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Mr. Gibson's Bill Read a Second Time. Legislative Chamber, March 18. The cost of school books and the royalties paid to their authors formed the chief topic of the House to-day. In the Public Accounts Committee this morning Col. Matheson catechiled Mr. w. J. Robertson, author of the High School algebra, as to the revenue from his royalties, and he again brought the matter up in the House this afternoon. Dr. Ryerson criticized the arrange- ment for the publication of the High School readers, but to both of these criticisms Mr. Ross made an effective reply. The Joint stock companies bill was read a second time. In the even- ing the balance of the educational es- timates were passed, and the consid- eration of the agricultural estimates entered upon. Col. Matheson charged the Superintendent of Public Libraries with abusing his position for purposes of money-making. A _ Col. Gibson moved the second reading of the hill respecting the incorpora- tion and regulation of Joint stock com- ry",'.,',", by letters patent. In doing so e referred to the legislation of the English Parliament upon this question and also the proposed Dominion act. The machinery for incorporating com- panies was. he said, tsimplified by the present act. Bo far as future incor- porations are concerned.where any pro- visions of the present act did not ap- ply the company would have to be specially exempted in the act of ineor- poration. It was Intended to repeal the companies general clauses act. He proposed to amend several clauses in the bill while " was in committee. A Mr. Howland complained that Col. Gibson had not more fully explained the provisions of the bill. It did not sumcientlv deal with the case of foreign companies doing business In Ontario. and particularly with Cana- dians who secured incorporation for the purpose of doing business in On- tario. The bill did not tsufficiently guard against the manipulation of min- ing companies_ in the stock markets. The aét for time reguiatlon of the titrherlea was passed through the com- mittee stage. ,, -eol. Gibson interrupted that another not would be introduced to deal with mining companies. .. Mr. Rowland replied that In that case the two acts should he combined or else some of the clauses of tho present bill should be amended. Con- tinuing. he said that the same remark would apply to all kinds of companies. Col. Mathemn expressed the opinion that the legislation in respect to Joint stock companies should be in the na- ture of restriction. The mere fact of a company possessing a, Government charter gave it a prestige which in- duced people to trust them much more than they would trust private indivi- duals. end. therefore, there should be every safeguard for stockholders and those dealing with them. L Col. Gibson said that there were stringent provisions in the bill to pre- vent persons of good standing from lending their names to sche'me of which A' . d --" n . A nan- 't'iil7"iln"iCGitprut and In the c duct of which they took no interet PRICE OF SCHOOL BOOKS. When the House went Into comm...- tee of supply on the education esti- mates Col. Mntheson asked for an ex- planation of the Item of $9,000 m the public accounts of last year paid by the publishers of the Ontario readers on account of a renewal of the right to publish. Mr. Ross explained that the books [were originally publlshed under an ,agreement for ten years. That agree- ment lapsed last year. and It was ar- ranged that the Government were to set $3,000 from each of the three pub- lishers for a further extension. That amount was now in the treasury. and T the price of the books had also been re- duced to the extent of 20 per cent. _ N. "ML..-" uni-cod that the whole Col. N amount iiGia,iiriGhied ttiat the whole It should have been given to the, In the way of reduction in the; House went Into commit- If on the education esti- Hy published under an r ten years. That agree- last year. and It was ar- the teove_rryper1t. were :0 "and In the con- took no interest. Mit ' Mr. Ross quoted from the agreement with publishers of school books which provides that the material and work- n~anship entering into the mechanical production of a text-book must be of a. quality that has met with the tlpprov- al of the department. Samples of the material used must be submitted to the department. The production of the readers has been in the hands of three firms, but other books were not con- fined to these firms, so that there was no monopoly. An arbitration held in 1889 had determined after investiga- tion that the prices charged for school books were not excessive. The Min.. ister quoted from a. letter by Inspector Hughes the statement that the cost per pupil for school books for 1896, ex- clusive of the kindergarten, was eighteen cents. The year's supply of new text-books cost flue cents per pupil. The cost per pupil for supplies --scritrblers, etc.,--was fourteen cents. Mr. Ross protested against Col. Mathe- son's proposition to put American text- books into the schools. This, he said, was even worse than the proposition that the textahooks should be. manufac- tured by prison labor. Col. Matheson declared that there should be competition among the pub- lishers in Canada as well as in Great Britain and the United States. COST NOT EXCESSIVE. Dr. Ryerson attacked the Minister of Education for his reader bargain. He read a statement furnished him, as he said, by a disgruntled publisher, which Rave the profit upon the differ- ont readers at from tio to 300 per cent., but refused to comply with Mr. Ross' rfqucst for the source of his informa- t on. Mr. Ross again explained the $9,00ir mrangement. The readers were pre- pared by the Education Department and cost some 816,000 or $17,000, and " was always understood that the cost should be recouped out of the publica- tion arrangement. Some 86,700 was received for the tir" ten years' privilege, and when. the right expired it was that as nearly as may be the amount of the original ccst should be obtained. It had been decided by arbitration some years ago that the price of these books was as low as possible. He explained that there were two algebras authorized, and that they were both published without any arrangement and were not authorized until after their pub- lication. The Drive of these books was; very low. As to the amount that thi. author received, that was nobody' business but blown and the publls " er's. We never asked a. contractor f Government work how much profit he. made on a contract. All we had to he was that the price of the book we! low. Many of tho hooks were publish- ed by more than one firm and the books were cheat). price of the books, which should bi' lower than the present average pri ". Much better terms -H have been made. "The High ' ol Algebra." tor instance, cost 75 cents per copy. Of that 11 1-4 cents went to the gentleman who prepared the algebra. That had been going on for years. and he un- derstoOd that it amounted to $1,400 or $1,500 a year. He had asked in the Public Accounts Committee this mori- ing how much it amounted to, but the gentlemen opposite had refused to per- mit him to ask the question. The au- thor had, however, admitted that he re- ceived 15 per cent. on the retail price of the book. The principle of publish- ing should be that of competition. Per- sons should be invited to prepare the books, the Government should acicct the best one submitted: the Goyern- ment should hold the absolute copy- right, and no royalty should be paid. Mr. Harcourt asked Col. Matheson why the authors of this country should not he paid as they were in other coun- tries. The royalty did not always pay the author for the labor spent on the book. The English and American books on algebra cost not " cents hut 81 M, so that our children trot the advantage to_the extent of the difference. Mr. Wh!tney said there would be competition. As to the price of the hooks, the question was not whether the pupil in the United States.paya more or less than the pupil in Ontario, but whether the pupil in Ontario paid more than was necessayy. Mr. Gibson (Huron) told the commit- tee that in 1890, when the school book question was an issue, he sent to Lon- Jon for two sets of English books for the purpose of comparison. He found that though manufactured in free, trade Englane} the cost was about the same as that of ,the Ontario text- that the