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ACADIENSIS

struggle for "Responsible Government," by which the province was raised from a Crown Colony to one of local self-government as it exists today, and his administration of the Crown Lands Department after the change as one of its first Surveyor Generals is, perhaps, his greatest political work. During his incum­bency of that office most of the highways of the province were opened up and built, and mail routes and post offices established generally. It is said that he personally selected and engineered the great roads surveys and actually in some cases spotted with his own hands the lines on the trees through the woods.

He was also the author of the Labor Act (so called) under which a large amount of Crown Lands were entered for settlement and by which means some of the most thriving agricultural districts were reclaimed from the virgin forests.

It is also said that during his term of office he visited every parish in the province, in many cases travelling on foot. It was his custom in the early days, in attending the sessions of the Legislature, which usually took place in winter, to travel on snowshoes to and from his home to the capital at Fredericton, a distance of nearly a hundred miles.

The cabinet, of which Mr. Brown was a conspicuous member, was one of the most progressive executives New Brunswick has ever had, and many reforms were brought about during its regime. Voting by open ballot was first introduced, and the same law with very little change in principle is in force today. A Provin­cial Board of Works was established and the highways divided into two classes, and distinguished as "great" and "bye" roads, the former built and maintained by the government and the latter maintained largely by statute labor, and is a striking testimony to the com­pleteness of these systems of railroading and mainten-