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l wrerg / eve s mt * i & w 7 % :. Aatet T 1Ch "as exist in ot & wis mmfim 'H#thar thame f ®4 _and therefore the House ' 'I'he various municipaliti in' P xpects a surprise by way of an| yince received during the 1 ouncement that there has been, for w_m 'As their share 'of xample, an abnormally productive ncense fees. I have not inc " _' yield in this or that direction. _ Our th"&flmflu amount received «1 __ _ revenues, with one or two ex¢eptions, brewers d distillers, viz., $18,250. T |I a e so fixed and inclastic that)we are have been paying a yearly license of | P wh to. estimate them from year $250 each since 1891, making their' * to year with no small degree of accur-- ments under protest, on the ground acy, and the House, from long experi-- that the Province could not legally ex-- | ence, knows each year in anticipation act payment. 'The number of brew-- of the Treasurer's statement that the ers who took out licenses last year was expenditures have been kept well with-- €5, and the number of distillers eight. in the amounrt it sanctioned and au-- The amounts paid in this way hy thorized. I have nothing to announce brewers and distillers have Db ,__-4;;{ out of the usval or ordinary concern-- marked and kept in a separal n connk ing the finances of 18$96, neither as re-- until the constitutional quest?OM® gards our receipts nor our expenditures. be settled. As ho!'l.'gen Oowel Our receipts for the year, whether tak-- the point in disputé/wgga Codcle d en in e aggrezate or having regard the Privy Council j to the main heads of revenue taken November last, Whon it wa one by one, are alike satisfactory. I that judgment> ould s estimated, for example, last February next sitting of 'he 8 p, that we would receive during the year was expected;fwronta +4 upon which we were then entering in "this month. --'This auest round numbers $3,122,000. . As a far't' petency of in tagg, } we did actually receive, excluding the | brewers an "disf lers darix Af k annuities, $3,312,940. This-- proves once | the Governfent of Canada to | more that we are always caréeful to | licenses in . j % s bnnmiel pouem o state as our estimate of revenue an | years ago,/ (}fit};--}g t'il? cConnBd amount well within what.we can rea-- | of Canadg had decided in the case sonably hope to receive. Our subsidy Severn '(.}thg Queen that the .}' ' receipt was, of course, the same as tion of A'license by the L 1 Govern that of last year and previous years. It ment ubpon a person carrying cnv will be noticed that our receipt for the trade of a brewer and the manuf; year under the head of "Interest on ture of' beer, and who already held a capital held and debts due by the excise lieense from the' ininlon t Dominion to Ontario'"' is less than it ernment, was an interference with A was in former years. For several |exclusive powers of Parliament a years prior to 1894 we received as in-- the regulation of tr --and comm terest from the Dominion on moneys and could not be regarded held for us a round sum of $300,000 a the exercise of a police year. This sum was, of course, an ap-- so that the right con proximate amounrt, the real and actual Local Legislatures to de; . amount rot being as yet exactly ascer-- with sho 'av ct r tained. In 1894 we received $310,020. licenses did not exter B , This amount represents exactly 5 per brewers or other licenses which were | cent. on five separate funds, viz., the not of a local or municipal character.. capital sum placed to our credit by 47 The decision of the Supreme Court has Vietoria, chapter IV.; our Common never been absolutely overruled . School funrd, our. Grammar School now, but the grounds on which it fund, cur Upper Canada building fund ed were from time to time weake andduur Upper Canada improvement ?--8 tllle P.NdA. act has become. C fund. s ensively discussed and be In 1895 we received $262,274, or $47,746 stood. : legs than the previous year. Now $47,-- In May, 1895, the Lieut.