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"The Leader of C Prime Minister for fc *Mr. McQuesten. "Dy and prior to it, Hyc !vast sums for power | friend stood by an: while this was co'in: by while the Hydr fund was reduced f to $3,000,000. And th the point where the could not be furihe "*Now my honorab Colonel T. A. Kidd, Conservative, Kingston, , enlivened the closin= minutes o, the debate with a char-- acteristically noettling attack on the power policy of the Hepburn Gov-- ernment ranging high criticisin from Arthur Slaght's friendship for Mr. Hepburn, to the appoint-- ment to the Liquor Board of Ar-- nold Smith, son of one of the two Judges who presided over the Royal Commicsion inquiry into Ab-- itibi. Colonel Kidd was constantly in hot water, and in the first half hour of his lencthv address was compelled by the Spcaker, at the reouest of Attornoyv--General Roc-- buck, to withdraw remarks whic'h 'the latter claimed to be "untrue." | Mr. McQuesten. There was nothing partisan or small about the Opposition amand-- ment, urged Wilfrid Heighington 1 (Cons., St. David). If the facts| would have gone to the bow--wows "ll'lms'g{rt order had | the f°m'-'r! Henry administration continued In; office and been permitted to buy Quebec power on An extravagant , scale." Hydro, honestly developed, honestly distributed, and honestly run, would be able, he felt, "in the next eight or ton years of Liberal rule in Ontario," to set a flat rate for power consumers and a very low rate, at that. Efforts of the Opposition to convince the public that the Hydro Commission and certain members of the Goverm ment were the main stumbling= blocks to new agreements with the Quebec companies were decried by Major Clark. Two companies, represented by fair minded men. had come to Hydro, and got new agreements. 'There was no doub! in his mind, he said, that the other companies would get a friendly re-- ception from Hydro if they choso to negotiate. "I'm not authorized to say that." answered Major Clark. "I would say that from the fact that the other companics were able to ge! new agreements, it is evident th:! Hydro is not the stumbling--bloc : in the way of further negotiations." Colonel Kidd. "Does that mean," asked Arthur Ellis, Conservative, South Ottawn, "that Hydro would be prepared to buy additional power from Quebec, if they met these companies?" "And I venture to say that it was no more possible for him to obtain a friendly settlement than it was for us to obtain it. He could not do it, We could not do it." Mr. Heighington, B a 1 _ Humorist Murray Suggests Best Liar Feed Inaccu-- racies to Press |were as stated by the Ateorney-- General, then the Opposition would accept them. But up to the pres-- ent time there was only the At-- torney--General's say--so for it all. l "Let us put a stop to this piti-- ful, partisan business," urged the | Conservative member. "Does the Government intend to act without i the evidence? Is this Legislature 'goin:: to pass this bill blindly and vindictively? Let it go to a com-- miltee and let us have all the Tacts." Similar statements were made by A. H. Acres, (Cons., Carleton). He denounced the insinuations that the former Government was guilty of fraud in connection with power contracts. The Opposition was jJust as anxious to steer Hydro clear of danger as were the Government Ministers, he said. Acting Premier Nixon, who Inci-- dentally was voted a resolution of confidence in his leadership, capped Messrs. Roebuck and Mc-- Questen's bid for unanimous Liberal support of the present power bills with the argument that the mem-- bers need not worry about the opposition of influential newspapers with which the Government was at present confronted. Clites Roosevelt's Case. Both he and Hon. T. B. McQues-- ten, the other Government repre-- sentative on the Ontario Hydro-- Electric Power Commission, deait at length, however, with power policy of the past, declaring every effort had been made on the Prov-- ince's part to negotiate new agree-- ments with the "power barons," and asking caucus to accept their as-- surances that Ontario was not face to tace with a power shortage, as reported, and that provisions that had been made by Hydro were ample to take care of any unfore-- seen emergencies which might arise. NIXON I1S B ACK ED There is no doubt of the mounting influence which Hon. Mr. Mc-- Questen exercises over the private Liberal membership. Following the conclusion of his caucus remarks, Roosevelt in the last Presidential election, he stated, had almost a solid press against him, and yet had triumphed. The common people | had backed him, and the common ; people in Ontario would again back | the Hepburn Administration, Mr. Nixon believed. Roebuck Declines to Discuss Reported Impending Que-- bec Power Purchase Any member, the ,Attorney--Gen-- eral is reported to l'ave said, was welcome to visit him in his office and there discuss the situation, but as for revealing future policy be-- fore caucus--"nothing doing." NEWS "LEAKS" BIG WORRY TO CAUCUS Jam;zwq 2C Toronto and Other Points _ Can Join, Declares Min-- | ister of Welfare NO EXTRA TAXATION different ML.A.'s said that any misgivings they may have had as _ to the correctness of their con-- : templated support of the legis-- | lation had vanished. |__Another member, however, raised \ the question as to why only one 'Cabinat Minister had, up to that | time, spoken in the House in 'support of the legislation. What | more did they want when the | Attorney--General had taken up six hours alone? Mr. Nixon is said to \ have asked in reply. "If Toronto needs a housing pol-- Icy--and I think she does--it is her business," said the Welfare Min-- ister. "She is large enough, wealthy enough, to embark on one. She can have no doubt about the true condi-- tions after reading that disturbing report presented to her two years ago by the committee headed by the Lieutenant--Governor,. Toronto has received every encouragement from this Government and under ne present plans, she will receive still more. If Toronto prefers to hear endless debates and appoint endless committees, that is her business. Short of coercive legislation, this House can do no more. | The scheme was open to all mu-- nicipalities, Mr. Croll emphasized, and he mentioned Toronto partic-- ularly as one city which should avail itself of the opportunity of erecting low--cost homes, under the terms of the plan. A Government housing scheme which will have its first large--scale test in the supervised municipalities of the Province, was announced by Hon. David Croll, Minister of Wel!l-- fare, in the Legislature yesterday. In answer to a question from wWil-- frid Heighington (Cons., St. David), the Minister explained the Govern-- ment's plan, stating that 560 houses would be started this spring in the supervised areas, including the Yorks, Scarboro', Mimico and ad-- jacent districts. j Start in Supervised Munici-- palities Announced in Legislature by Croll A lot of caucus argument was centred on the possibility that "traitors" were providing the press with caucus information that could not be obtained except through "leaks." Major James Clark (Wind-- sor--Sandwich) was strong in his denunciation of such alteged tac-- tics, and had the caucus adopt a resolution providing that -- all speeches therein be regarded . as "secret." Tom Murray, veteran leg-- islator and famed humorist from North Renfrew, suggested that the best way to get around the situa-- tion was to trip up the press by having the best liar among the Lib-- erals invent inaccurate stories to feed out systematically to the re-- porters, A plea for a special caucus on the liquor question is reported to have been entered by Dr. W. D. Smith (Dufferin--Simcoe). Feeling as expressed by other supporters of the plea was that "booze" might easily become a major issue in the next election, and that it would be wise to have a frank talk about present administrative policy as soon as possible,