688 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
be liable for the balance, over $62,500,000, of their whole debts 
and liabilities which were assumed by the Dominion. In 
the case of The Attorney-General for Canada v. The Attorney- 
General for Ontario! it was held that the two provinces were 
bound to repay certain annuities payable to the Ojibeway 
Indians under the Huron and Superior treaties, as had been 
decided by the arbitrators in their award of J anuary 7, 1896, 
and also the advanced annuities payableunder the agreement. 
This case was followed by the Supreme Court of Canada in 
The Province of Quebec v. The Dominion of Canada? which 
agreed that the lands were not, as the Dominion was anxious 
like Quebec to hold, burdened with a trust or interest in 
favour of the Indians which imposed on Ontario alone the 
payment of the annuities. Quebec also argued that a 
contingent liability was not intended to be borne by the 
provinces, but only by the Dominion. 
In The Queen v. Yule? the matter arose out of a toll-bridge 
erected in Quebec in 1845 under an Act of Canada, 8 Vict. 
c. 90, on the basis that in fifty years it should revert to the 
province, which was to pay the value of the bridge to the 
representatives of the proprietors. The Exchequer Court ¢ 
held, and the Supreme Court concurred, that there was no 
lien or right of retention charged upon the property—and 
therefore payable by Quebec—but that the amount due was 
a liability—though only contingent in 1867, of the Provinces 
of Canada, which fell upon the Dominion Government subject 
to reimbursement by Ontario and Quebec. 
(kB) Immigration 
The question of immigration legislation is one which has 
caused some doubt : the Dominion Government, as will be 
seen, has on grounds of public policy disallowed a good 
many Provincial Acts, but it has also doubted whether it 
was really within the legislative powers of the Parliament to 
pass an Act dealing with such a question as Asiatic immigra- 
' [1897] A. C. 199; 258. C. R. 434; Lefroy, op. cit., pp. 612-4, 
* (1898) 30 8. C. R. 151. ? (1899) 30 8. C. R. 24. 
"6 Ex. C. R. 103.