The Ontario Scrapbook Hansard

Ontario Scrapbook Hansard, 11 Mar 1874, p. 12

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the C luterf the i a d m \ _ Mr., PRINCE desired to soe the logical | sequence of 'the ohservations of ths hon | gentleman who had just taken his sest, but | he could not. _ He contended that it was \ reasonable to giveo public servants a holiday | witbhout deducting &e time, and thought the | charge was off a most ridiculous andi con-- : temptible character. Mr., DARCY BOULTON said he could not give a silent vote on these motions. . Thneg invo'ved a principle on which he de-- | sired to make a few observations, He war satisfied that the practice inaugurate1 by tho ' hon, Coromissioner of Public Works was ons that would be condemmed by the country, ( Ho was assured that tho hon, gentiomin would not have allowed the men t> go to the nomination _ unless he" was estisfiecd they _ were politically favourable to the Government, and he thought no such Iuterference showld -- take place -- with freedom of election. The hon. gon n bad come across a paper in which he that the Gladstons Government had mitted an act of corraption io Hagland, and that was offered as a precedont for tha commissmion of a corrapt act in Canals. 11# condemred --the Commissioner of Pa'sli: Works for allowing Mr. Dickey to take pos-- gession of the men and.lead them to the bustings to interrupt the Opposition party, and said there was no ostensible purpose for allowing those men to go to the nomination, | exc:lfi thet of shouting for the Government | candidate=, and erom&g down the Oppori-- | tion cardidates, The hon.Commissioner of Puablic Works had no more right to guy those ' men $200 for their time than ho had to put his bard in the blic treasury, and abstract a similar sam }::' any other par-- pose. It was necessary to put a stop to cor. reption at its first spgetnnoo! on it might go en +5 an alarming and indefinite extent. He did not desire to drive the hon, member from public life, and if there was anything which would induce him to vote against the amendm:+nt it would be the fear of this rs sult, He trusted that the honourable gentleman would not be driven from public _ life, but _ at tho same time he did not think ho should be whits-- washed cvan on account of tho services he had rendored to the conntry and his party. He regardod the action of the Commi:ssioner of Public Works to be as corru?t, although on a smaller seale, as the sale of tho Pacitic Railway Charter, and hse thought it wastime the Legislaturs showld #ssy such acts wore improper, and ought not to be done. is would support the amendment of his hon friend for East Toronta. * Mr. SPEAKER, after roferring to the rul-- ings of various Speakers in the Houso o' Commoos in England and of Cauidian Speakers, said there was ro doubt that the well established practice in this country was that an awendment to an ameadment to a motion to go into Commit teae of Supply was irregular, and not:-- withstanding § his} belief that this prac-- tice was the result of miupgrehenslon. he did not feel able to take upon himself the responsibility of overturning the practice which had been so well settled, Ho must, therefore, decide the amendment to tho amendment out of order, Mr, O@'DONOGHUE aid not see from the evidence, so far as it related to the Commis-- slover of Public Works, that he had been gu'lty of the charges laid at his doo# ; and he thought that the Government should be gererons to their men in this respect, and accord ton their men an opportauaity of exer-- clsing their franchise free and untrammelled. Mr, SEXTON said it was plain from the remarks that had fallon from ons hon, ntloman that this resolution was a stab F: the dark at the whole Govern-- ment. Aiter roferring to the cir-- cumetances of the charge, ho said thers was no evidence that any influence had beon ex ercised with regard to the way thess mon should vote. If awrong had been committed they should look at the motive which prom ot-- ed that action, and it was patent that no corrupt influence was used. _ Ha denied that there had been any interferonce with tho frcedomtt;f ele':)tiou nllcil thila matter, The strongest term he co apply to the conseant given to those men to attend the nomination was that it was an indiscretion, *Js thought it was absurd to compare the charge before the House to the Pacific Railway chargo, The Hon. Mr. FRASER pointed out that a simi-- lar amendment to an amsndment to io into Committee of Supply was received by that House last sersion. He thought they should follow the rulings of their own House rathor than those of the House of Commons, Committee of Supply, was ruled order, House of Commons, in which an AM®""" ment to an amendment to a motion to go into to be out of amond> 'tlg"!flnn really before the House was whethor slhe act was one on the ground:of which they ould withdraw their confidence from