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Myz. Mac .cBErido!M~~ mself ut--| terly sick of the muck--raking solnll; on over the timber controversy. the Government had any charges 1 1 at any member on either :? eez: the House lep them declare tl:e\r position. This hounding _ of public men, he said, was driving the Tbest brains of the country from| . 'pu'!l::::: ":gcaker -- Aeclared he had ) found bhimsell i1 excelleént . pany after crossing the floor of the | House. 4Att1mde of Mr. Halcrow. ' G. G. Halcrow of Hamilton, la-- bor. stated that to force the matter of the eight--hour day at the mo-- ment would 'be a crime against the Province, and eulogized the idea of a conference upon that controver-- sial item prior to any attempt at legislation. The Labor members, he said, believed that they could ac-- complish more from the Govern-- ment benches than by sitting on the left of the Speaker and indulging in | destructive criticism. -- In the past year the Government had given ser-- vice unequalled by any former Ad-- ministration. "I have no intention of doing anything that would terminate the lifa of the Government," said Mr. Halcrow. "At the same time, there are a great many questions upon which I differ from the Government and upon which I intend to vote | against them." This difference of | opinion, however, was not confined f to Labor, but had its place among the members of each group in the House. In regard to Labor legisla-- tion,) the Labor group would 'bhe a unit; on other matters it became the | duty of each member to follow his ! consclence. He was sorry to see the ' Backus deal put into effect, yet was not disposed to criticize too severely the action of the Government under | the circumstances. Some exception to paragraphs in the addresses in reply to the Speech relative to the effects of deflation on prices of rurall products was taken by R. R. Hall of Parry Sound, Tiberal. To his mind, he stated, the farmers were not suffering un-- duly; perhaps some of them, dur-- ing the past four years, had pros-- pered more than they deserved. At the same time he urged the exten-- sion of the good roads movement, lprovided "dollar--for--dollar" _ were secured in construction work. Rural credits also he deemed highly de-- sirable on the condition that .bor-] rowing for the mere sake of bor--| rowing be made very difficult. | | Forests Are Murdered. '"'Things have been done and said by members on 'the other side of the House that were not to our lik-- ing," said Mr. Hall, '"but when it came to a vote wae did not desert them. Why not? Because nBost of them belong to us, anyway. We didn't desert them, nor do we in-- # tend to gesert them on coming sim-- ilar occasions." Regarding reforestation, hecould speak feelingly, 'being from North-- ern Ontario. He had seen the forest literally murdered, and that by all Governments @Mke. This murder: was 'being continued to--day, when| lumber companies were 'being al-- lowed to take out timber measuring no more than five inches across the stump. The present fire--ranging system, he said, was an utter farce. It cost enormous sums to maintain, but it sawed no fires. Why talk re-- forestation when plunder and pil-- lage were allowed to continuse at this moment? It was all very well to discuss the reforesting of sandy a@reas in Old Ontario. Why not re--| «forest the woriginal white pine areas of the North?--areas entirely use-- less and menacing to--day because of the terms under which they had| heen gi¥an 10 dumboxk CoMpARMe®SZ /