CHAPTER 194 OF THE REVISED STATUTES OF ONTARIO, AS AMENDED BY 51 VICTORIA, CHAPTER 30; 52 VICTORIA, AND THE ACT PASSED 54 VICTORIA, INTITULED "AN ACT RESPECTINC LOCAL OPTION IN THE MATTER OF LIQUOR SELLING" BEING A FULL AND CAREFUL ANNOTATION OF THE THE KEEPING AND SELLING OF INTOXICATING LIQUOR, INCLUDING NOTES OF CASES ON THE TEMPERANCE ACT OF 1864; THE CANADA TEMPERANCE ACT, 1878; AND KEEPERS AND LICENSE-HOLDERS GENERALLY, AND THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF ALL OFFICERS CHARGED WITH THE ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCE- MENT OF THE LICENSING LAWS, WITH ΑΝ APPENDIX OF FORMS. BY HIS HONOUR J. S. SINCLAIR, Judge of the County Court of the County of Wentworth, and Local Judge of the High Entered according to the Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, by His Honour J. S. SINCLAIR, Judge of the County Court of the County of Wentworth. PREFACE. In introducing a work on the liquor licensing laws of Ontario, it is considered that no apology is necessary. If there be one branch of the law more than another concerning which there exists a lack of information, it is that now under consideration; and I have therefore been convinced for a very long time that a work such as this was a necessity. The subject is one which has always presented, both to the Legislature and the Courts of Law, many grave difficulties and perplexities, and has been fruitful of litigation in a marked degree. In fact there has been no branch of legislative or judicial practice more complex or troublesome, and no subject has awakened greater public interest on the American continent than that dealing with the traffic in intoxicating liquors. Yet it would seem, as a matter of fact, that neither lawyers nor laymen, Legislators nor Judges, neither those who frame the law nor those who interpret it, neither those who should observe it nor those whose duty it is to enforce it, are able to understand it as it should be understood. This is not the case in this Province alone, but in England and the United States, wherever licensing laws are in force. Upon these grounds alone the submission of this work to the legal profession and public may be amply justified. It is intended to assist in imparting to those who should be familiar with it, a knowledge of what the law really is. No attempt has been made to accomplish the impossible, and therefore there has been no effort at interpretation which is not amply supported by judicial or other competent authority. The editors have refrained from presenting mere opinions of their own, which, judging from the conflict of opinion existing even between the highest authorities, would certainly be useless, and might prove misleading. But it has been considered, where more direct authority is wanting, that the solution of many, if not most of the difficult and doubtful points embodied in the Act might be very materially assisted by reference to cases and authorities in which a construction is given to words and phrases similar to those contained in the various clauses of the Statute, and with this in view the latest authorities, British, Canadian, and American, are quoted in the notes to the various sections. All the latest cases having a direct bearing upon the various questions involved are also given. The Canadian cases are given up to date, the British and American cases up to the date of the latest reports available. The very large class of persons interested in the subject, whom it is intended to reach, has made it necessary that the work should be as simple in its language and as free from all technicalities as possible. The fact, also, that those provisions of the Act upon which its success and efficiency chiefly depend are to be administered by Boards of Commissioners and by Officers appointed |