th* Government. _ He for one did not feol in-- clined to withdraw his confidence from the Government on the charge, 24 would therefore vote against the amena4ment. Mr. OUMBERLAND said ha coutd] not but feel that the impugning of the charaster of a Crown Minister was one which could not be treated with flippancy. The Govern-- ment had erected a fine standsard of public morality, upon which he supposed_ they would rtand or fall. He would not have hesitated in giving his vote if the hon. gentleman had merely . given the men liberty to vote, but to give libarty to attend a rnomination was, in his opinion, & doubtfal thing, and he thought the Commissioner erred in judgment when he gave them liberty to leave their work in order to bo present a* the nomination, For this reason he ap-- proached the vote with considerable relact-- ance, % Mtr. ROBINSON said thst in his con-- stituency ho had seon Governmsut officials of the late Government working for six or eight days in the elections, and during that time the{,r wages were not 'stopped. If the Ds o ns naw af Pablic Works~ Lhal vino HOLE Waaye C onl' hon. Commissioner of Public Works bhad been possessed of the sophistry peculiar to many of the lawyers on the other side of the House, hke would not have had the amount charged to the working--men, but to Coloai-- zation Roads. (Hear, hear.) Then there would not bave been a word of complaint about is -- He did not consider that the evi-- dence warranted the charges, and said he would vote against the amendmeont. hoiph--Uameron '«0vCimInUny----M JUORORER LALQT min?stmtion--and one about whom is was claimed there was not a taint of corruption, though it the Pross of the other party was to be believed therse never was so corrapt a Government. HMe held that tho House had the best possible evidence that the gontis-- men who occupy the 'Tregsury benches had «n as extravagant as men could possibly Mr. DALY.said that the referonce the member for Stormont had _ made to what he called the Grand Trunk Frauds was a very unfortunate one, as the Government of the day in which there occurred was the Hincks-- Rolph--Cameron CGovernment--a Reform Ad-- . _ If it were only the few hundred dollars that were lost to t{o country through glving the Central Prison workmen half a fis to go to the nomination the Houss conl! have overlooked it, but they had reason to believe that thousands, and tens of thousands per-- haps, had been expended by the Government in worse ways than this. If the House con-- doncd this offence they would establish a precedent under which millions of dollars of the people's money might be spent in the same way. &'ith respect to the reference to the men of the Woolwich Arsenal being allowed by the Gladstone Government to have a por-- tion of a day in order that they might take part in the election, he said that it might be i~~ NXE cesscl n /A% * + TA up the Foote jcbh. _ What wers the facts with regard to it, but that the Reform Adminis-- tration paid the account after having put the country to the expense of enquiry into it, and he believed they afterwards had such transactions with Mr. Foote as had been con. demned by them. Everything that had bsen done wron%)in this case had condoned by the leader of the party of gentlemen opposite true that these men, haviog been allowed to go away from their work that day, did not come back again, but they were given the time to go and record their votes, not as in the case of the Central Prison workmen, to attend a nomination, and, if he was correctly informed, to disturb those speakers who held views different from those of hon, gentlemen opposite. It had been contonded by gentle men belonging to the party of the Govern-- ment that t%:ere should be no connection be-- tween this House and the House of Com-- mons, and if this principle was correct, why had it not been acted upon in the first elec-- tion to which this debate referred ? How was it the Government had not fonad it cou-- venient to give these workmen a half holidsy at the last election as well as at the first? It was because they knew they had done wrong in the first, and had established a precedent which they believed to have beon a dan-- gerous one, He held that the working--men of this city were so independen' that they could afford to go and record thaeir votcs without requirity to be paid for the time it took them to do it. _ As he kad said, it was not the trifling sum lost in paying the Central Prison workmen for their time that was complained of, although to give them that was wrong, but it was a fact that nine-- tenths of them voted for the candidate who was the friend of gentlemen opposite, and it was the bringing to bear on them an undue in-- fluence in order that they might do this that %ho::' on that side oElthe House objscted to, (ientlemen opposite lhad seen fit seen fit tB'BHEg ul; were the facts with

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