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After some disc« . i0n, / ~ Mr. MEREDITH desired that the dobate should be adjourned in its presont stage. Mr. MOWAT said that the question could be brought up at any time . 3/ Mr. Broder--On Thursday--Order of the House for copies of all correspondence between any member of the Government and the License Inspector for the county of Dundas, or any other person, in reference to any prosecutions that have taken place in said county under the License Act during J)xe years 1877 and '78. s f Mr. BELL thought it a most unfair thing that this matter should be allowed to drop whan the Commit-- tee rose for the vory pursose of appealing to the House. Hoe held that thore should bo a vote taken at ance, and accused the Government of shirking the question. Mr. Baxter--On Thursday--Bill to amend the Manicipal Act. * Mr. Graham--On Thursday next--Resolution-- That it would be inexpedient and unjust to the 1'; terests of Ontario to continue the grant of $13,000 Superic¢«c Court Judgos after the retirement or demiso of the present incumbents, and témt on the retire= ment or demise of auy of the uperior Judgos of the Ontario Courts the supplementary grant of $1,000 to any Judge of said Courts from Provincial funds who may hereafter be appointod by the Dominion Governmeont should cease. Mr. CURRIE suggested this question should be made the first order of the day for to--morrow. Mr. MOWAT said hon. gentlemen opposite seemed to be anxious to impute bad wtives to the Government on this matter, when er& was no roason whatever for such imputation. e had no objection to the question being taken up to--morrow. amend sectiond 106 and 107 of chap, 111 of the R. S, %{ Ontario, relative to the inspection of Registry Of-- ce5, * Mr. BEETHUNE suggested that the question thould be taken up at the evening session to--morrow, as there would be a larger attondance of members than in the afternoon. ' PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES. This was agreed to, and the Hougse adjourned at 10:25. ToroxTo, Fob. 19. :)HESHURON AND ONTARTO SHIP CANAL. 10 Special Committe» to which the petition of t,l:c H'umn and Ontario SSip Canal Compfny' ':v(:v! ro« mrréa; met this morning for the second time in No. Th mmittoe room, Dr. Widdificld in the chair. io ere were presont Mo«srs Parkhill, Lane, Derocha unter, Patterson, Long, Chisholm, and fif.bn;ll. 4 The session was chicfiy occupied in hearing expla-- \ pations from Mr. Frank 'Wurnor of the construction and working of what is known as the " hydraulic liftlock,"invented'by Mr. E.Ciark,one of the engineers who were engaged in the construction of tho Menai Bridgo, 'The only lock of the kind in existence is on the river Weaver, at Anderion, in Cheshire, Eng-- gland; but there, according to Mr. Turner, it has een m perfectsuccess. During the three years it has been in operation it has cost nothing for repairs, though it has been lifting from 100 to 150 barges per day, Tho cost of the lock was $100,000; but this includes an extopsion rondered nocessary by the in-- tervention of the river, and morcover, it was built at a time when the price of iron was at the highest fint it bas been . at for many years. e working oexpanse is 'only $50 a woek, one man being able to work it nuaided. It is adapted for vossels of 300 tons, and is so constructed that one barge asconds whilo the other desconds ; the lock may, however, be constructed linslo as well as double according to convenience, and may be made of any capacity by the addition of more hydraulio power, Although thero is only one lock in use on this principle as yet, the principle has been applied to dooks, and will probably soon be utilized for the improvement of the navigation of the Volga. It is impossible to convey any aco-- quate idea of the mods of working of the lift lock without referring to plans or models, but it may be stated that the height through which vessels are raised by it is 50 ft. 4 in. The vossel to be raised or lowered is kept afloat during the ascont or descent in an iron trough which is reaily m por-- tion of the bed of the canal, In the double lock the upper trough is supplied with a greater amount of water than the lower one, and the former conse-- quontly descends. -- The force is rendored stronger by means of water accumulated in a tank attachod to the system in such a way that its contents can he used for forcing down one trough and in this way forcing up the other, Mr. Clarke, Norfo!lk--On Thursday next--Bill to Appiying his explanation to the case of the Huron and Oniario Canai, Mr. Turner called attontion to the fact that the deep cut through the hcigm of land would haveo to bo seven or eight miles long and 197 feet deep at the deopest part ; that the enormous amount of exoavalion re-- quired would maka it extromely difficult to dispose of the carth taken out of the canal, and that the depth and width of the cut would ontail a great cost for bridging. It was impossible without a survey to say precasely how much of the excavation could hbe dispensed with, but by the use of the hydraulic lift lock the first cost of the canal would probably be re-- duced from'$38,000,000, tho original estimate, to ons--half of that amount, while there would bo a say-- ing of time in passing through to the e®tent of one-- third. In the case of this canal the height of the lifts would be about 75 foetLund if the money were ready to go through with the work the under taking could be completed within five years. Twelve lift-- locks would suffice, while fifty would be required on the old plan, By the lift--lock system there is little waste of water, except by evaporation, a fifteen--inch pipe from some peronnial source being sufficient to supply all that was necded aftor the canal was once Frath _ TE sBE . conliiiless WE OR C e e Mog OO n e te ACOCHT full, It was quite likely that the necessary wator could be procured from the Holland, Don, Credit, or Humber Rivers, and reservoirs might be constructed to store up wator in through the winter whon the canal was not in use. On,this plan no water would require to be taken from Luke Simcos. A survey sulliciently thorough to furnish the information on ;vlhich to base tenders could be completed for about 2,000, A vote of thanks was tendored to Mr, Turner for