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_ Though under ordinary circumstan- ces this would have been private members' day, by agreement across the t1oor of the House between the leaders the budget debate, which is a Govern- ment order, was proceeded with. The argument of the Opposition was taken. up by Major Kerrie, who at this ad- vanced stage ot the debate was oblig- ed to travene well-trodden ground. He began by attacking the surplus. which._ in the twinkling of an ere, he reduced from 8.816.234 to 81,840,008. He lid so by deducting the railway certi- the teachers. With respect to the atate.. ment that the cost of the High Schools ', had been alarmingly increased, he 'showed that in Stutdfle1d Maedonald's time the proportion of the trrantfo the High Schools was 89 13 per pupil ; now it was only $4 05 per pupil. The grant to Public Schools had increased since that period by 70 per cent., the grants to the High Schools had only increas- ed 40 per cent. What became of their claim that the Public Schoools were being starved '? Mr. Ross' defence of his department was a most triumphant and brilliant one and was liberally punctuated by the applause of the, l House. y with. Unless he had his criticism " to the ground. He (Mr. Ross) was Anxious as anybody could be to n the number of examinations, d he thought he had been somewhat ccesstul in that direction. He had turintr his occupancy ot the office cut ft " examinations. A pupil could pass through the Public Schools without be- ing subjected to a single examination, and could go on to the University by -merely passing one examination. Com- :trttr to the charge of centralization he pointed out that in Dr. Ryerson's time the department controlled the issuance I all certificates; now only the first- class and second-class J?ertit1ctitets were issued by the department. Mr. Ross fiddled Mr. Whitney's statement that bite effect of 'the presence of the Direct.. ttp ot Teachers' Institutes at the meet- ings of these institutes was to muzzle the teachers. With respect, fo fho cOaOn 'In Mr. Whitney's own county a cus- 'toms (when, one Andrew Broder, had become a candidate for political hon- ors, and Mr. Whitney had actively imported him. Again, he said he d not quote these instances _ defend the action of political civil ' ants, but it certainly showed the _ sistency of the leader of the Op- ttion. He (Mr. Ross) believed that ii servants should remember that they were the Servants of the whole V pie, not of one party. Coming to e matter of expenditure he asked Mr. . itney if it was fair to expect that , cost of administering the Province be the same as it was in the me. of t3tutdtield Macdonald, The Pro- rice was more populous, many costly . ie institutions had been establish- Charles Tupper had left his omce in London, for which he was in receipt & a. {salary of 810,000, and went elec- tioneering through this country in 1891. 'and useful services added, and it 'e simply unreasonable to suppose the cost of administration would no greater to-day than what it was mutter ot a. century ago. They had gely aided railways, which the gem emen on the other side of the House would acarcely say was not justified." Lnuvering Mr. St. John, who had been 'ttteducational critic of the Opposition, . Rosa asked him if.he had any plan it which examinations could be done IN THE HOUSE . Ir. Rosa' defence of his a. most triumphant e and was liberally the applause of the that Sir ' mr. matter St I himself as belt Mr. Chapple, the representative of North Ontario, endorsed everything' that had been said as to the f'ttrtess of lthe new Premier for the responsible position to which he has been promot- ed. It had long been said. Mr. Chap; ple proceeded, that "Mowat must go. Mowat had gone to do more for his country than he was possibly able to do here, . but he had not gone because he was afraid to carry out the promises he had made to the people. Mr. Chappie met the charge that the Government was seek- ' ing to extend its patronage through the medium of the license system by point- ing out that the local option law pass- ed at its instance had cut " 36 licenses,' and that the bill now before the House, would cut oft 88 more licenses. He defended the succession duty as an equitable measure, and claimed that if there was any law for which the Government deserved credit it was this one. Mr. Chapplc noted the fact that during the debate little-or no excep- tion had been taken to the Minister of Agriculture or his department. This he regarded as an evidence that the Government was doing everything pos- I sible for the farming community. He commended the act reducing the num- , her of county Councillors, and while he said that like many other laws it might not be perfect. it was a great improve- ment upon previous conditions. In On- tario County the number of Councillors had been reduced from 36 to 14 and $500 had been saved. The saving in the County of York had been $1,000. He spoke in terms of praise of the work that the Minister ot Education is doing in the cause or education. MR. MARTER EXPLAINS. V Then came Mr. Master, the ex-leader of the. Opposition. Before entering up- on a discussion of the subjects ger- mane to the debate; he took the oppor. tunity of making a personal explana- , tion of his position in regard to the temperance question. He declared that he had never swerved one iota from his principles as to the prohibition question. Two or three years ago he had made some remarks at a ward meeting in Toronto in commenting up- on the London election, which had previously taken place. On the Con- servative side was a staunch nrohi-' bitionist. while the Liberal candidate 'i was not known to be a staunch prom- _ bltionist. The issue was placed fairly and squarely before the Electors of London. As . "911$?! E t/Mptstion Mir. 33911.: , , ,; '-,lBltgttt' q teed loading. In repli G the nrgume _ the Government that. the capital ex _ dituree of the Province were repres . - ed by valuable buildings, the Major said that we might have the buildings' but We did not have our pine lands. tnt other wordian available asset had 1 been converted into an unavailable' one. Discussinr the succession tax , Major Kerns,exvreBrset1 the belief that men shrewd enou h to accumulate large fortunes won]: be shrewd enough _ to devise plans to prevent a portion; of them falling into the hands of the Government at their death. It the argument were good that this tax! should be imposed because the owners of large estates did not pay their share of the public burdens,that phase of the .question should be dealt with on its merits and not by a succession duty. He thought the receipts trom this; source would diminish rather than in-l crease. The Major advocated the ap- plication of the tender and contract system to the purchase ot supplies for 1 the public institutions, and he demand-1 ed greater detail in the public ae,- icounts. He was willing that outside corporations should be taxed, but he would oppose any proposition to levy upon native banks and financial insti- tutions. Major Kerns called the atten- [tion of the Government to the protest of some of the temperance people against the proposed bill in am- endment of the license act. Reference, he said, had been made by Mr. Cleland to Mr. Marter's attitude towards the liquor question. Mr. Matter, he said, stood higher in the estimation of tem- perance people than any member on the Government side of the House. Major Kerns concluded with a. tribute to the Opposition leader, Mr. Whit- ney. NORTH ONTARIO'S MEMBER.