Lot Eighteen was sent in. The councillors ordered that it lie on the table. The Attomey-General moved an amendment that it be thrown under the table. The amendment carried. With that matter settled so easily and to their satisfaction, they moved on to other business. No, it isn’t there now. I looked.

Prince Edward Island has one of the oldest legis- latures in North and South America. It is even older than the American Congress. The Island legislature was established in 1773. One of its first acts was to regulate the liquor traffic and Canadians insist that they have been regulating it ever since . . . For Prince Edward Island alone, of all the Provinces of Canada, still enforces prohibition.

The year 1775 was to the Colonial Building what 1758 was to the Acadians of the Island. It was the year of the great governmental exodus. In August, 1775, Walter Patterson, the Governor and Receiver- General, sailed for England and did not return until 1780. In his absence, Phillips Callbeck, as eldest councillor, administered the government, but in the