KoTICES OF MOTION. his explanations, and he was requosted to them to writing for the use of the Committee. Aftor Mr. Capreol hadrébén a bricf outline of the points he would like to have submitted to the Hous* the Committee adjourned, to meet again At the call of the Chairman. * PUBLIC ACCOUNTS, The Public Accounts Committoomet to--day. were presont--Clarke (Weliington), in the Kerris, Harcourt, Gibson, Wood, Wills, Strik Meredith, Hon. Sydney Smith, Insportor'of Registry Offices was examined at considerable length, and teutifio«i that he had been appointed in 1866 at a niar{ of $2,000, including travelling expenses, which salary had booh continued ever since. His dutios comprised the visiting of registry offices, a critical inspection of the method of registration, sceing that all the books in connection with the offices were in proper condition, that all deeds and documents were kopt in good order, looking after the sureties ana stand-- ing of registrars, and tho rsporting to the Govern-- ment, and baving remediecd, any irregulafltie:" tlhut SH oi F ie + Eevmemmcath moy hemn ing OL FOgN®NERT U * 7000 arad C amer dramon ment, and baving remediecd, any irregularities that might be found during his inspection. When he had first bogun his work he had found an entire want of systom in the registration, but he belioved the effect of his exertions bad bean to bring it into a atata of considerable efficiency ; he considered ;_;t;&;"l)f _considerable efficiency ; he consigered that the intorests of the public required the inspec-- tion of the registry offices, This Committoo mot this morning. Prosent-- Ciarke (Wollington}), in the chair, Ferris, Striker, Harcourt, Hardy, Wood, Ballantyne, fiersdith, Ross, Williams, f A Mr. J, W. Murray, Government detective, gave evidence as to the expenditure through him in va-- rious countios. _ He was appointod three years ago at a salary of $1,000, and -- his -- duties were to attend to all criminsl casos . in T W y i en m one' kn wl wer® £C -- PRCETEC EC CC PPAE D the _ Province that the _ Government took up. When the expenses conn¢ ied with any case amounted to more than a small sum they were not incurred without the sanction of the Attorney--Gene-- ral or his assistant; ho was engaged;during almost the whole of his time in the performance of his dutios; he hadiexpended considerable amounts on his account for the travelling expenses of witnesses, when not authorized to do so by the Government ; these sums were not repaid to him; ho received no income be-- (ond his regular salary, and the only amount that ie received was a sum of $100 from the County Council of Haldimand for services he performed in the Young case. Mr. M;rodi'h asked an explanation as to the suim of $678 560 paid to OQliver, Davidson, 4 Co., on account of refunds. Mr. R. II. Brown, of the Crown Lands Depart-- ment, said that the firm had paid in the money on certain lands in cortain townships, and it having been found that they had been sold, orcould not be conveivfd, the amount deposited by the firm was re-- turno Mr. Merodith asked if it was the practice to allow firms to keep on deposit with the Crown Lands De-- partment sums which might bo appliod to the pur-- chase of timber limits, Mr. Brown said it was not. The practice was that the first applicant for lands received the pre-- ference, whether the money was paid or not, so that a firm who bad doposited a sum would have no ad-- vantage over one who had not. The Committeo adjourned at 12:80, PRIVATE BILLS, The Private Bills Committee met at 10:45 this morning, Hon. C. F, Frasor in the chair, The Com-- mittee proceoded with the consideration of the Bills respecting the re--consolidation and futurse limitation of the dobenture debt of Toronto, and the frontage tax or local improvement Bill was taken up in con-- neétion with it, The Lofiinlatinn Committeo of the City Coun-- cil, ex--Ald. Turner, the City _ Solicitor, the City Treoasurer, the Mayor, and other mem-- bers of _ the _ Corporation, . were _ present on behalf of the city to advocate the Bills, while Mr. Alex. Manning represonted the Property Owngrs' Association in their opposition to the local impro¥ement scheme. to :lay up every year fire per cent. on the amount 2{ ite ind:b&gdnegl, thus compelling them to provide oi its indedDtedness, thus compélling them to provide for their dobt. In Toronto, considering that they had _ $4,500,000 worth of s&asessable property to fall back ypon, they could gat whatever Mr. Turx®n said there was considerable force in this remark, there being no doubt that such proceed-- ings w'}ro a bad example to set to other municipali-- ties, Tho law compelied municipalities. howover, to :ay up every year fire per cent. on the amount Mr. Morn:s said he was in charge of the Bill«, but the City Council desired to be heard through ex--Ald. Mr. Turxs® said alarge portion of the debt had been contracted for permanent improvements, from which the ratepayers of future years would derive as much boneflt as the present goneration were now doing. The C:tarraan said it was a bid to extravagance on the part of the present Councils, Ex--Ald. Turyzr then addressed the Committoe. Ho sald the debt of the city was now so hoaV{ that its consolidation was necessary in order to 1 ihten ' tha qalls for taxes on the ratepayers. The debt in : roflind numbers footed up to $6,000,000, for which | interest and sinking fund charges were paid to the . amount of $567,800 annually, or uz mills on evory dollar of taxable property. 'The wholo rate forethe maintenance and improvement of the city ought not to exceed 20 milis, and 114 mills of this for » debt charges was altogether too much, leaving only . 84 mille2 to carry qn the business of the Corporation -- ;gth. 3!:0 re--corsolidation Bill was a remedy to ocx 6 growth of the dobt and lower the rate of intdrest and ginking fund charges. By it the city . deuged to sweep away thz ginking fund and replace -- the 5 and 6 per cent, bonds now held in England for | 4 and 4} per cent. bonds, the latter to be floated for as long & period as possible--forty years or more. | 'The OxaAthwéar----W hy spould this indgbtedness be thrown on the ratopayers of forty years hence ? The Comml--uoo idJou.rned at 12:35. Wednesday, Fob. 19. Toxsoay, Feb. 18. ;ton), in the chair, , Wills, Striker, and