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

MAY YIELD $2,800,000 Opposition Members Score Scheme as idea of 'Poor Sports' RAKE-OFF PLAN B STEP NEARER BECOMING LAW Promnclal Treasurer Peter srnith's motion relating to alteration of as- sessment and taxation of indepen- dent telephone companies. imposing A. 5 per cent. tax on all race-track wagers. and his $15,000 per annum mx on liquor export companies. was rabjected to severe handling in com- mittee of the Legislature yesterday. A Her some sarcastic references from "Hon. G. H. Ferguson. and some ex- 1remely vigorous denunciations from H. H. Dewart (Southwest Toronto),; it, was finally approved. 1 After securing from the Attorney-l General a. statement as to the status. _ under Provincial laws, of the liquor export companies, and the purpose of the Province's appeal from a court judgment as to their legality, the conservative Leader declared the c,overnment's position to be an a,b- surd one. It proposed. he said. to tax something which. 1 not. legal. Mipe Out Track Betting. Mr. Ferguson appealed to the At- torney-General, as the only author- 'ty in the House on horse-racing, to explain the jurisdiction of Federal and Provincial laws governing rac- ting. Mr. Raney said that the Fed- _s' val law legalized seven days of rac- iintr, and Mr. Ferguson strongly ipressed the View that, inside that law, the Province. could wipe out iij1ji,iii,iti'vt gambling by imposing prohibitive taxation. The Federal {Government he said. declared that Zthe Province could not authorize more than seven days of racing, but "mt am not say that it could not au- 'iiidrs than seven .il did not say tl 'thoriae les!'. which. it said. was SATURDAY, MAY 13, l. The Provincial Treasurer said no anticipated a revenue of $2,800,000 from the tax, that is, it the Legislu-i tar. did not continue in session through the various race meetings, under which circumstances the rev- enue might be less. H. H. Dewart opened with a. broad- side to the effect that "this measure is unfair to legitimate and honest sport in this Province, and no sports- man would introduce such legisla- tion. We do not recognize the At- tornev-General as a sport." u- prtr,pv--.Not a. tin-horn-gam- Mr. TtCrier----) a tin-horn-Btu"" Ming sport. Mr. bewart---We11, We recognize the 1trdrneor-General't' friend, Mr. A be Orpen. Mr. Dewart secured the admission from the Provincial Treasurer that haste was necessitated by the open- ing next week of the Woodbine race track, and he went on to in- quire if the bill was in the interests of the bookmakers, who would swarm the track, and necessitate the detailing of more police than the Attorney-General had on his entire staff. Under the old pari-mutuel system, he said, the people simply bet with each other, while this scheme exacted 5 per cent. from every \wager, whatever its success. Case of Extortion. When the Provincial Treasurer pointed out that it had been shown that the old system took far greater Ltoll of the wager-era than 5 per cent., .mentioning 84 per cent. Mr. Dew- art said then the Government was to blame for not Te""'"" for ex- LA-blnn tortion. Dew- t wa- Jr ex- _) he