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| Proceeding, he declared his belic@ that the nuimber of school books in the lower grades at any rat@ could be greatly reduced. It was a shame to 'see little boys and girls, who should be romping home from _ school, carrying home large bundles of books. The num-- er of books should and could be re-- uced with benefit to the children,. and t should also be made absolutely il. egal to give these children any home work. _ "There is another point," said r. Graham. _ "I believe that, with he buoyant revenue of this Province, ow is the «time to supply text-- ooks to every school, jpublic and sep-- rate. as part of the school equipment, free of all cost." The Premier had, while in Opposition, advocated this, and the Minister of Education had recently declared that he _ was personally in favor of it. He (the speaker) was ab-- rolutely in favor of it. Should Curb Wildcatting. Mr. Graham accepted the explana-- ion of the hon. gentleman that the eredit was not due to him. ;!"or Free Text--books. a much stronger 'stand against it than anyone else in public meetings _ and elsewhere. _ What the Minister of Edu-- cation ought to do was to have a man near the top of his department, Super-- intendent or Deputy Minister, selected from those who had attended, or taught, or at least who had been inspectors of the publis stchools, _ Ha read from some of the circulars to the inspectors authorized by the Minister to show what difficulties had been met with in the enforcement of the act. _ But the inspect@re could not bring about peace, and the CGovernment, as announced in the statement of the Premier on Fri-- 'day, had now decided to cover the re-- treat of that bill with an additional rant to the schools of over $200,000. Mr. Graham somewhat jocularly at-- tributed a large amount of credit for the additional vote to the member for Dufferin-- (Dr. Lewis}){( who, according mnewspapers reports, had public express-- condemnation of the bill. Dr. Lewis declared the reports to be ncorrect. _ The paper first publishing t was a Liberal paper. was something wrong with the De-- partment of lducation, and had looked for a measure remedying that. _ The Upposition, in spite of all attempts to do 'so, chad failed to obtain from 'th.e Minister of Education' any explan-- ation of how the bill as finally intro-- duced would affect the country, -- but nevertheless they had stood then as they stood now, for any measure in-- tended to raise the standard of edu-- vation. _ The Minister of Education had been unable to tell what the effect woduld be, because he had no men near the top in his department who had had any experience in or sympathy with the great public school system. This was one reason why the bill had been subjected to criticism throughout the country, and members sitting be-- hind the Treasury benches had taken The development of northern C nd in particular the silver fields + Continuing, Mr. Graham paid -- some attention to the question -- of public schools, and in this connection dwelt upon the manner in which the bill of last session had been altered from the easure as first introduced because it as opposed by meimbers on the Gov-- ernment side of the House. The House and the country had deduced from the 'manner of dealing with it that there kious to get the best possible man, t a year was surely a long time in faich to make a selection, and while lere was unrest as to whom the choice 'ould be the people would hardly be in 'fmpathy with the institution. He suz-- ted that the Government might speed in securing a President. 'he Public Schools. Graham said the people were asking was not nearly time that there was ermanent President. No dowbt there te difficulties, the authoritiee were Ontario, s of the Cobalt district, were then alluded to. Incidentally Mr. Graham expressed the "opinion that in the horth the iron de-- posits would be found to be of immense | richness. In connection with this great | mineral development the Opposition, be | said, were prepared to do anything that | they could so as to assist the Govern-- | ment in perfecting th* law so that the | greatest good would result to the greai-- 'est number. . "There is one thing which | we on this side of the House will con-- | demn most strongly,"-- he said, "and that lis the wildcatting. 1 say it advisedly, that the wildeat capitalization allowed ' in the Cobalt district has become almost 'i a scandal in this Province. it is said | that mining companies have already been | chartered with a capitalization of $300,-- ; 000,000, and there are more to follow. | Some person has made the remark that | the CGovernment could not control that. ! But they could do something. I believe | it is the duty of the Government to ex-- | amine absolutely every application for a mining claim, as they do to some ex-- tent, but I believe that the investiga-- tion is not sufliciently thorough. There should be such a thorough investigation that when a company applies for a char-- _ter the Government will have an idea of what the capitalization should be. It does not seem right that persons should pay five, six or seven thousand dollars in one Government department for min-- ing lands, walk to another department and get a charter saying that the pro-- perty is worth half a miluon -- dollars, and then come to me or anyone else and ask for subscriptions to the stock on that basis. While such a plan as I have suggested may mean more officials, we cannot be too careful to see that the interests of the people are safeguarded." Mr, (Giraham contended that if something was not done to curb this wildeatting, legitimate capital would be frightened away from the Province, which would get a bad name, especially among those whose investments we should be most anxious to have, namely, the British capitalists, Make Titles Unassailable. To the Minister of Mines Mr. Gra-- ham submitted this suggestion : "Would it not be a good idea if an extension of the Temiskaming Railway were made from North Bay to some point on Georgian Bay, say to Parry Sound ? They were asking for connection with Toronto by the Grand Trunk. If the road were extended to some point on Georgian Bay we would have connection