The Ontario Scrapbook Hansard

Ontario Scrapbook Hansard, 13 Mar 1874, p. 5

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PECItT of hoots and groaus. Some of the Atateme;'s in the honourable gentléman's resolutic'" were fair, but his conclusions were €¢rroneov®~-- He submitted that the condlusion thatther. .hadbeenundulyinfluenced'\? the holiday giy« 3 them |was wholly unwarranted, They could only go to the hustings to ligt=; to the speeches, ang could not cast their voi--s, Ho denied that the men were paid $391 17, and maintained there was no evidence of th« deduction. 'The amendment was a series of resolutions framed in the intorest of the party as distinguished from the interests of the country, and he would undp..ake to say thet hon. gentlemen would.rst find many on that side of the House to support this action on their part. It was a fair question to be considered whether the men .e logyed by the Government should have amlix)olldny on nomination or election days, and it was a oveation whinh wonld hava to be dsctdeod Hs thought it was fair that the men should be permitted to attend a nomination without having their pay "docked," and that the Government should give the same privileges to their men that private employers did, g $ stated that the men employed by the la%3 Government on the Welland Canal were given half holidays without being docked. Gentlemen opposite had abandoned the charge originally formulated, that there had been coercion practised towards the men at the Central Prison,. The evidence proved the falsity of this charge, He referred to the statement which lwf been made in the House with regard to the license given to Government oflicials in Kingston during election times, and to the attempt made by Sir John A. Macdonald to prevent the post-- master of Allenburg from even exercising the franchise, because he was opposed to the then Government, although the statute per-- mitted him to take part in the electioas, Had the hon. gentleman asked in his motion what it woul(f be desirable to do in the fu-- ture in theso matters, it would have bsen received with more favour by the House; but having taken the ground he had, he would find that.ceither the House nor the country wouid sanction the consure upon these charges of acts of public men were public property, and Open to criticism. With regard to the resolu-- tion moved by the hon. member for Erst To ronto, be'did notthink it was reasonable for him to indict--and his--#iole speech was an in-- dictment of--the workmen, who he claimed relused to listo= to bis argument. He(Mr. Hardy) found, --on fgoking at the Mail, that his hon. frieed received a fair heating. Oc Casionally there was & grOA4» and he believea there was cve hoct and numerd cheers. But Mr. Mosa' *peoch, according to th" 1/«i/, was rec¢!yed ard interrupted with a nulti-- the Commissioner of Public Works, The kon. gentleman then referred happily to last week's cartoon in Gip,and exhibited how ap-- positely the various characters had beenassigna-- ed to the members of the quartetto. He be-- lieved the accusers had given up the case so far as its effect upon the country was con-- cerned, and asserted that it was only neces-- sary to reter to the political crimes hon, gentlemen had committed to hush their attacks acainst the hon, Commissioner of Public Works, Before the next elections came on this paltry charge would be dwarfed by revelations which would take place is reference to a robbery by one of the Conser-- vative party from the public treasury of the Dominion of $100,000, He then allnded to the lesislation of the present Government, which he looked upon as an admirable array of great measures, and he was satisfied that the action of the Goverament on this ques-- tion would bo received with unamingled satis-- | faction. (Cheers.) Mr. BROULTBEE said he did not think this question had been treated with the gravity it demanded, and then proceeded to champion Sir John A. Mscdonsd as a man who would be gratefully remembered for his wisdom, nobleness, and patrictism when the public bad had time to }){?et his faults, Ho went on to say that he admired the Commissioner of Public Works now more than ever he did for the manly course he had taken with re-- gard to this matter, _ That hon,. gentleman bad simply said that he did what he thought was right, and did not attempt to argue the question at all. 