CHAP, 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 719
and the Privy Council in the case of the prohibitory liquor
laws 1 even allowed a province to forbid manufacture if its
prohibition could be regarded in any one case as a merely
provincial matter; while they did not think importation
could be forbidden, because that would go beyond private
or local matters solely. But they did not accept as a
ground the view that prohibition of manufacture or importa-
tion would interfere with Dominion powers?
It follows also that even in cases where the Dominion
Parliament could legislate, the Provincial Legislature can
still legislate until the Dominion takes up the ground. That
was decided in L’Union St. Jacques de Montréal v. Belisle?
where a Provincial Act forced two widows to commute their
existing rights to relieve an embarrassed society from
danger of insolvency. So Sir J. Thompson 4 allowed a
Nova Scotia Act of 1888 to remain in operation, though it
regulated for prevention of disease the arrival of boats
from one part of the province to another, because it was
probably valid until it conflicted with an actual Dominion
law, a principle quite different from the American rule that
the silence of Congress on navigation and commerce means
that no rule is to exist.
(@) Local Legislation
The power to regulate local matters under s. 92 (16) is a
wide one, and includes all merely provincial concerns, whether
extending over a province 5 or parts thereof.® The killing of
game in Manitoba has been held local by the Queen’s Bench
of that province.” The question is full of difficulties : public
* [1896] A. C. 348, at p. 371.
* This was taken as a ground by Strong C.J. in In re Prohibitory Liquor
Laws, 24 8. C. R. 170, at P- 204; per King J.. at p. 262.
* (1874) 8 P. C. 31.
' Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, p. 582. Cf. also pp. 946, 947; Lefroy,
op. cit., pp. 683-8 ; ex parte Ellis, (1878) 1 P. & B. 593, at pp. 598, 599 ;
Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. v. The City of Vancouver. 2 B. (, 193 :
Ringfret v. Pope, 12 Q. L. R. 303.
* Hodge v. The Queen, 9 App. Cas. 117. ¢ [1896] A. C. 348, at p. 365.
* The Queen v. Robertson, (1886) 3 M. R. 613. Contrast Sir J. Thompson,
Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, pp. 927. 930.
