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| Mr. German complained that the Op-- | position had offered nothing new, but __Mr. Marter denied that the Opposi-- tion were highly distressed over the report of the financial commission. On the contrary, he declared they were highly pleased with it,.so far as it went. He thought the commission should not have been appointed until the arbitra-- tions now pending with the Province of Quebec and the Dominion of Canada are completed, which might altogether change the situation. Mr. Marter said that there had never been any ques-- tion with the Opposition as to whether there was a credit balance as between their assets or lHabilities. -- (Ministerial members, "Hear, hear.") What the Opposition contended was that their administration had been a failure. The Government put forward to the country statements not true. They had been spending more money than they re-- ceived from the FProvince, yet their balance sheet continually showed a bal-- ance on hand. He caiculated that the Government had thereby gone behind $1,094,0064. _ Referring to the lumber question, Mr. Marter advocated the ap-- pointment of a commission to aseer-- tain the forest wealth of the Province, and promised the co--operation of the Opposition. Adverting to the report of the fin-- anciat commission, Mr. Marter declar-- ed that it disagreed with the state-- ment given by Hon. Mr. Harcourt as Provincial Treasurer in 1897. He said that for the thirty years covered in both statements the figures of receipts agreed in sixteen years and disagreed in fourteen years, while in regard to expenditures, the statements ogreed in twenty years and disagreed in ten years. According to Mr.-- Harcourt's statement, the receipts up to 1897 were $89,3065,700, while, according to-- the commission, they .. were $92,661,530, or a difference of $3,205,820. Mr. Har-- court's statement of the expenditures had been $89,039,561, while the com-- mission put it at $92,434,538, or a difference of $3,202,076. "Woere we not justified, then," Mr: Marter exclaimed, The City of Toronto, Mr. Marter said, had lost $56,.149 by this judgment. This was exceptional legislation, which was unfair to the people. Mr. Marter com-- plained that while the Government had granted millions to railways, yet the railway lands could not be taxed by the municipalities any heavier than as farm lands. "in believing the books of the Pro-- vince were not kept properly ?" He contended that the Government had gone behind $27,147,000. The Govern-- ment had used its officials in all lines of work for the purpose of keeping themselves in power, and with their majority of but seven were kept in power solely by their own votes. (Op-- position applause.) the improvidence of the Government. The taxation thus imposed was direct taxation, pure and simple. Moreover, the Government had struck a blow at municipalities by confining them to t}l}v assessment of the plant of corporations as "scrap iron," a proceeding which was never intended by the Legislature. Statements Disagreed. Scored Mr. Marter had advanced the s es, unsustained by eviden the spesker had heard ever since he 1 been in Parliament. The charm"kad been fought out again and again, and the m{-eople had expressed dishbelief in them®at the polls. Mr. Marter had de-- nounced the (Government for passing the scrap iron law, which, he said, had robbed the munricipalities of tremend-- ous sums. How did the facts stand so far as Mr. Marter was concerned 2 That gentleman introduced a bill con-- taining a clause to tax street railways, eloctric railways, etc., as going con-- cerns. Having introduced the meas-- ure, however, Mr. Marter deliberately let it die, and was assisted in this work by the gentlemen on the Opposition benches. Prior to February, 1899, it had always been held, and was so in-- terpreted by the Judges of Ontargo, that street railway, electric, telephone and other companies must be assessed under what was called the serap ijron assessment. The Government's rev-- enue bill provided that these companies should continue to be assessable as they wore on February 1. 1899. If the Op-- position were sincere they would have moved to strike out this clause from the revenue bill, but instead of that they moved the six--months' hoist to the whole bill. "Personally," said Mr. German. "I am in favor of these institutions being taxed as going concerns, and if the hon. gentleman will move to place such an enactment on the statute book 1 will help to carry it. Furthermore, I will go to the Municipal Committee and try to do something to get it carried, and not sit down and let the bill die." (Ministerial applause.) _ Mr. Marter had said that Toronto lst enormoyus sums by this legislation. In ten years, from 1889, the City of To-- ronto had received in direct benefits from the Government no less than 811,-- 096,000, _ Thus Toronto could stand a slight loss--if it sustained any, which ho denied--owing to the revenue bill ut if some cities were losers, the rural municipalities were the gainers He had heard of no complaint from thi mercantlle corporations affected. Mr. German skilfully answered Opposition criticisms of the Government's finan-- cial administration, and cordially en-- dorsed the Government's forward pol-- Mr. Crawford (West Toronto) drew attention to a problem in agriculture. He said our live stock had deteriorated very much. 'This matter was sadly ne-- glected, and we had lost the position we had gained for them in the British markets. It, perhaps, was more-- the place of the Dominion Minister of Ag-- riculture, but he thought this Govern-- ment should bestir themselvos. and at least seek action at Ottawa. The Gov-- ernment should arrange that stock should be imported here to keep up the quality. The deeline was due to the Government's inaction. Hon. Mr. Dryden pointed out that more cattle had been imported in one year since the Laurier Government came into power than in five years pre-- viously. Mr. Crawford quoted Mr. Hodgon as showing the deterioration in quality. The exports of cattle from Montreal fe}l} Live Stock Deterioratina: said Mr. German. "I of these institutions going concerns, and if 1an will move to place samevald charges, idence, ~which the ever since he had . The charges had 79