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Denies Huge Saving. Mr. Henry claimed that when the auditors, whi were now supposed to be preparing a statement as to the actual saving between the old and the new power agreements had | completed their work, the "shock" \to the Liberals would be terrific. |Acfing Chairman Houck of Hydro \had represented this saving to be some $92,000,000, whereas engineers iomployod by the Opposition had |\found, in checking up, that the sav-- ing would not be "a quarter of that sum." The Government. he said, ;waz also claiming a $2.50 saving in | prite per horsepower on the new |\agreements, whereas, he said, the | depreciated value per horsepower was $1.80, leaving a bare 70 cents 'per horsepower of a saving. | _ ;. For the second time of the ses-- sion Mr. Hepburn leaped to his feet 'and declared that he had never at \any time prior to the election inegothted with Beauharnois, di-- Irmly or indirectly, nor had he 'heard of negotiations. l '"My colleagues say the same." he added. "You will have to accept my | statement." Mr. Henry digressed to charge that the cost of oprrating automo-- biles in certain departments had been "covered up." His statement was made in reference to an earher claim of the Premier that it would be difficult to lay before the House this entire cost as requested in a question on the order paper. Mr. Hepburn immediately shot back a reference to the avtomobiles which he said had been gasolined at the Government's expense, although owned by Mr. Henry when he was at the head of the Government. y"'l'he Government." he said, "is very fond of talking about how thev've _ removed _ some _ secret clauses from the Beauharnois con-- tract that were in the original agreements, but they won't tell you anvthing about this vital load fac-- tor. of which I've been speaking, and which is a feature of the Beau-- harnois contract." Scents HWHypocrisy. "I am aonly pointing out the hy-- porrisy of the man who would stand up in the House and say 'Vote as you like' to the members of the House, but when the vote was called the pressure was put on." re-- torted Mr. Henry, in reference to the sweepstakes motion vote. o _ "Are you defending sweeps?" asked J. H. Clarke (Lib.. Windsor-- Sandwich}. "As for you,." shot back Mr. Henry, "tho press had you reported pretty correctly." Ruled Out of Order. His reference was made to a press report. later denied by Mr. Clarke, that on the day of the sweep vote, the member for Windsor--Sandwich had polled each Liberal member in an attempt to drum up support for the motion. The course of the debate was broken by charges that Mr. Henry was out or order, and on appeal, the Speaker ruled that he had wander-- ed afield from the debate on the power bill. "Well," grinned Mr. Henry, un-- abashed, "I am trying to keep with-- in limits." "Well, try a little harder, George, said the Premier, in an aside. Charges Deception. Mr. Henry charged that the Pre-- mier had deceived the public three years ago when the original con-- tracts were repudiated, had deceiv-- ed the public again on the back-- to--Niagara program immediately before the election, and had evi-- dently developed a technique that suggested "the way to handle the public is to deceive them once in a :\irhilg. especially before an elec-- on," The Premier now claimed there were no negotiations with Beauhar-- nois before the election. Then, asked the speaker, why did Beau-- harnois bonds go up in the summer of 19372 The only explanation was that the Government was coming around to an agreement in the autumn. '"The people are giving very little attention to the committee. It car-- ries no respect and nothing in par-- ticular is expected from it. Had this House desired to go to the bottom of this, it would have been referred to a Royal Commission, where it might have been given some judicial consideration." | _ He claimed the Government did 'not want an investigation of the | new contracts and that the Oppo-- | sition did not want an investigation of the old. Wants Legislation Wiped Out. Mr. Henry then declared the Gov-- ernment should have made a new agreement in each case so that the "iniquitous repudiation legislation, sponsored by the member from Bellwoods (Mr. Roebuck), could be wiped from the statute books. "While that repudiation legislation remained on the books, he charged, they would be a disgrace and a blot upon the escutcheon of the Province." Mr. Roebuck then took up the