--Gove M 146 repr sents a half year's interest on Council of Ontario submitted what we call our trust funds, so that Court of Appeéal three questions fc one payment--the payments are half-- their _ consideration _ and _ hearing' yearly--of this interest was withheld The Court -- of Appeal on _ th in 1895.. Last year two such payments | l14th of January, 1896, u: were withheld, in all $95,493, and this mously determined : (1) That ow rccounts for our reduced receipt under enactment (sub--section 2 of section 51 this head. These trust funds, it will of our license act) requiring every j be remembered, are the Upper Canada brewer, distiller or other. pe o Grammar School fund, $312,769; the Up-- licensed by the Government of ser Canada building fund $1,472,391, and to first obtain a license under t */ the land improy ement f\Jl)(}_' $124,085, to sell by wholesale the liquor manu-- the tl.:w'v :'f:l:;'v'«'-?-ittl!\a' Sl_.!mf'.M:). § factured by him when sold for con-- I"V'l';\_"lf'?' ;n"t"l.l"-"' l _'_""'t'lj'ia'\'"}?: of sumption within the Province, was a gg(l"(»-?t.;:i'v;l! ll-;l'!']\jx.]' \ n(lluf-h'tlltl'c'( (l)«tn'](inlilclsl; valid enaCtme-nt; (2) that the Legis-- i he open accounts at $2,000,000, and l:url(x-\e'p};afid pt")O';ex}'?eitpler 'inl order to raise in discussing our surplus I took 'this o Oy mzla pPunponen O frem--Ifts consideration." 'The Domin. for any other object within Provincial fon contends that this unadjusted, un-- jurisdiction to require brewers &nd dis-- l anihn mt Rhaleareast BRalma o * tillers to take out these licenses, and (3) ascertained balance being about equal in amount to the sum of our trust that we need not exact one and the funds. the interest on the latter hither-- same fee from brewers and distillers. terext on the latter hither-- The brewers and distillers appealed to to paid to us half--yearly should for o e PP the time being and pending a final and | the Privy Council. ~The appeal was complete settlement be withheld. I am heard last November. A few days ago now of the opinion, in the light of fuller | --February 6--the Judicial Committee * information than we were possessed of | ;:E'atlhe Privy Council dismissed the ap-- a year ago, and especially having re--| Awed gaSrd to recent decisions of the arbitra-- ; This very important judgment of the tors, that this unradjusted, unascer-- | Privy Council, therefore, substantig tained balance is less by at least $250,.-- | declares that a license fee imposed upOte 000 than the sum mentioned in my last | a person carrying on the trade of b '":,' financial statement. . From -- Crown | er _ and wholesale vendor of ale is n lands, our largest source of revenue | indirect taxation, that it is intra vires aside from the Dominion subsidy, we | Provincial legislation, and it affirms received $925,262, or $125,000 _ in |nur power to impose a direct tax upon excess of our estimate. Of this large a bank or other commercial. corpora sum woods and forests, of course, con-- tion carrying on business within the tributed much the larger part, viz., !P:ovince. . . $812,421.° Crown lands yielded nearly Local option by--laws are in force in $44,000, and by way of ront we receiv-- sixteen municipalittes in the Pro¥ince, ed $486.973. When we remember that the same as last year, save that the by-- 1896 was, all things considered, an un-- law in the TOWnShip of Carna.rvon, in favorable year for thes In=m®er inter., the license district of Manitoulin, was ests, we may well be satisfied with our repealed last March. These by--laws I receipt. are now in force in Essex (town), South C Norwich, West Garafraxa, Mariposa, | DECLINING LICENS" RECEIPTS. Parry _ Sound _ (town), _ Pickering, ' Year by year the aggregate receipts I(i;le"l'l:)m)orgt'orrilt;o?gfi Mixvllle (vil-fi ) from liquor licenses are declining. They bury" ;East A§narx;,nth H»I;:&l'l:. GT"-" 4 will continue to decline,_ot course, ow-- fraxa and 'East Luthér 'i."l.;ese a;g: ing to the steady diminution in the laws cut off 36 tavern and three .-' number of licenses issued. The total licenses, and to this extent on 6 number of licenses issued last year, our revenue. *« lt tavern, shop and wholesale, was 3,132. v9 Of these 2,779 were tavern, 337 s%op atndl sUCCESSsION DUTIRS, \~_,26 whclesale. Two years ago the tota + f <s & .\ number issued avas 3,2786, and four years | ml';';o'»?e ::}cp;gslog .htiu;& a A 'Fago it was 3,.414. In our last financial really ree&'\xreq' recgive . 0t kear the aggregate receipt was $268,172, 19 t, namoly, a _ considerably -- gainst $270,809 of the P!'e""lo2'éi1' yeat. m in _ '&" Weri * star! $265.172 the sum of $112,261 came Sm Yielded £131,008, s Thak the reaursd" municipalities, and $155,551 e us . *4 ho' XB eA ul Ob