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31f

Govt. Finances Analyzed , By Leader Of_ Opposition Alarming Increase In Liabilities UndervSaunders. Ad-

p ministration Revealed In SearchingCriticism Of PublicpExpenditures. Opposition‘ Leader In Bril-

liant Form In

Polloflnl is the speech delivered by rich. s. n. Stewart, x. 0., leader of the Opposition, in the Budget de- bate. lliollowins Prernier Saunders’ addreeh in the legislature on Wed- nesdsy evening, March 20th. Mr. smut said.

Mr, Speaker, I rise to a point of otdl’. I would like to remind my hnshfriaadtlhatheetartedtodeliv-

_ se-a

oflsterl f‘ Sluirplus

--—-_-—_

Budget Debate. - i have nothing else in view than to, create, disturbance "answer-bait the work from goingon. “WlsenI-went to Prince of.Wales Ooilege there werecert-eln departments in which the students, the moment they en- tered the class-room, seemedyto im- bibe that unruly spirit. When we come; to _iook hack at thosrthings we can see plainly enough, what the

er thenueeet speech. The Budget has always included some estimate c! revenues and expenditures for the coming year. He has ct given us thiasndlwilltskemys tandal- . low him to furnish this lnfn- " to the House and complete his address. (The Premier apologised for Vhav- ingfoi,‘ to’ ‘ ’ the " ‘ fn his speech. He then gave a list Y of mtlmated expenditures, estimat- , ing the total ordinary revenues at 0000,40‘! and the total ordinary e:- pérsdituru at $846,000; or an estim- ated deficit of about 038,000.) I Hon. Mr. Stewart: Mr. Speaker, at . this. very late hour I shall‘ not at- tanpt to go very far in following the leader of the Government in i his Budget , '. We hiveusteb- ed to a very remarkable delivery; not so remarkable for its length. so far as my hon. friend's speeches are concerned, but remarkable, and even startling in the manner in which it dealt with the finances of this Pro- . vines. His method was entirely novel. But my iron. friend ls noted as a financial novelist. In the dark- nessofthisChambemandtotheac- of the melancholy howling of the pariah dogftihe first cf his wonderful Budget dalivnanoes was flvm; and slit listening to the two succeeding ones, and especially the one this evening, I venture to say that no ms who has any claim to sanity would attempt to prophecy what the end will be. I am not Wing to deal with his " ziguresteuight. 1t is a moot remark- sblathingtomethetwhilehisown Auditor. whom he has praised so.of- tensed so loudly, has shown very a deficit, and that by every a deficit sp-

_ claim a sin-plus. However, I deal with that later on.

Worrying The Premier

‘W’ E

Jly hon. friend ins complained, notsomuchtisisevesungescnfer- mm‘ occasions. that Fate 0r Provid- esicaseemed to be against him; that strange, untoward‘ things happened

.s.s'lsoouashearxdhlsparty attained pap. ' mm- instance, the school

upftetbetiuie unit his oeverb- ment came into office, they had sons ch in performance of the duties of their profession Mhhbili any dif- ficulty ee- cemplaint.’ But the rac- ment heuepurs luio power he com- slams mayor- to em me w betharhlu. ‘lhay secured to imbibe tho spirit cf mischief and annoy- ance since he became Prime Minister. 15¢ to 00M delellticns ebe to._aek,for more payzsnd they kept tpi. lip. uatu he was almost worried

'~‘~ " mushy, he found himself

“_ yastrikeofthateifil- eirhis .

_ some spirit of , and mumm- ‘I119! _ set firs to the

was. Our parents understood at the time, and they sought a rem- edy. The cause then was the same as i.n__the case of this Government. The cause at that time was the in-

‘ - off-he ‘ ‘ .-and the cause in the case of my hon. friend is staring him straight _ln the face; it ii thef ‘ , of himself and hhGoves-umcst. (Applause).

AN APPBDPIJATI nxr

._1f I were a preacher and had to selectatextformyremarksthisev- "ening, it would be bi the following words: g ‘

* "My friend the Premier has my sincere sympathy in the unfer- tunste position in which ._he now finds himself. m the first. place, in regsrdfo the unprecedented de- ‘flclts that he has handed out to the electors of the. Province, during the period fnwhfch hetlssa had the honor of being Premier. Bec- ondly. owing to the lack of initia- tioihaslmsycallitoutbspart ofhlmselfaswellsshlsGovern- meat. As I see than. speaker. ha has been marking time and he has been drifting hopelessly with the tide.”

‘lbs-text that. I have quoted. Mr. Bpefier, is from-the Patriot of April 0. 1001, page 0. I midi add anchor

We have not hersand sar- bf!- nrstes in one lnsllllceP-Brsdget speech, as reported in_ the ‘Patriot of May e, 1m. vase i).

