cHAP, vii] COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION 1231 
the Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865, upon the proposal, 
but that inquiry was not answered. 
The situation, however, became less acute after the death 
of the Minister of Justice, Sir John Thompson, who had 
pressed the question on the constitutional ground. 
In 1900 a compromise was effected and the assent of the 
Crown was given to an amending Act passed by the Canadian 
Parliament (63 & 64 Vict. c. 25). This Act provides that if 
a book as to which there is subsisting copyright under the 
Canadian legislation has been first lawfully published in any 
part of the British Dominions other than Canada, and if it 
is proved to the satisfaction of the Minister of Agriculture 
that the owner of the copyright so subsisting and of the 
copyright acquired by such publication has granted a licence 
to reproduce in Canada an edition or editions of such book 
designed for sale in Canada, the Minister may prohibit the 
importation into Canada of any copies of the book printed 
elsewhere. The Act is still in force as part of c. 70. 
In the meantime the question of consolidating the Imperial 
Copyright Law became more and more pressing. An 
additional Convention was signed at Paris in 1896, and several 
attempts were made on behalf of the representatives of 
authors in the United Kingdom to obtain the concurrence of 
Canada in Imperial legislation on the subject. Mr. Hall 
Caine visited Canada in 1895 and Mr. Thring paid it a visit 
in 1899, but in neither case was any final result obtained, 
although the views of British authors were very fully repre- 
sented to the Government of Canada, which gave them 
a sympathetic hearing, and Mr. Mills discussed the whole 
question with Mr, Chamberlain in 1901. 
Bills to consolidate the Copyright Law were introduced into 
the Imperial Parliament by private members in 1898, 1899, 
and 1900, but none of these Bills passed. Shortly after, the 
question of the constitutional position of Canada with regard 
to copyright was raised, but not settled, in the Courts.! The 
[mperial Book Company of Toronto imported into Canada 
reprints of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth edition, and 
t 21 T. L. R. 540. 
TQ