case of tke municipal loan fund, it would have been a great benefit to the country, be« .cause at the time that fund was created coun ty Gebentures were selling at a discount in Enpglard So that by exchanging them for Government debentures, whi£ sold at par, they gained a great advantage, But the mis-- * Fouth . was s oys ce Bc 0 rmoe e ut take was that no limit was placed to the amount that might be borrowed. In the prescnt case the gGovernmont were perfectly gecure hir WOOD (Brant) said he did not think aby one had any inclination to charge the Government with creating a new ~'ucicipal Losn Furd, bus is was of considerablo in-- terest to the Honse to consider to what ax-- tent they should go in aiding municipalities in their local public undertakings, _ It was poesible that uomo}?crsous might get the idea, that because the CGovernment may coms to the conclusion that reductions masy be madso to xnunicixa'itim owilag to the Munisipal Loan Fund, that the same provision in a re medial sense would extend to them for any loans cffected for municipal purposes Drsin-- age of lands mast add to tgs wealth of th woantry, ard no doubt there were larg» tracts of lapd requiring drainage, perhaps » mwillion acree; but care should ge taken that the Gcovernment did not go too far in the tter of expense for this object, __ i13 ap» mr:»::d of thep;rinciple of the Bill, and hoped 5. wonnll be framed in such a shape that the House could pass it; but he held that the Bill must be a final concession to the local Jemandsot the country. (Hear, hear.) He did not think that the money should be handed over to the municipalities to be expended by themselves but the Commissioner should see that he had full control over the expenditure. He noticed bgctbe Bill that no more than $20,000 could be borrowed by any one muni-- cipality, and this sum in many cases might not do to drain all the lands. Hoe scarcely . thought, however, that any township would undertake drainage costing $30,000 or ' $40,000, unless it knew where to get to~ balance. He would ask whethor interest on the money was provided for? main of timbered lands spoken of by the hon. Commissioner of Crown Lands--and | the revenue from Crown lands awmountcd to | little after the exponses of the Department | were fiai&«snd the $900,000 of a subsidy. | The Legislature would not, he thought, bo wise in devoting nearly half a million more for drainage purposes. Hon. Mr. MoCKELLAR replied that the debentures were made payable by instalments with interest. Mr. WOOD continued, saying that he ap-- proved of the investment propesed, and if it worked well, the moncy could be supple-- mented at a future time. But, in addition to this $200,000, there was an Aot passed by the Government, authorizing it to sponud another $200,000 for drainage purposes, making $400,000 in all, and he thought that was a vory largo expenditure, and that thore was dangor of going too far. If the sums paid for flw-smwpl. marriage licenses, and other items of revenue wore to ba discon-- tinued, thoro wou'd be little money left. Jb might be better to sce how our fuads stood aiter there had hbcen an adjustment of the Municipal Loan Fund, the settlement of the Railway grants, and other matters, before making further beavy expenditure,. . The sources of revenuo promised to be so curtailed that little would be left exctpt the rich do-- Mr. LAUDER contended that the exp>n-- diture of large sums of money through mu-- nicipsl councils was not tho wisost way ol experding it, and thought the wholo machinrery <of the Bill was such as would prevent municipalitics from taking advaa-- tage of its provisions. He objected to the amendment which proposed to allow the Government to re--invest the money as it came back, and thought too much power would be placed by the Bill in the bands of ths Com-- wissioner of Public Works, who would, under its provision, be able to tavour certain municipahties to the disalvantage of others. He was of opinion that, before morey was loaned for the purposes of drain-- agt, statements should l;)ev submitted to the House with estimates of the required cxpenditureo and other necessary particulars This was the course adopted by the Sand. fheld Macdonalda Government; .ng, alter the bon gentleman's contentions during the time ihat Government was in oflice, he was sur-- priged that he should propose & course so _ uppored to his formeor views. scarcely have imazined that the hon. goatls« man could bave been so utterly ignorans of the subject he was discussing as he had sbown himscl{ to be. He bad given th» subject a good deal of consideratiou. He had first introduced the drainage cl.uses into the Municipal Act some years ago, aud he had subscquently amended thein as cxperience dictated. Hon. Mr. McKELLAR satd ho