The first ten is takmfrom the

. subiidyybut we left. the door wide

‘THE ;g5gi.o'i'ri~:'rowi~i ciu/iuplgibf

Fades Into $246,000 Defi

‘ PKG

that that amount ehbue not be counted as iuebeyl It lil; that be- cause we- had claimed that we obtained it,- it shouldn't _be put inttetihe Public Accounts. It should be struck out; it didn't exist;' although it was in the treasury, pnd hsd been used in connection with the public services during the year! -'l‘lrat. is a. sample of the saneness of his financing. - _ .I.n additionio that we had Just succeeded in- having the Federal technical grant. made available for agriculture, tlius- securing an ad- ditional source of revenue for the Province which has since been avail- able up to the present moment; We ‘not only obtained that increase in

open, leaving these hon. gentlemen. wlrenltheyieame in, standing on the threaholdpso as to msksthe-finane- ing‘ of ' theipublic services a, very essysnd simple‘ “ .

Then, too. the highway improve- ment scheme had been completed. we had mtroduced the first of the road graders, and we had established a patrol system for the purpose of road maintenance throughout the Province. All those things had been done. ‘Phat wis the situctibb m which the gentlemen now occupying] the treasury benches found them- selves upon entering office, and that was the situation that obtained at the time the present leader of the Government made this statement whioh r km tune; m my text.

Striking Comparison

June has aaspiaes Ia iae ass fwo or three years? How are things today as compared with that day in April, i027, when my hon. friend spoke lu the Budget debate. We had

splboh of the Druentleader of the Government dining the Budget de- bate~of 1007, the last YQ-Iiuill? be waaleaderof the Opposition; meini order to the setting of this fefst it mighVbe well, perhaps, todcalfiretwithbhemnnwhoniade that statement. ‘As yo-vf know, Mr. speexer, the present ‘leader of the Government entered this legislature in i010. Up to i033 he was iust meerther-abkmehlecrurenib- eral re, tatives in the House. Thllihewaschoiaenasleaderofhis DIIbIIIKIHOIIBIQIJBIOIIIIIQIs-ib- erals in this Legislature. i-Ie remain- se ih that position mm 1m to 1m. He was then, as you know, approach- ing very" closely to a general provin- cial election, and it was under those circumstances, in the Budget debate of 1027. tilt he made this statement.

The Conservative Surplus

You will note, too, that if the lead- er of the Government has one out- standing quality it is h's over- weeding unbition. I-I e was very anxious to get where he alts now. It didn't matter very much what he said; it didn't matter how much ex- aggeration was contained in his statements ll iehg as it served that purpose. let us look at the condi- tiosrsastireyesiatedatthetimehe made that statement. The Public Acceuuis of that year. which had

m

a revenue 000800.000; these gentle- men have today a revenue of over $1,000,000. And notwithstanding the specious ants of the leader of the Government tonight. I. want to asy that The Guardian newspaper is lllt 88.000 too low in its estimate of the deficit which this Government incurred during the past year. _ It ls too lalethls evening to go Into the financial situation, but before I am through} will prove that the deficit

Ifitisaslnklulfundlliamhshss topay acertainanrmmtofthesink- mg funds. Does my hon, friend mean to say that this is _not a eur- rent expenditure for the year? 0f course It ls. He says it is covered by securities. Does it make it any less a Plfllient out of current revenue If he puts it In the bank to meet the mort- gage when it becomes due.’ in the "P" your? Tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, l shall produce the Patriot news- caper; of Apr-ii c, 1e21, llld read to the House my hon. friend's calculu- flcn in which he includes the inking funds in that wsy himself. (Loud applause).

Spending The Money!

I wish to say a fewwordaon‘ the manner in-twhich this Government has.been nding the revenue. 8125,- 000 was borrowed for toad machin- ery. r825,000 this year was spent in repairs on those machines. Yet they talk about their predecessors "drift- ing with the tid ." They talk about deht.s.. My hon. friend» was confron- ted with a surplus in 1927 that he could not deny.‘ What has he 4o show for the deficit this year of nearly a quarter of a million dollars? 1n the Department of'Pubiic Works there is an expenditure of over half aJnlllion dollars-as much as the whole revenues of the Province a few years ago-and what have we to show-for. it’! Take the bank over- draft. The amount-that tblsfiov- ernment owes to the banks today, ac- cording to. their own Public Ac- counts, is ovcr'$000,000—tlrg largest in the history» of the Province. And even in small matters the same ex- travagance is noticeable. Take this very building in which ~we are sitt- ing. Last year the expenditure was over $0,000,--double to what it was in cur time. . Talk about "drunken sail- orsl" When we came-here two years age, we found the interior of this building had been renovated, at a considerable cost to the Province. I referred to the matter at that time, and we weresssured that all the hills had been-paid. Last year cer- tain bills were presented and we thought we had heard the end of this expenditure. Yet this year there is an item of $000 for linoleum fer this building. Where in the name of common sense ls it“ 0n the roof, or somewhere. (Daughter). These are the men who claim that in 1921. when we had a. "surplus that could be calculated, lbs Prwvha II going to the dogs. ~ And now let my hon. friend add all our deficits together and see if it will amount to his def- icit for this‘ year alone! fApplause‘.

