The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

BUDGET DEBATE LIVELY. Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Cross Swords. Ontario Away Behind Other, Provinces in Newcomers. NOT GETTING SHARE (ll? IMMIGRATIQN Elk Lake Telegram Confirmed hy Anidavit-."rrc ll ho Roads May Run" Native to Dr. Boatlin Nos- bitt-rt-giants)" of Railway Board. Acrlmonious remarks characterized N the continued Budget debate in the Legislature yesterday. Mr. ttowell and the Prime Minister had at , tilt at the opening over the length of ', the sittings and the, necessity of do-, ing more work if prorogation was to be reached by Easter. Mr. G. Howard Ferguson (Grenville) made, a personal attack on the leader oti, the Opposition. whom he called a? "political Lilliputian" for not having taken a definite stand on any planks in the Conservative platfortn.. In an able and forceful address Mr. J. C. Elliott. (West Middlesex) expressed satisfaction that Mr. Ferguson had not been lost in the drifts of South Renfrew. He declared that Ontario "as not getting a. proportionate share of the immigration to the Dominion, and charged Sir James Whitney with failure to reorganize the Ontario Railway Board. He made a boom- erang of Mr. McGarry's reference to "wolves" on Tuesday. The now fam- ous Elk Lake telegram. Mr. Elliott said, constituted an offence so seri- ous that Mr. Shillington (Temiskam- ing) had to place his denial of hav- ing any knowledge of it before the House, while the Prime Minister ut- tered not a word. Mr. w. S. Brew- ster spoke briefly, and will resume the debate to-day. To Sit. at Night. Mr. Howell drew blood at the opening of the sitting by referring to the Prime Minister's remark on Fri- day last that if the House Was to pro- rogue before Easter there would have to be longer sessions. Mr. Rowell pointed out that many important matters were to be discussed. and he did not see any prospect of' getting through by Easter unless night ses- sions were held. With that object in view. he said, the Opposition would be glad to co-operate and would as- sent to Sir James' suggestion to hold night sessions from now on. Sir James. evidently -nettled, was quickly on his feet, and thanked the hon. gentleman for his suggestion. "But that would have been the nor- mal course for this House in any event," he added. "although on live or six occasions this course has been deferred at the request of the hon. gentleman himself." _ The Prime Minister' said he wished to make himself understood. He had never before seen the necessity for being so much on guard against in- advertence and misstatement. The Government was ready to get on with DAY, MARCH ' Id,"'"'"."".)?, the business of the House, but he had Been all along that there was not the remotest chance of this being done by Easter. owing to the fact that the order paper was "littered up with a lot of material the like of which had never been seen in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters un- der the earth." "Evidently," he continued, "the hon. gentleman wants to show the people of this country his ability as a Chancery or equity draughtsman. There are one and a half pages on the order paper taken up with a question that could have been put into four lines. This is how our time is being frittered away. and the way in which the expenses attendant upon the session are lost sight of." A Personal Attack. In reply to some or the criticisms made hy Mr. A. G. Mackay of the. Budget brought down by Hon. Mr. Lucas, Mr. (1.. Howard Ferguson (Grenville) launched a personal at- tack against the leader of the up. position, who. he said, had taken In definite stand on any of tho, (11168- tions in the ('nnservatix'e platform. The great Liberal party that was honored by the names of Blake and Mowat was led by a political Lillipih Han. who would take ready-made any platform that: was prepared for him. Mr. Proudfoot had complained at. the methods of spending money on colonization roads, but, said Mr. Fer- guson, the Conservative Government was not the father of these methods. It had been following the methods which had been in use before it came into power. Regarding the paucity of immigrants coming into the Province. Mr. Ferguson said the Ontario Government was; not respon- Bible. It was the fault of the Domin- ion Government, hut now that there was in power in Ottawa, a, Govern- ment which intended to be just and equitable they hoped that Ontario would get her share or immigrants. The Tables Turned. "I am very glad to-day to see that we are honored by the v1'esence of the hon. gentleman from Grenville." began Mr. Elliott as Mr. Ferguson resumed his seat. "There was a time during tho earlier part of this ses- sion when his seat was not occupied; and as the snowdrifts at that time were very bad down in his part of the country I was afraid that the hon. gentleman had been buried in the drifts. I was glad to learn when he returned that it was not he but the hon. gentleman with whom he was travelling who was buried in the drifts." Not Getting Share. Mr. Elliott at once took up the im- migration policy of the Government, and quoted returns to show that dur- ing 1910 over 65.000 immigrants had been brought. into the Province, of whom only 7,000 were due to Pro.. vincial auspices. Allowing for half as many more who were not recorded, Mr. Elliott showed that 54.201 set- tlers had been brought into Ontario that year bv the Dominion immigra- tion authorities. or about one-third of the total immigration of Canada for that year. Compared with the number that went to other Provinces, Mr. Elliott declared that "Ontario is not increasing her population in pro- portion to the general increase of the Dominion or in proportion to the increase of It majority of the other Provinces." A Mixed-up Statement. Critirwzing the Budget address of Hon. Mr. Lucas. the member forWest Middlesex went on to say that not- withstanding the animadsersions of the Provincial Treasurer over the ambiguity of the public accounts un- der a former Administration, there was no improvement in them to-day. He complained that the Government had mixed up capital and ordinary expenditure, and seemed to be guid- ed solely by the contingency pre- sented when the expenditure on any account exceeded the revenue. "Where the revenue exceeds the expenditure it goes into ordinary account; when the expenditure exceeds the revenue it goes into capital account " . Mr. Elliott was severe on the Prime Minister's pre-election statement with reference to the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board. He read the criti- cism of Mr. W. K. McNaught, deliv- ered to an audience in North Toron- to, and proceeded to read a report trom The Mail and Empire of Nov-