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I! ,. _ we --s I"VB"'"' in the country not only should the farm. ins interests be pmapemua. but so. too, nhouid be the mining and other interests. By the last report of the Bureau of Mines. It was shown that m 189?. the amount of oapttai inveeted in uniting was $5,311,139. and of this $2,591,344 went in wages. Thus. besides devei-Oping the re. sources ot the country, this expenditure bergethted the laborer. the merchant and " other branches of the community. And l ANnt _ timbc some 'icttrc on. that the Government could not be too liberal in dealing with the mineral re- sources of the country; the Government had neglected its duty with regard to the developing ot the interests of the country. When the present Government had ac- quired that Western territory, according to the. statements they had heard made. {may men had wept and women had uid their children to their breasts. But under the course of neglect to which that region had been subjected. the strong men would now be more apt to curse the day on which they were added to Ontario, and the women would be more apt to throw snowballs at the hon gentlemen. The mining interests had been utterly neglected. although to ensure due progress 1.. AL. -_.._._A_ - __ . - -- l and his friends with their want of success; 'ttut the people were wakingr up, were shaking oft the shackles of party. argu- ments were no longer falling upon deaf ears, and the indications were that they would pronounce against wasting the glo- rious patrimony of the country. The hon. gentlemen might talk at what they had doled out for agriculture here and there; but in 2'2 years they had taken within a fraction of $16,000,000 worth of the coun- try's assets and converted them into cash. They asserted that the one asset was as good as the other; they pointed to the myiums. the institutes, to the other build- Jugs-which they had erected: but was there no difference between these assets? The timber limits sold twenty years ago were now worth twenty times the amounts they brought then. These buildings were really the representatives of a. tax to that amount on the country. How much better There were other capital resources. The Government had in the past score ot years received $1,800.000 from the Crown lands. $704.00 from the clergy lands. 3810.000 from the Common School lentil; $13i5,000 from the Grammar School lands, making in round numbers $3,500,000 more of the capital re- sources of the country which the Govern- ment had expended. Mr. Meredith quoted again from the budget speech of 1869 to show that then these resources were re. garded as a permanent source of revenue, the interest net-mini: from them to be none used for revenue purposes. An ex- penditure of the Crown Lannie Department which he would cite as a specimen case of utterly unJu.atittatrle expenditure was tho sum of 3841.746, which had beer. spent since tip?. on the surveying of no" townships. Thus about 840,000 a year ttttrl been spent on the favorites of the hon. gentlemen in order to survey numerous townships in the desert, on the majority ot tittiett not " settler had up it) the present planted his foot. Such an expenditure could not be Justified; yet efforts to induce the Government to reduce it had proved un-I successful. He agreed with the hon. mem- l ber for West Algoma. Mr. Meredith went it would have been It instead of 'saver/ur; the timber they had borrowed the money and so erected these buildings. There was no point upon which the Government may no worthy of condemnation as upon Its management ot the timber resources of the Province. n t..\.|\;uaxua. "a" :'V ""V M._.W9.ee "'--' - m: revenue might be expected: But .7 a .J y.' ' t 'wts interest; the then Treasurer? . on to state that he thought that the, f mber should be kept as a permanent l. source ot 'tevtr)pf;:ttutt the Provincial rc-' scurcel should be. husbanded. "To showr ho .eompletelr the ttetpt Government. tirqversed that wild, Mr. Meredith ued, he neededdniy to-pplnt out they had persisted/tttruins -the pro- ts of the Opposition. in keeping to them- l the power of niacin: on the market timber 11mm Kenn mung; gt doliu'l I without consult ng the repreuntatives of II. peeple. That course, disposing as " 'did of the people's property without com . suiting their. 'ieprrscTrau"s. In contra-l vention of the principles of democratic; government, win an infringement upon! the rights and duties of members of the: House. I'I'imbor to the value of twp, three. F four or tive mlilivons of dollars could bel sold off without consulting the people in, the persons of their representatives. but on the authority of the Ministers, and all . ad him- "Ron. Mr. mrrcourt--Woud my In l', end please read the Interruption? a . 