The Manitoba Gazette / Gazzette De Manitoba January to December 1889 by Manitoba Government & BERTRAND, Theophane (1844-1921) (publisher) - 1889

Winnipeg: Theophane Bertrand, Queen's Printer, 1889. 1st Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. RARE MANITOBA GAZETTE WITH THE CONTROVERSIAL ENGLISH ONLY TRANSITION Bound volume containing weekly Gazettes dated from January 5, 1889 to December 21, 1889 inclusive. Dark board cover. Rubbed boards with a small broken edge to top of back cover, worn corners, and slight wear to ends of spine. Speckling to inside front and back, but gazette pages are age toned. Page [299]-300 small section of page in top missing paper affecting some words. Condition is very good otherwise. A rare 1889 Manitoba Gazette publication that includes the controversial publication transition with the bilingual edition ending on August 31, 1889 and the English only Gazette starting on September 7, 1889. Beyond that, there are many laws and weekly news during the year of 1889 in Manitoba. Quite an interesting and historically important set of 1889 Manitoba Gazettes. Issued weekly with occasional special issues, the Manitoba Gazette contains information such as proclamations, land transactions, court notices, notice of acts, public notices, tenders, appointments and resignations, bankrupt and insolvency notices, impoundments, police auctions, unclaimed letters, licenses (publican's, wine and beer, storekeeper's, occupation, and depasturing), notices of protection, dissolution of partnerships, rewards on offer, and more, in both English and French. As French declined in importance, English-speaking Manitobans increasingly objected to the maintenance of bilingualism in the Legislature and Courts of the province, on the grounds that it was irrelevant, cumbersome and expensive. The Liberal government of Premier Thomas Greenway, which took office after the general election of 1888, responded to this sentiment by sponsoring changes in the province's language laws. By Order in Council in September 1889, the government suspended publication of the French part of the Manitoba Gazette. This action, it might be argued, was not in conflict with section 23 of the Manitoba Act because the Manitoba Gazette was not a record, journal or act of the Legislature. The Gazette had, however, been published in both languages since the province was established in 1870 and the change to English only was a first step towards making the province officially unilingual. Text in English and French, Mar. 6, 1880-Aug. 31, 1889; includes some text in French, Sept. 7, 1889-Early Manitoba Government Gazettes are a scarce, useful and extremely fascinating resource for local, family and social historians and researchers in other fields throughout Canada. They were published by the government as a means of communication to officials and the general public and therefore contain information that is of great use in establishing an image of the Province of Manitoba and its people in the past. They contain many thousands of names and places and information from a whole cross section of the community.