with North Bay by the G.T.R. and C.P.R. east, west and south, and with the C. P".R., C.NX.R.; and G.T.R. would have ¥nusz. : 221099 / ¥ie 7 be profitably established at some con-- venient point on (Georgian Bay. Make Companies Tell. "IL believe it is in the interest of the investing public of Ontario,' he con-- tinued, "and in the interest of our own north country, that this Government un-- dertake to publish once a month the amount of business done, so far as ship-- ping is concerned, by the various min-- ing companies. _ Then the public would have something reliable on which to base their investments." three avaflafie ro.utes t.o ' Mtr. Graham rcored the for having abandoned ab The leader also regarded the smelter question as one which the Government should eonsider. _ The providing of such a facility was in the interest of the whole north country. _ A smelter might The matter of titlee was touched up-- on. _ Rightly or wrongly, when this Government came into power the idea seemed to get abroad that upon ap-- parently slight provocation it would be casy to have titles cancelled. Acting on this suggestion, many lawyers of the lower strata had undertaken actions, it was said, on terms that if they got certain titles cancelled they would get so much. _ The idea getting abroad that there was any possibility of defective titles had injured the Cobalt country. One company had taken the circum-- stance as an excuse to rolb--that was too strong a word perhaps--to depress a certain stock through which millions of dollars were lost by the public. "The Ciovernment have a duty to perform," he said, "not only to protect the in-- vestor even if the necessary inspection should take weeks or months, but to make their titles absolutely good against attack." abandoned ;l';s(;il'l'fj(:]_\' the Toronto." Government stages the company which got the first | charter had a monopoly. He ortiined in | brief the various agreements under which the companies now developing on the Canadian side are operating. showing that, in addition to assuring haif the | power for Canadian manufactnrers and | consumers at not more than the price at which it is supplied to Americans, when the works are fully developed they will bring to the Province in the way of direct revenue for rentals and a fixed price per horsepower the sum of $275,000 per year. With the progress of development on the Ornadian side. he | continved. the municipalities of the Pro-- | vince began to awaken and to ask for | i power, and the Government aliowed a | | Municipal Power Commission to be ap-- | | pointed. 'The report of that body hbad | been read and considered by the pre-- sent Hydro--electric Power Commission, | as shown by references to its work in | the present commission's reporis. That | commission -- had been invested with | all the powers of the present 'body, : with the exception of expro-- | priation, and he firmly believed that if | the companies had refused to deal with ( that Municipal Commission the Legisla-- | ture would have refused to support any | Government which would not have pass | ed legislation to compel them to | do so. _ The Opposition were heartily in | sympathy with anything that could be | done to give cheap power to the peo-- | | ple of the Province, They believed in | the rights of capital ; capital should be | guarded agarainst unwarranted attacks. 1 but capitalists ought to keep faith with the people. When a company put enough water in its stock to almost fioat its bond issue it was not keeping faith. We," said Mr. Graham, "are prepared to give the companies a fair return for their investments, but we are prepared | !:0 stand by any Government who say i' not one cent 'dividends on watered | stock.'" _ Mr. Graham pointed out that, ' while there was a transmission line | from the Falls to Toronto, there were !no.tmnsmission lines to western On-- | :l;l':lfl. ,','VVlut are the Government going | i0 G4o#" he asked. "'I believe that the ; ::';?le hm?y come when the Government lt nave to go to lishing transmission to -- the) mnnintna l 1 1 n ce 0%, zi _ _v+ #e7u4 Uwel : the necessity for some | system | forestation. He censured the \ ernment that Dr. Clark shoul | left their employ, and believed | parture was due to the fact t hands were tied. -- He sugpested | tical department of forestry for t | vince, while encouraging the st forestry in the university. m Speaking on the power question, Myr. Graham said that if it had not been foy the action of the leader of the Govern-- ment of days gone past there wou!ld have been no development -- of power, there would have been no need of a "*Minister of Power," there would bhave been no power ready for distribution in this Province. Someone on the Government side in-- terrupted with the remark. "And there would have been no Niagara Falls." "The Falls are not any larger." Mr. Graham _ retorted, promptly. "than a certain fall which may take place if the power question is not handled properly." He carefully _ reviewed the history of power development at the Falls, show. ing that while on the American side there had been early development,. i % cce L * £IO0 L "I want to point out that the @reat Liberal party have taken a very advanced stand in any question of municipa} ownership. _ During their regime towns were given the right to aequire systems of waterworks, telephone srstems an, street railways. _ Under a TAberal Gov. ernment the people built a railway into the heart of New Ontario. _ The TLibera] party have been the party of the owner. ship of public utilities by the people." The Power Question. Touching on the question of labor, Mr. Graham said :--"T y put: it _down unequivocally | as our policy in this House, _ \¢p nosed to contract labor in the Prison under any terms, Municipal Ownership. vransmission lines from the Falls municipalities," + Premier----And then what? y ® gvVutr. Past sLilere would n _ no development of power, uld have been no _ need aof a of Power," there would have power ready for distribution °CC VE L ---- UHC (;0\" lark : should have 1 believed hig de-- the fact that his nd dwe system of L _ 0i _ prison "I want to 2s part of We are op-- the Centra} 4 2 prac-- the Pro-- study of 2°t any -- works earliest