quested to do so, the Committee declared that the "liquor people" had, of course, "heard of this" and, "in consequence, liquor-selling was soon in full blast again." The magistrate claimed the committee was acting on something he had said informally in one of the member's homes four years previously and not on the basis of anything that had actually oc¬ curred in court. One wonders, however, in reading through the frag¬ ments of evidence which have survived, if the root of the entire problem was not a certain official's desire for heavier fines and a consequent in¬ crease in his own remuneration. In an allegorical reference, he is pic¬ tured as having dipped one hundred and fifty dollars out of a golden egg which "an immense bird in the olden time" had laid while passing over the village. "He appears", the allegory continues, "to think there is still some in the shell, for just a few days (previously) ... he was looking for an improved machine in order to have another dip." For whatever reason, the work of the Mount Stewart Commitlee had come to an end, and its tasks were henceforth the burden of the Government Prosecutor. The temperance cause suffered a serious set-back in 1897 when the electors of Charlottetown voted for "free rum." By 1906, however, as the result of unremittent agitation on the part of the various societies, the provincially-legislated Prohibition Act had replaced the Scott Act , and prohibition had become general throughout the Island. One had now to obtain a prescription or "script" from a medical doctor in order to buy a bottle of liquor. The physician addressed the document to one of the numerous government-appointed vendors, directing that the bearer be supplied with a certain amount of liquor "for medicinal use and not as a beverage." The scripts were issued in large numbers, and this, to¬ gether with the prevalence of rum-running and bootlegging, indicated a curiously ambivalent attitude among Islanders on the question of liquor control. Public profession, in other words, was often at variance with private inclination. It was the objective of the rum-runners, at first sailing boats and later motor vessels equipped with radio, to avoid the liquor patrol and land their cargoes on the shores of the quiet coves and bays with which the coast of Prince Edward Island abounds. When several of these craft were hovering outside the 3-mile limit, a trick was for one to try and draw the patrol away, so the others would have the opportunity to un¬ load. Other stratagems, such as placing liquor in lobster traps and at¬ taching them to buoys, were resorted to. On one occasion, a patrol watched the riding lights of a suspected rum runner all night, only to discover some lanterns attached to a raft next morning. It was essentially a battle of wits, and there were no shoot-outs. Maritime rum-runners would tolerate no American gunmen in the game. Once on shore, the liquor was whirled away by motor car to various parts of the Province. Occasionally, though, it was stored in trenches, the excess clay being re¬ moved from the vicinity and the aperture neatly covered with joined sods. Sometimes it was discreetly hidden away in a straw stack or in a hay loft. A ready market was assured, as, in 1932, for instance, whiskey over the side of a rum-runner was $20.00 a case, while the Govern¬ ment stores charged from $4.50 to $6.00 a bottle. The Guardian for January 1, 1923 reported that "over a score of illicit stills" had been seized by Inland Revenue Officers in Queen's and King's counties during the previous year. Bootlegging, never particu¬ larly on the wane, was in an especially flourishing state during the prohibition years. In 1942, "following a well-beaten path leading from —101—