Sunday 6 April 2008

Ardent Spirits

From: Douglas L. Hamilton, Sobering Dilema, Ronsdale Press, 2004.

p. 35 "By 1880, there was one licenced bar for every thirteen people in New Westminster."

p. 45. "After the union of the two colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia in 1886, Native liquor laws were tightened even more. Penalties were increased to a $500 fine for selling. one third of which went to the informer.... Persons possessing alcohol in a Native dwelling could be fined $500 and sentenced to six months in prison for a first for a first offence--or to a year of hard labour for the second offence. Guilty children under the age of sixteen were whipped in private."

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