1 find thut_i_t Awas to the effect tpq it Ge Would be much larger}. om p, y P. Meredith-Yea; the interruption, by Richards. was ito phe effect thet, a OTHER CAPITAL RESOURCES. Now a few words as to where the Tro.. vince stood in the matter of expenditure. Norw4otuutuMrcns,r the very Large sums re- ceived from the sales of timber from I Crown lands nnd from other land funds which name into the hands of the Gov- ernment. it was a. {not that the income of the Provence for ordinary purposes was not equal to tits expenditure. Wr, it not. natural, under these circum- stance-.4, that tho people should anxiously look around them and see where relief was to come from. More.. over, if prohibition comes into forte in the Province '300,000 a year more. now denivml from licenses. will be taken from the revenue. He would suggest that for one thing the Legislature should meet in alternate years. Thirteen years aus, there were some discussions in the House on this subject, and statements were made! then on the Ministerial side to the cirect that legislation was so fur advanced that it would not be necessary that the House should meet except in alternate years. Aside from the direct expense involved. the-bringing ot legislators together every year tended to promote unnecessary legis- lation. Legislation. much ot which was of a. crude. character, was passed through the House one session, only to be amended or revok- ed next session. Ninety gentlemen as- sembled together for purposes ot legisla- tion had to do something. He thought there was a good deal of truth in the statement that there is too much tinker.. ing with the statute book. He really l, Totuihlng on the question of prohibi- ' tion, Mr. 'Meredith said he was not going to charge :Sir Oliver Mower: with any at- Itempt to deceive or mislead the people in regard to the promise he had made them 'to put into operwtion such a momma: of prohibition as he should be shown to have power to do it he were then in power. but what 'he did say was this, that it the Government had any such Intention then. meantime, the monstrous iniquity of the license system at! at present administered should not be allowed to exist any longer. (Opposition applause.) New: was no knowing how long the decision of the courts as to the power of the Province would be delayed. It was Just as impersv. tive that the license system should be put on a proper basis as if there was no ques- tion of prohibition whatever Involved. Mr. Meredith then briefty referred to the " se- cret ballot." The Government, he said, claimed to be entitled to the Cotttldence of the country. If so. he asked them to go before the people in a frank and humus? manner and let the people vote according to a. system which would not give them cause to fear that their vote"was not cost in secret. t-rr-i-. _ h ,.,V _ $, yet, when with sum "We: .wu main.- , had. it was surprising to find, notwith- f standing the enormous iron wealth ot the Province, what the bulk yrfattis expendi- ture went tin mtutttfttetttt'eq ot stone. of lime and of similar mandala, while not a. :doihn' in 1892 went upon the Provlncc'a (iron mines. That was a very serious , stat! of things indeed. Were the Govern- ) mam powerless to do anything 't They had heard that at the close of last vetr. salon mhey were almost prepared to come down and grant a measure of wartime: but the pressure from some quarters was too Break and the scheme had been aban- dons). The line of argument of the 'rurr- portom of the Government among the press as 'to tho question a! gramme bon- uses showed that they Vere afraid tint such it measure would Weaken their wr- tty's mhtion "van protection in Dominion politics, and the taNruatenst had been that industries should not be spoon-rel, that they should stand on their own bottom. Lt was not a correct parallel that the or- gans had made. They might well, without Rotor back on their tree trade principles. have ristleeted that the Government were part proprietors of the undeveloped min- eral wealth of Ontario. that as part own- ers they had an Interest in showing to the world the advantages which Ontario pow sessed and that they might. profitably make an [[3th man-em. That, he Mum. was a reasonable way ot looking at the manner. As had been Pointed out, ht was not enough to draw the raw ma- terial from the bowels of the earth and send it away to other rrountriers, It was necessary to Show that all stages of the process could be performed in the country vln which the minerals Wore four-l. But the Government had sat with folded hands leaving those great Interests to lulu, cure of tFatrsselvea. 'Dhey had uone nothing. He Ithonght the people of Ontario "amid say what it was in the interests of the whole country that steps should be taken to develop its mineral wealth. He llllnielf would never have consented to a royalty being imposed head it not been on the un- derstanding that the Government would have devlt liberally wtth the new indus- try. PROV I NFIAL FINANCES Y)? r- anion that that