'The Premier had tofi'il them that the Commissioner of Pablic Works had ut his resignation "into his (the Premier's) Eu.dg, and no wonder the hon. Commissioner had done this, for he knew that he had lost t*>~ confidence of thoze from whom he had a at to expect support, for it was a fact that w )ldvinbih;z of throwing him overboard m a political Janah had been discussed by his colleagues, and thoy had only been whipped into order by Ti® Guon: n per. _ Ho had heard that the memg:r for Cornwall did not approve of the member 10OF VOIDWAN CS BVS EPPEOYVS OL JC course his party had taken with regard t this matter, and that he was only coercad ; . , "upporting the CommISSIONOL "J _ °_ i. told thas?f he%id not he would be driven out of public life himself, The member for Sout! V.:toria was also, he believed, opposed to that course, but that gentleman '0?1'1 now probably explain his dg:fenco ot the Commis-- sioner of Puilic Works, by stating that ho thought it in the interest of good govera-- ment to vote sgainst the amendment. Mr. WOOPD said in his remarks upon the | floor of the House he had not been acoustom-- | ed to be personal, but he was bound to re: ply to the observations of the hon, mambor ! for North York regarding the Afeeoh of the ! hoi miembor for South Brant,. _ If there was | ro argument in the speech of the hon,. mom--« | ber for South Brant, what on earth was @--'=~ in the speech of the hon. member for \=~ 304 York? (Hear, hear, and laughter,) E:.@commented upon the manner in which hon, gentiemen on both sides of the House had wandered from the question, One khor, gentleman--a prominent lawger of this Province--had moved that resol't_xtlon, and another lawyer seconded it, This de-- bate had gone on hour after hour, and hon. gentlemen, instead of speaking to the ques-- tion, busied themselves with the purpose of mystifying this House and the country. (Hear, hear.) He admitted the importance of this resolution, not so much for its state-- ment of fact, as for the purpose with which it was moved. If it were passed, it would have the result not only of causing the Com-- ' missioner of Public Works to retire from the | Government, but of causing the Government | itself to retire. .. He 'groposed to meet the question equaraly. The motion of want of confidence--for it was a motion of want of confidence pure and simple--was not one which found fault with the policy of the Government. Whi#h a Government were de:-- feated on such a motion _ directed against their public policy, they could retire with honour: but when founded on a charge of corruption, the Government must retire only in dishonour, Unless the hon,. member for East Toronto, leading his party in this House and reflecting their opinions, had thought he could establish the charge of corruption against the Commissioner, he did not believe he would have made it The hon, Commissioner, as had been observed, was not only a representative man in the oxdinary serse of the term, but he was also foremost as a representative yeoman of this country, He bad an intimate knowledge of our assessment and municipal laws, his voice had always been raised in the best interests of the people of this country, and when Mr. Blake formed his Government it was acknow-- lh?ged alike by friends and opponent: that T. McKellar must have a place in it *Bince that time there was no min in this House or this country who had been attacked, opposed, and calumnated, "Into su & yO supporting . 9?..q°mmi3"§°:ora'by being _ 2e a Arivan out ated against, even to half the extent that his hon. friend the Commissioner had been,. Hon. gentlemen opposite had not been con-- tent with this; they had also entered the pri-- vacy of his slceping chamber, and scanned his very furniture and the pictures which were hung gfl'on the walls, (Hear, hear.) Notwithstanding all this, the character of the Commissioner had remained unblomished, and he still maintained the foremost place in the hearts of the iarmers of this country. (Cheers.) Now, the gentlomen of the Oppo-- sition thought they had hit upon the vualner-- able part, and the character of the hon. gen-- tleman would at last be ruined. He pointei\ out the regular atteniance of the members 0. the Opposition at the Public Accounts Committee, to the neglect of the cther h:sortant Committees of the House,. They had exsmined * every one in any . way connected with the Central Prison, the evi-- dence had been brought down to this House, ard hon. gentlemen ought to have kept to this evidence, 'The charge in the resolution was not against the policy of giving half. holidays to workmen; it was that the action of the hon. gentleman in this particular in-- stance was corrupt,. He defieg hon. gentic: men to prove this from the evidence brought down to this House. 'The only thing proved against the Commissioner was that ho 'had written the letter to Mr. Wagner, and it had been just as clearly established that not only did he not interfere as to how the men should vote, either directly or indirectly, but ke had positively refused to inter. pose on behalf 'of Mr, Moss with some of the. officials who came di. rectly under his supervision; There: was no' evidence before this House that that letter bad .ni intluence upon the election nothing which would justity this vote of censure against the hon. gentleman, (Chears,) At gl:'e Moss--Bicktord election, and sim;e that time, hon. gentlemen opposite and their new.pa})er organs had come out as the cham. pions of the working:--men, many of the most whose Mrubllc reputation and private charac-- ter bad been attacked, vilified, and insinu-- BP

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