The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

l Mr. FRASER did not think so. 'The ob. | iect was morely to perarit tho municipality | | to excempt this particular enterprise, inl | favour of which the people of the focality | themselves had voted. It did not involve the general question at all. l * "Piee Poll swas read bhe second time,.ag wert | "also> the followipge-- >3 > 0 > spent no money without the consent of ; Parliament? He thought 'they had fallen from grace, while bhe was advocating the same principles he advocated twenty years ago, (Laughter and cheers.) So that they had not vindicated the principles they pro-- fessed. It being six o'clock, the Speaker left the chair, The House went into Committee, and reported the following Private Bills without amendment :-- To incorporate the St. Thomas--street Rail-- way Company.--Mr. Wilson . The Bilts were then read the third time and passed . The following Bills were read the second time :« To confirm a Survey in the Township of Caledon.--Mr. Flesher. Respecting the City of St. Catharines.-- Mr, Hodgins. To confirm sales made by the Order of Good Templars.--Mr. Meredith, The London Water Works Amendment Act of 1878.--Mr. Meredith, ' To incorporate the Western University of London, Ontario.--Mr, Meredith, To enable the County of Bruce to assume the railway debts of certain municipalities. --Mr, Sinclair. To authorize the Town of Dundas to ex-- empt Messieurs Fisher from taxation.--Mr. Mc Mahon. * Mr. CAMERON said this Bill affirmed the principle of tax exeimptions, which he did not know whether the Govertment was will-- ing to agice to. To consolidate the debt of Brockville.-- Mr. Deacon. Respoecting' the Townships of: Tilbury East, Raloeigh, and Romucy--Mr. Coutits, Bespectit--xg' the debt of the County of Frontenac, and to make valid certain dehen-- tures of said county--Mr. Calvin. To enable the Corporation of Leeds an' Grenville to sell certain lands.--Hon, Mr-- Cameron,. To authorize Henry Scarrow to add the name of Woodward to his present name.-- Mr. Hodgins, Respeéting the City of Toronto and To-- routo Water--works.--Mr. Bell, To legalize By--law No. 221 of the county of Oxford.--Hon. Attorney--General Mowat. Mr. CAMERON observed, with reference to the last Bill, that the legislation of the House was not clear else the Bill would not be necessary. ; DEPARTMENTAL PRINTING . Aiter recess, Mr. MACDOUGALL continued his re-- marks on this subject. He contended that | the difficulty between the Government and | the contractors should be setiled in one way \ or another. If Messrs, Hunter, Rose, & Co,. were entitled to tho increased amount the Government should bring down a proposition to grant it to them ; and it not, then the improper arrangement should be understood to cease, 1t was not sefe or honest or economical to conduct public business in the way the (Government were conducting this matter, He exprossed the opinion that the public printing of the Pro-- vince could be done more cheaply, and more satisfactorily if it were in c# Governinent printing oflice, wnder the man-- agement of officers of the House, instead of by the contract system. He had formed this opinion in consequer te of enquiries made several years ago at Washington, as a Commissioner on the subject of govern-- mental printing, and he offered the sugges-- PRIVATE BILLS. uy e s tion to tif Government. He concluded by saying that the terms between the Govern-- ment and the printers ought to be plainly understood. Mr. FRASER said it would perhaps be only fair to state the facts as alleged by Messrs. Hanter, Rose, & Co. in support o1 their claim for an increased price, What they said was, that they had not after the strike engaged apprentices or women at less wages than regular printers,. They had only three women compositors, to whom they had paid the same wages as to men,. Mr. O'DONOGHUE--I can not let LhAt statement pass. (Laughter.) Mr. FRASER--I am only making the statement as the statecmeut of Messrs. Hunter, Rose, & Co. Mr. O DONOGHUTE said he was prepared to prove that they did employ women at & lower rate of wages than they had given to men,. -- The Government had paid Hunter, Rose, & Co. $50,000 in order to get them to expedite the printing of the Ontario Statutes. He thought they might have done the work on the rates they were get-- ting without being granted this additional amount, 'That addition was authorized by an Order in Council of last year. Mr. FRASER--Not at all. An order of the House was passed for the advancement of the small sum of $7,000. (Hear, hear.) Mr. O'DONOGHULE went on to say that Hunter, Rose, & Co. enjoyed what printers called a "fat take" by their possession of this contract, and he saw no reason v ay they should be pampered by the House. 'The work of the Government ought to be sub. mitted to public competition, and if that were done, he pledged his reputation as & practical printer, that it would be done at | one--third less than it was done at present. | (Opposition cheers,) Hon. gentiemen op-- | posite need not imagine that he was going to | desert the rauks because of the position he took on this particular matter, (Cheers and lavghter and Opposition cries of " You can have a seat over here.") Me felt the right to sustain that party which was doing what was best in the general iuterests of the country--(cheers)--although it was his duty | to feel and speak as he had done with refer-- 1 ence to the contract in question. ' Mr. CREIGITTON disclamed any inten-- tion of attacking the Government by means ofthis motion,. His object was merely to have a wrong righted, and he thought he would succeed. When the hon. member for Ottawa and himself first brought the matter up in the Printing Committce, it was without the object of making a complaint 'nguiust the Government, but he thought bhon. members opposite had had Mr. Notman | brought before the Public Accounts Com. | mittee in order to forestall their eftorts. He contended that the authority which had been given to the House in a recommenda-- tion from the Printing Committee retervred to some special work, and not to tho gen-- eral work, and that hon. gentlemen oppo-- site were scroening themselyes by special pleading. Me quoted from a previous con-- tract with Messrs. Hunter, Rose, « Co. to show that the contract was subject to the ratification of the House. Mr. CAMERON said he was not able to be present when this matter first came up. He regarded as a little strange tho position of the hon, member for Ottawa on the sub-- ject. He thought that at the tims Hunter, Rose, & Co. asked for additional rates, or oftered to give up the contract instead, the (Government should have submitted it to public tender, _ He quoted the evidence of Mr. Notman before the Public Accounts Committcee last year, and said the position was in the same unsettied condition now as it was then. Mr. FRASER said that what he said was that Mr. Matdonald's Government had not as a matter of fact submitted the contract for ratification. Mr. CREIGHTON continued to say that he was surprised at the statements of a gen-- tleman who professed to understand the printing business, a gentleman " who had been a devil" in his time (laughter), should attempt _ to mislead the House in regard to the matter of printing q yts xt o db