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w*®~ under its provisions would . con-- tribute to the revenue. In reply to that he had to repeat his former state-- ment that no Parliament in any coun-- try had succeeded in _ devis-- Ink® -- > a>. bill, <the provisions _ of which bore with exact evenness on the people who bore the burdens. Thore-- fore, if it were shown that the bill in this caso was moderoete, and that its provisions were hbased upon justice and equity, surely that was all that rea-- gsonable men could ask. No doubt the assossment laws of Ontario contained Inconsistencies and anomalies ; but if Je eould show that in the case of this city, where men of experience admin-- istered the assessment law, the basis Mr.Harcourt then discussed the posi-- tion of trolley companies and elec--' tric light, teclephone and telegraph com-- panies in regard to municipal assess-- mernt. He pointed out that under a; legal decision these companies were as-- sessed at onc--eighth of the value of their street plant, that street nlant be-- ing considered real estate. This bill provided that the companies in ques-- tion should be as they were on Febru-- ary 1 for assessment purposes. That be-- ing so, it could not. be said that under? this bill the Government were dopriving | the city of thecright to tax these com--| panies as going.. concerns ; the latter was -- * 'deprived of the right under a Judicial decision. There was therefore in that regard no rob-- bery of Toronto. Jt might be urged even by those who did not disapprove of the principle.of the bill that it did not bear with exact evenness on those A specific tax was imposed upon ex-- press companies and natural gas com-- panles. Speaking for himself, Mr. Harcourt did not like the idea of such a tax, and would have preferred a per-- centage rate, had it been possible to satisfactorily arrive at the proper data for the purpose. It was said that the total capital of parlor car companies was $10,250,000, but only a small portion of that capital was used in Ontario. The companies interested claimed that they had 2,400 cars in use on the con-- tinent, but. only fifteen cars were used in this Province. Each of the cars, it was said, cost $10,000, and under all the cirecumstances it was thought that a tax of one--third of one per cent. on the capital used in Ontario would be a reasonable one. In the case of telephone companies, a reduction in the tax proposed had been made from one--sixth to one--eighth of one per cent. A tax of one--tenth of one per cent. was proposed on gas and electric lighting companies, but this would not apply to electric works or gas works owned and operated by a municipality for domestic purposes. "@ble.~ Accordingly it was proposed that where the gross profits of any trust company amounted to $25,000 or over, such commeany should pay a further sum of $500 per annum. It was thought by such a threefold provision the bur-- den of taxation would be equitably dis: tributed in the case of trust companies. Coming to the loan companies, there was no change that needed comment. It.might be,. however, that there were certain exceptional cases which would require the bill to be amended in re-- gard to loan compani¢s, and amend-- ments would be framed to meet those exceptional cases. Assessment Question. $500,000, while last year the-- revenue from woods and forests was only $750,-- 000. . But he Genied that there is a reduced cut of logs this year, and auoted from an interview with Mr. Hennessy, a representative lumberman, who declared that there is no need for Conservative candidate, by a majority of sight. This, he declared, was the re-- sult of the first test in a Reform riding of the policy which has brought about direct taxation. Respecting the proposed taxation, he would. not give any captious criticism to the schedule which had. been submitted : if taxation is necessary it is possible that the di-- rection which it has taken may be the right one, but there is not, he contend-- ed, any necessity whatever --for direct taxation. The proper course for the Government to pursue under the exist-- ing cireumstances was not to impose fresh taxation, but to reduce the ex-- penditure within the income which the Government has already obtained. The reason assigned for this new taxa-- tion was the falling off in revenue of the Crown Lands Department because of the regulations prohibiting the ex-- purt of logs cut on the Crown lands, but this was no exeuse for imposing $200,000 of taxation. . The estimated re-- venue for 1899 from this source was Mr. Matheson commenced his reply by reading a telegraphic despatch from Btratford stating that the re--count of votes in the South Perth election had g_i\'on the seat to Mr. Monteith, the of taxation was not. eqtritable he night be deemed to have made out a strong case for his views. Let him ilustrate what he meant. 'The British Ameri-- can --Company ochad -- very ccreditable buildings in the city. It paid a large realty tax to Toronto, and also paid $802 for income. Tho Western paid $1,700. _ On the other hand, the _g'reat English company, the Royal, doing & great volume of business in the city, did not pay any realty tax, and all it paid for income was $85,. The Com-- merciat TUnion pald only $68, the North Br'tish $¢8, the Liverpool & London & Globe $11, Alliance only $51 and th*# Sun Insiurance of London only $34, as aga'inst the $1,700 paid by the Western-- a home company which had large reai ectate> holdings in the city and was evhort to a realty tax as well as a tax on its real estate. There were 'ovht on ten other foreign companies Jps misht namme which did not contri-- hute anything on real estate in th(:(clt,v. So that so far as tho system of assess-- ment in Toronto was concerned there anvneared to be uninrtentional discrimin-- ation in favor of the foreign compan-- j~~ ind against the home companies. \*r. Hareenrt--gave an e<timate of the cmount he exnected to reseive under the rovised schedule of taxes, the total bein# $314,906. This included $91,000 to b= derived from liquor licenses,and $41000, the approximate amount ex-- pected from natural gas, express and parlor car companies. In bespeaking ennsideration for the resolutions, Mr. Harcourt reminded the House that the measures announced by the Govern-- ment had given widesovread satisfaction in the country, and asked members not to take the ground that there was any antagonism of interest between any one-- city in the Province or any rural munt-- cipalitv. * The Principal is All Right. 133