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! Mr. Price laid on the table sup., From 1915 to 1925 the Province | plementary estimates for the pres-- had.spent $110,933,615 on good roads, ent year amounting to $1,951,504, "@¢¢ivinsg back $16,122,689 from the announcing at the same time that DUN!Cipalities and Dominion Govern-- there would be further supplemen-- M®"t. It left a very heavy debt on tary estimates, In the supplemen-- 2CC°UNt 0f roads, which should be re-- taries is a $10,000 item for operation tired during the lifetime of the roads. of a farm for reception, training and He calculated at $5,03%5,000 the in-- distribution of overseas farm--boy t°"©st necessary to carry this huge apprentices. outlay each year, and the total an-- In opening, Mr. Price paid tribute nual cost ;)t $10,569,911. . Revenue to the memory of Sir Adam Beck, st__rif-tly attributable to roads was only and paused to extol the record ots.,t.}:z:-ifl. Last year Ontario spent "another great public servant," the * million more than she received on fate Clerk of the House,' A. H. account n'f roads, and at the same l ntannp " IMhan ha numnnoniasd «n wa«,,. lime provided no sinking fund. The people of Ontario, the Treas-- urer said, had a lesson to learn on the point of their payments on ac-- count of interest, to prepare them-- selves for the necessity of the pro-- posed sinking fund provision, On-- tario's interest deficits ran over five millions in 1923, six and a half millions in 192%4, and over seven millions in 1925. There had been a striking improvement in revenue surplus, except on that uncontrol-- lable item of interest. In opening, Mr,. Price paid tribute to the memory of Sir Adam Beck, and paused to extol the record of "another great public servant," the late Cleck of the House, A. H. sydere. Then he proceeded to note improvements in the manner of presentation of the Public Accounts. He was able to announce, he said, that the full statistical presentation of Provincial affairs which he made last fall is varied only slightiy by the complete returns now before the various departments. During the past year. he said,. the Province had taken advantage of the low rate of interest for short--Gdate money, and placed entirely tempo-- rary loans. The saving accomplished amounted to about $250,000, and, he thought, would enable the Province to go into the money markets this year and goet money at a lower in-- terest rate than would have heen possible last year. Noting complaints as to the late bringing down of Public Accounts in the Legislature, Mr. Price contrast-- ed the return dates in other Prov-- inces, which, he said, were favorable to Ontario. Saving on Loans. Passing over the revenue and ex-- penditure figures since 1923, Mr. Price said: '"These figures show that from the last year of the previ-- ous -- Administration _ the ordinary revenue of the Province changed from a deficit of over $9,500,000 to a surplus of nearly $2,200,000, a change for the better of over $11,-- 700,000." Huge Interest Doeficits, Discussing for a moment Ontario's position with. regard to outstanding succession -- duty -- free bonds. Mr. Price said that $4,507,000 of them were in active circulation in Ontario, In addition, sterling issues outstand-- ing in London amounted to about $:,-- 875,000. Although last year the Province took power by special legis-- lation to secure any of the succession-- duty--free bonds which might be in-- ventoried in various estates, on the advice of the Financial Controller, none of them had been taken up, be-- cause it was estimated the loss re-- sulting from their being outstanding was not so great as the interest loss involved in supplying finances with which to buy them. They appeared to be very closely held in a few estates. Duty--Free Bonds. To Be Further Estimates. Mr. Price said that, under the "tightened--up'"" methods of account-- ing instituted by this CGovernment, Drury Government deficits would have totalled $24,499,828 during its four years of office, 'The Gov-- ernment, he said, was proceeding each year to '"tighten up" the af-- fairs of the Province so that they would be administered on an actual business basis. The Government's policy with re-- spect to Savings Offices, he said, had been justified by the appearance of a $100,000 surplus on their account. They were now providing a surplus against losses. Deposits totalled $19,-- 220,000 at the end of this fiscal year, as compared with $22,000,000 last year, degpite the decrease of 1 per cent. in interest rates. _ _ The _ Agricultural _ Development Board had loaned to farmers $9,584,-- 000, in comparison with $7,205,442 a year ago. Cost of Highways. '"I am hoping next year," he said, "that our full year's revenue from the gasoline tax will bring us another $1,100,000, and that the liconses may increasge this a further $300,000,. This would leave us $700,000 to apply on a sinking fund. Of course, we must remember that it may be required that there be more expenditure on the maintenance of roads next year, as more of the trunk highways are getting old, and will require more attention. It will also follow next year that the roads constructed in the present fiscal year will require some repair and attention. It is fur-- ther quite evident that it will be a number of years before we have suft-- ficient revenue to carry our roads and at the same time provide a fair sinking fund to retire the bonded in-- debtedness." Sinking Fund Needed. In drawing his lesson as to the its citizens pay np(-essit_y of sinking fund provision, The question, he Mr. Price noted an increase in pub-- tated the minds h:: debt between 1916 and 1926 from the world over, a $52,000,000 _ to $277,000,000, on reached (where | which interest payments had in-- with on its mer creased from $2,000,000 to $15,000,. tion arrived at. 000. Against this there were now ferences on the p total sinking fund provisions for been held in Ne only 4.626 per -- cent. of the pesg and Quebec, funded debt of the Province. the elimination The present method of deal. Would mean some« ing with debt was to pay interest| revenue, but it and nothing off principal. In forty: --------Cquitable treatmet years the Province, by this method, would tend to do pays $2,000,000 on interest, and still dance and evas has its $1.000,000 of principal to and that the imm pay. The saving effected on $1,000,-- enue would be ult 000 by the new instalment annuity Further conferenc method would be $668,880. would be hf'ld be! Adopting the Special Committee's recommendation for an instalment annuity plan on the debt, exclusive of Hydro debt and inscribed stock, the Province would pay yearly on principal and interest $11,218,000, as against present interest amounting to $9.782,000, making an amount to be raiseqd from annual revenue of $1,436,311. To Wipe Out Hydro Debt. The Hydro Commission udvised that 1927 would see full sinking fund provision in operation in re-- spect of its indebtedness to the Prov-- ince. Through a slight amendment to the act, provision would be made whereby, in a period of forty years, the Hydro would owe nothing of its© present debt to the Province, and the! Province have correspondingly re-- duced its own debt. After compli-- menting the Hydro upon its pro-- vision of sinking funds to date, Mr. Price said that the time had now arrived for simillar institution -- with regarda to Chippawa, the Nipigon, and other main undertakings. Mr. Price said that, according to the report of the Provincial Auditer, the collection of revenue in every de-- partment had been very much im-- proved by the intensive audits of the past year, as well as by those going back for five years. In the High-- ways Department & million dollars had been collected which otherwise would have been lost through -- lax bookkeeping and the billing of mu-- nicipalities. The Treasury Depart-- ment had collected additional sums of over $40,000, and a partial list of other moneys which had come in on account of the audits amounted to $250,7119.63. The Province -- also had made great headway in prose-- cuting the five--year audit. ('da'»). IV\(lVC § 2. Th UECEIOUCC ETT Lo uid and that the immediate loss of reyv-- enue would be ultimately overcome. Further conferences, Mr. Price said, would be held between Ontario and Quebec with a view to effecting & solution of the difficulties between these two Provinces. Under the head of No New Tax-- ation,." Mr, Price declared: "The CGovernment has been wait-- T 7 uol q 020000000 on ie Per Capita Comparisons. National . . . State or Pro-- Mr. Price gasve the House a tabu-- lation showing how Canada com-- pared i» per capita taxation with Australia, Great Britain, and the TUnited -- States. This -- tabulation, based on the year 1923, but reflect-- ing pretty well, he thought, the con ditions of the present time, was as follows: Dealing further with taxation re-- forms, Mr. Price spoke of the ef-- forts of the Government in the past to inaugurate some scheme in the Treasury Department which would be of benefit to the Province. Dur-- ing the present year, he said, the Government was directing its aiten-- tion to the wiping out of deuble tax-- ation among the Provinces of the Dominion, and, as far as possible, with foreign countries. Ontario, he said, had for a number of years waived its taxes rather than have its citizens pay & double amount. The question, he added, had agi~ tated the minds of Governmenis all the world over, and a point had been reached where it should be dea'lt with on its merits and some solu-- tion arrived at. In referring to con-- ferences on the problem which have been held in New Orleans, Winni-- peg and Quebec, Mr. Price said that the climination of double taxation would mean some immediate loss of revenue, but it was felt that an To Eliminate Double Tax« vincial , . . Municipal,ete Pointing out Canada's advantages in this connection, Mr. Price ex-- pressed the belief that the country had been unfair to itself in per-- mitting so much talk about heavy taxation. "CGasoline LAaX----AIllim LtX -- per gallon has proved a V ductive one. In a full year ticipated that there would lected about $3,4100,000. F/ over five montbs of the pa of the year there was collec $2,000,000, The collection tax up to January 1 amouyr 500,000, and there are ! months to go. nadulss a 2. Aovn ty : > SA WiV d IOUR no0 _ tax cn cnrbonated somewhat over $81 probable that for : Aisbeanouns y o0 Total somewhat ovel ¥°"~%.", probable that for a full on earbonated drinks more than $100.000. "We have decided to tax on earbonaied dri done partly 0n account revenue received and si¢fionite Lounid in C Aifficulty tax." 1 $37.062 $66.11 $60.68 Pax--In tax on drinks ' a peric -- a period of five the sum «_)f_$375, Tax----This i Can idb 23.3 ment of the taxpayer do away with avoi-- vasion -- of the tax 5.16 --In the £ame 402° on wines, peers and nks -- was imposed. eriogd of five months um of $375,000. The tead drinks produced $80,000. It is quite or a full yeat the tax drinks would not be 000. B o ooo un Jusaie LANEREME CCC ied drinks. This 18 account of the small a and the extreme i in collecting this oved a very pro-- full year it is an-- re would be col-- 0,000. For a little of the past period was collected about collection on this -- 1 amounts to $2,-- Aus. G $12.20 15.80 11.56 that good busi-- uld bring some-- nue in the vari-- There were two ation opened up t wasi taxation re-- of the ef-- in the past eme in the AaX STMO® § ring to con-- which have ins, Winni-- ce said that abandon the 1 & of 3 cents still $67.39 «90 0% four 6y ( A *¥