de-- bate and said he was in favor of holding up the decision on the con-- tracts until after the Hydro Inves-- tigating Committee made its re-- port. "Not that I am expecting much from the committee," he added. "It has been described as a judicial body, but with three Cabinet Min-- isters and five others from the Gov-- ernment benches and four from the Opposition among its members, 1 for one am expecting very little re-- sult of a sensational character. The amendment, he said, spoke for itself, claimed Mr. Macaulay, and he appealed to the Government to let the validation action rest over until the committee made its report. £ 1 ie "I want to tell the Prime Min-- ister that I think he has made a mistake. He has an opportunity be-- fore the House prorogues to make a correction." Premier Hepburn protested alle-- gations that the committee carried with it no respect and held that Mr. Roebuck's opinion was motivat-- ed by the fact he was not a mem-- ber of the committee, Regrets Roebuck Left Off. He recalled that he had moved for the inclusion of Mr. Roebuck, "but the Prime Minister called on his members to vote down my sug-- gestion." Mr. Macaulay argued that Mr. Roebuck would not be in a po-- sition of sitting in judgment on his own record any more than some other members of the Government appointed to the committee. "Let us get Hydro on a basis on which the people of the Province can secure information on it with-- out bias," he said. "Hydro discussion has taken up too much time of the House, largely because of the machinations of interested parties "I think Mr. Roebuck is in just as good a position to sit on that committee as the Attorney--General (Mr. Conant) or the Provincial See-- retary (Mr. Nixon)," he said. "The committee needs to have the member from Bellwoods there a considerable part of the time. Why he is not there in a most strategic position, I can't imagine," he said. Mr. Macaulay sald he was regret-- ful that Mr. Roebuck had not been included. A?fi\ e who wanted something out of it. By excluding the member for Beli. woods from the committee and put-- ting these contracts through with. out the committee's report, the Pre. mier is only carrying on this situa-- tion." The Attorney--General _ charged that _ members supporting the amendment were "trying to tor-- pedo the contracts. They know full well that the agreements provide that two must be validated by May 1 and one by July 1. They know that if they are not ratified they must revert to the position in which they were before. It is inconceivable that the merits of the settlement could be affected one iota by the findings of the Investigating Committee." Conant Opposes Delay. T. A. Kidd, Conservative Whip, took up the plea for postponement on final action and in support of his contention, cited that Mr. Roe-- buck, during the Government's re-- pudiation session, has held up the House for one week with his mara-- thon address. He claimed too that certain of the Premier's speeches on the hustings were unfair and that unfairness in part could be wiped out with a proper consideration of the current Hydro issue. "I want you to withdraw that remark," shouted the Premier, who declared that Mr. Slaght did not discuss the contracts with him Others from the Liberal benches held that Mr. Slaght had not the association with the power com-- panies as charged by the Member "Didn't Slaght represent Mac-- Laren in 1934°" continued Colonel Kidd. "Didn't he look after the $5,000,000 bond issue in 1934?" He charged, in addition, that Mr. Slaght had been paid $54,000 by the Government since 1933%4. "I say Slaght received too much money from the Province." '"Here is a joke," roared the Pre-- mier. "I suggested Clark for the chairmanship, but the man who objected was your own leader. It just goes to show that you don't know what you are talking about." Colonel Kida precipitated a ver-- bal explosion when he charged that "When your friend, Arthur Slaght, who represents the power interests snaps his fingers, then the Premier must act." Demands Withdrawal. Mr. Clark broke in to declare that Colonel Kidd's remarks were wholly irrelevant to the debate. "That -- reminds me," -- smilea Colonel Kidd. "I want to pay the member for Windsor--Sandwich a compliment. The Chairman of the Hydro Committee should be Major Clark instead of the Attorney-- General." '"You paid Tilley (W,. N. Tilley, K.C.) $200,000," broke in Mr. Nixon. The vote was called immediately afterwards.