140 Community

By now many problems, including that of land ownership, had disap- peared. The last piece of land from the last proprietor was bought in 1895. John Knight’s widow, Amelia MacDonald, died in 1903. It is said that half of Souris changed hands in 1907, the day of the land sale of the Knight estate. But there were other problems, some large, some small, as there always would be. One of these was the objection to incorporation by some of the residents of Souris.

In July, 1910, the ratepayers of Souris sent a petition “praying that an Order-in-Council be passed bringing into effect the provisions of the Town of Souris Incorporation Act 1910.”120

In September, 1910,the Executive Committee received a petition against the incorporation of the Town. However, a vote of two-thirds majority must have been obtained because the following is part of the Act of Incorporation of the Town of Souris:

Whereas by Section 150 of “The Souris Incorporation Act, 1910”, it is enacted that:

This Act shall come into operation by order of the Lieuten- ant Governor in Council upon the requisition of at least two-thirds of all persons liable to pay any provincial tax or assessment, resident within the limits of the Town of Souris as set forth...

The Act came into effect on the 14th of November, 1910, signed by Ben- jamin Rogers, Lieutenant Governor and FL. Haszard, President of the Executive Council.121

Many bylaws were added to the regulations of the 1899 Act of Assembly such as the following:

(With Breakwater Street, its dead cat and discarded hoop skirt in mind.) No person shall cast or throw upon any public street, wharf, public standing, sidewalk, ditch, gut- ter or upon any portion of the right-of-way to the Town Dump, any earth, shavings, snow, ice...(Joe the Post’s cow take heed.) No swine, horses, cattle, sheep, geese, turkeys, fowl...to run at large.

Souris was now an incorporated town. To quote from The Government of Prince Edward Island by Frank MacKinnon: “Municipalities are not mere branches of the provincial administration but units of local self-government responsible directly to the citizens who elect them.”

Beginning in 1910, the following each served one year as Mayor to the end of 1921: J .J . Hughes, R.C. McLean, J .W. Brennan, J .B. Matthew, J .E. Mac- Donald, and H.H. Acorn. Caleb C. Carlton who served twenty-two years as Town Clerk, was not about to let any city slickers belittle the Town of Souris as the following story will show:

Two strangers stopped at Caleb’s store which was located on the south side of lower Main Street.

“Are you the Town Clerk?” asked one of the men.

“Yes," replied Caleb.

“Then,” continued the stranger, “you can probably tell us how long the Town has been dead.” Caleb hooked his glasses up on his forehead and looked the men over carefully. Then he replied, “Not long, son. Not long. You’re the first two buzzards we’ve seen.”122

When the new Souris High School, complete with central heating and a gymnasium, was built c. 1900, the vacant Colville School nearby became