could Mr. LAUDER asked the hon. gentle man if he bad anything to do with the Act of the late Government. Fion Mr., MeKELLAR said if the houn. pentleman Lept his seat he would give hm = me information which he very much need --a, -- He introduced a clauge to enable muni-- cipalities to do their own draining. Parties wanting their lands draincd could petition . heir Municipal Council, and the Council conld -- issue debenturos and Jlevy a tax upon the parties whose lands woere drained for the pay-- went of these debentures. The purchasers ot theso -- debentures _ held the whole townskip respousible for their Enymant,, 2rd _ the townehips held the par-- ties who owned the lands drained . Ths mnty of Kent, in that way, spent upwards oi $200,000 without getting a single farthog irom the Government. Hoe was stron.;'y of opinion that the work could be done boster by the municipalities themselves than by the Government. _ The late Government thought they would improve upon this system that be bad initiated, asd thoy appropriated $:00,000 for drainege purpoxes, They tiok the entire control of the whole affair irto their own hands; they took power to enter upon any lands without asking the poo-- ple whether they wanted their lands drained or not. The $220,000 were frittered away. aund as yet ouly one or two smaell pieces of work were finished. The money was gone, anc the people had to pay interost upoun it from the time it was expended, In his own tounrhip, Rawley, they ontered upon lands, and they bad already expended in that town-- »bip between $40 000 and $50,000 _ There was no limittothe amount they might ex sxend in any bnwu::;is. The hon, gestiemau from scuth twrey asserted that no "municipal:-- ty bad taken advantage of the Act of last r.esion, while the fact was that at fresent $°0,000 were awaiting investment under that Act. He had also sgserted that the Gavern ment were now asking $200,000 more to he ex-- pepded by the Goverpment, Such was not the ase They hadalseady powertospend $200,000, at d in go far as that was concerned the pres-- | ent Rill was only a ro enactment of the pre«: ut Jaw. It was found that that law was ; defective in some particulars, and it was pro-- posed to remeday those defects by a re--enact-- ment of the wholo Act rather than hy a sepr rate Act. lle would advert to another jvint. Tho leader of the Opposition the uther day had dissented from tos view takeny by the mom'ser for South Brant and himsolf trat a Eall could be introduced with the meney clauses in blank or in fralies before the resolutions were passed. The view of the leaceor of the Opposition was sustained, end the result was they coald not in ;rodace the Bill till the resolutions were passed. Yet. they were o)'lged to discuss the whole measure ' betorethe bill was instroduced. He wasnot ask-- 1 { for a new appropriation ; he was metre'y arking for a re--enactment of the prasent sppropriation. Notwithstanding ali that hat been said by gentlemen opposite, he asserted that he was a--king the House to do that which would do more substantial good to tae country than a dozen of those lawyers' Hills altbough they might be very uae"us tn their plsce The hon member for Sonth Grey might undergtazrd bis legal Bilis, baut he had shown that he knew nothing of the subject now before the House. HMe bolieved that the more members examincd this measure the more satisficd they would be that it would \do a substantial and permancent good to the ceuntry. were only asking for $200,000, or were thay not asking for $200,000 in ons Bill and $200,-- 0CO in the other--#100.0090 in it Hor, Mr. MeKELLAR said that in oue Bill they were not arking tor any now appro priation--they woere merely asking for a ressnactment of thoe appropriation of last session, _ In the other Hil! thoy were asking tor a new appropriation of $200,000, and thas wasr all the now appropristion they wore eshing for. Mr. RICBHARD3 said that the hon Com-- migsioperof Public Works achnowledged that the Bill introduced by him last esssion had proved defective, and that nothing could be done under it. Hon. Mr. McKELLAR said ho had ex-- plaimed three or four times what the defects of that measure wore, People in ths country knew very little about the S35th Vistoria o: the 19th Victoria or the titles of Acts, and some of the municipalities nad passed thoir By Jaws unrder tho 32nd Victoria instead of under the 34th Victoria,and, of course, th--y were usoless. Mr. RICHARDS said the answer was an evation,. -- The hou, gentleman conlirmed his cvivion that uothiny could be done undor his Aot. At the end of last session the Spoech trom the Throne contained «what was very v~usual--a petty boast or triumph over the 1« gislation of a l{»rmcr session, avnd the sub-- V r. LAUDER asked i if the Govornment