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P o one who looked at the qUOS« 't'i':l.x cafididly could vote for the tcl(«;lu"'-'." submitted by. the leador of the Oppost« ""Mr, MERRICK had no doubt that nearly all the members of the House were §ur-- prised to find that scarcely any "'d'.'c"? Lad beea made in the estimates, In speak« ing he would refer only to the fix}'f?" | quoted by hon. members. opposite, . LNC | Ireasurer, in his Budget speech, had 3":: very full details, and had candidly answer | any questions put to him. . 'The 'Preasuter admitted that the surplus on hand after the Sandfield . Macdonald . Government _ was $3,704,733, not including amounts held by | tho Dominion Government. 'These special ' funds were now claimed by theo Govern«-- \ ment _ as part_ _ of their surplus, | but the former Government were . on-- | titled to creditfor the same. These amounted to $2,703,557, and the value of the library at Ottaws was $105,541,000, a total surplus after the lato administration of $6,542,825. The surplus as> claimed by the present Treasurer was $4,531,362, 1t was question» able whether the Government had really saved this, 'Ihe money of Sandficld Mac-- donutd's Government was not from what might be called abnormal revenues, excopt perbaps a sum of . $118,000 from the tim. ber lands sale of 1871. -- 'The Governmoht had made $600,000 out of the sale of '73, and $76,000 out: of the sale ot '77. |The Government could not take credit for that as part of the surplus, 'They might as well claim the proceeds of the sale of any of the pubiic buiidings for the same, 'The Sand-- | tield. Macdonald Government had to pay | $291,000 interest on the debt of the Pro-- | vineg, which was struck off by the Tilley { Act. 'The present Government claimed | credit for having arrauged the municipal 'loan fund, but he claimed that an injustice had been done to the older municipalities | who had not borrowed from that tund. He | then proceeded toquote the Public Accounts | to show that tho average annual increase | during the present Administration had been | 35 per cent greator than under the former \ Government, _ He took up first the subject | ol legislation,showing that there wasa differ. ence in the increase of 40 per ceut under the present Government over tho torimer,. | following it with simtilar remarks upon the | maintenance of public institutions, in which | department also heclaimedalarge relative in-- | crease,'The Govrernment had likewise increas. f ed the expenditure wet cdown toadministra. | tion o justice in an un wirrantable manuer. | Uuring the tour years of John Randficid's ad-- ' ministration the average yearly increaso | had been tive per cent, while the present | Administratiou had increased the sameitem at the rate of forty per cont. By similar calculatious he went on to show that the Government were responsible for undue in-- creases in other departments, Yet he dia not seo how they could claim credit for hay-- ing given so much money back to the peo-- ple, since a large amount of the expenditure hbad been upon works which would give no return to the majority of tho people, He asserted that_nearly all the items of salaries and contingencies in the diflerent depart. mentali: ofiices had been increased, and the course of the Opposition with regard to | theso increases was embodied in the resolu. . tion before theim, He gave figures relating | to the various oftices in support of his state. | ment, but was corrected in some of them by members of the Government, -- He thought there should be no hesitation in | reducing the salaries of many ofticials, since | if they did not like to accept the lower salary, effieient men could be found who would do zso, Fho Opposition had urged upon the Governiment the necessity of | decreaging the expenditure in many direc-- | tions, and they would always be willioyg to | concur in iny such decrease. Mr, BAXTER thought the hon, leader of the Opposition and nis followers were in the habit of paying much defterence to the views expressed by gentlemen outs:do of the House, 'FThe tables and statements of Hon. Senator Macpherson seemed to be of much gervice to tuom.. The expenditure under the present Government had been large, but is had not been a wastetul ex. penditure; it was all in the interests of ths country, 'The supporters of the Go+orn-- ment were prepared to detend the increases made by them in the cxpenditure on the ground that the money belonged to tho people, and that it had been distributed so as to benefit them, Notwithstanding the large amounts which had been paid out by the Government the surplus was still large, amounting to four and & half millons of dotlars, and the Province was in a sound state financially . Mr. FRASER characterized the motion | introduced by the leader of the Opposition -- as "buncombe." 'The term might not be & parliamentary one, but still he used it ad. visediy in describing <~not only the present motion, but the whole course of the Opposi. tion during the session, 'They had acted as if they wished to condemn the Government for what they themselves had consented to, and their wholo course of action was intended to gain political capital tor them, 'The leader of the Opposition had in his motion sot forth comparisons in diffterent items of expenditure under the present and late Goveraments, and these comparisons were made unfairly to toll against the Adminis-- tration, 'The hon.gentieman had pursued a similar plan in his speech, for which he (Mr. Fraser) had corrected him before, ' In comparing the expenditures of the two Gov» eruments, he (Mir. Meredith] had charged such abuormal items of expenditure incurred by the late Administration as the relief to sufferers by the Ottawa fire, and others of . a like nature, to capital account ; but when he came to the sum spert by the prosent Alministration in consvlidating and revis. ing the statutes, he had set it down asan item of current expenditure, The hon. geutleman should have treated both cases alike, and not bhave classed them under different head, ings. lHe (Mr, Frager) could say with con-- fidence that every member on the Govern=-- mont side of the House was in favour of economy in administering the affairs of the Province, and he thought the electors would testity their confidenco in the Administra-- tion by returning a large maujoritsy to sup-- poit them mt the coming election, (Cheers.) It being six @clock the Speaker left tho chair. Beforo recess Nir., Hardy laid on the Able the following documents ;«-- 3. Descriptive pamplulet of new territory added to Ontario under the award of. the same . 1. The t'.'ifie of the Ontario Government pcfore the boundary arbitration, 2. Dominvion Order in Council relating to the same. Landa® 5. Separate School reiurn. After recess, Mr. FRASER resumed the debate on the motion to go into Committee of Supply. Afver reforring to the points he had main-- tained hestated that just before the sdjourn» ment for recess he had characterized themo-- tionas buncombe, HMebadnow tocharacterize it in another way, Usually with votos of want of confidernce, where the leadership was courageous, where there was something amanly about it, a Government was not at-- tacked in the dark. 'FThose bringing for-- ward such imotions generally gave some notice of their intention, particularly in vases like the present, where the resolution would make it impossible to express by motion a difficrence of opinion, and where it had to be a straight vote, 'This was done in order to give the Government a chance of defence. In view of the fact that this was a straight vote, ho considered that he was justified in characterizing the leader-- ghip under which this motion was made as small end narrow--that there was not much coursgo or manliness about tit--that the strategy might be characterized as ten cent strategy, (Laughter.) Fair and hon-- est lcadership would give tho op-- ponents an opportunity to prepare & defence, When one seeks to make a com~ parative statement as between one year and another, the least to be cxpected is that those who are to criticize tho statement ghould have an opportunity of knowing where ho gets bis figures and how he reaches the conclusions ho draws from them. He had only in part been able to ascertain how the hon,. leader of the Oppo-- gition reagches the comparative statement between 187i and 16§77. He thought he Lhad shown that the figures did not appear @s represented in the Public Accounts, and therefore the hon. gentleman could not expoct his own followers, if they were true to themseive», to voto for his resolution, He would place his followers in the position of supporting figures which they knew to be incorrect and endorsing statemenits which did not square with truth, (Hear, hear.) _ The speech of the hon, gentiecman . Report of Comunissioner of Crown