Public Accounts

‘rhe leader of this Government is now going to sell his gravelled roads to somebody, to liquidate his assets and balance his accounts. 'I‘hst is theonly meaning I can take from his remarks in his Budget speech this evening. Don he purpose to dig them up, salvage them and offer them by the ton for whatever he can

of this Province for the past year was 0240.000. That ls’ the difference be- tweén the actual cash revenue and expenditure; and I will give you the figures and it can be proven in sev- eral different ways. (Applause).

My hon, friend said he knew that I would not include the Sinking Funds ,.,._ latlon, as ‘rhe Guard- ian did in making uptheideficit. Does he remember his own attitude on this matter when be was leader of‘ the Opposition? Will he refer to his speech m the Patriot of April a INT-the same tbstd havepquoted from-i-anilsee what he said on that occasion? If he will analyse his fl- gures he will find that he included the linking Funds payment Just as The includes tlsern now, and as they should be included. (Ap- plsusel- . ~

The Deficit

What. is a deficit? It, is simply the di!‘ ‘ . currmt re-

last been new. ‘ a

of ‘about QINMQ) all they also showed In, factual surplus of about 010,000. And. mind you, thatsurpiirs not made up'by plautng a valua- ueb ch gravaiied roads half-- wan-out machinery and all sorts of other That was aet- ual messy; and apea that basis alone. r wit» to mi sub the finances. as easy aye always been dealt wills. It remained for my lion. friend ‘to mtroduos t-hajiily, nou-

M!

lebeieeiaietheeetihakrh; ppllllf- interruption from roe. pmeeeitieepeepcaitwhmxiuer-mimuirhimnnu-uitbie ihallmaiano imitates-renown" ' procaadwith uranium wm renew, .., q » 1. _ ' ‘liikafofezainpirs xeseeitiea‘ietel._mbsipl-iievs f" h" iiad-efittfifil i l monou-

~ creams

y§§ 1

venue and current expenditure. It is quite a different. thing from the lla- billties and the assets of the Pro- vince. .'I‘he amount that is appropri- ated awry Yelrvfor sienna NM! is-a current expenditure and should b0 placed-inthet account. \~

‘Ion. Mr. ' saaasem You will never gated-auditor in this Pro- vincatoeay so. . -

lion. llr. Stewart: My hon. friend had thoflcmrfor two hours and a

“ non. am. s-mwewr:

gel? ' men in the preparation of the Public Accounts he has succeeded in making the maximum of errors.

PREMIER. BAUNDIHB: Some- thing the sarne as your loose leaf system. Our loose leaf system would not. compare for a moment with it. because we were genéraiiy able to strike a proper bal- ance, at leastfi But what do we find in the statement of the accounts as tabled this year? The Pltriot news- paper ‘says you must take it just as it is published. You may comment on it as you like; but you must give‘ the statements exactly as ‘they ap- pear. It is like the laws of thc Medea and Persians, it cannot be changed. If that be so, Mr. Speaker. it presents a very ‘strange anomoiy If you look at. the Accounts you will find that a yebub, Dwyer". ls the jailer lrbihe Queens County Jail, and; first. a man-"Joseph SbreenaiW-Jls the matron. (Laugh- m). Now I am sorry for Joseph hr because he cannot be "cbanged"'and the pocr man has got to rcmaln a "matron" for the rest of his life! (Increased Laughter). lf the Minister of Agriculture will tum to his department in the Public Accounts be will find that nothing a0 all was, paid to himself cr to his De- puty Minister for salary. butthat an amount‘ of 81,000 or 00.000 was pald to Isle steuasrapber. He had better make that up to his Deputy, he- cause the Accounts cannot be chang- cd; they are ‘unalterable. ‘(Laugh- tor).

' ‘rho Watch-bog Asleep

rfwsbt to emf 00 the sirsbtiee the‘ lliuiatlrlofAgricuitus-e tae

0111111118 to show signs of age, be- cause he has fallen sadly from grace. Do you know that they have exceed- ed thelr estimates by nearly 815.000 last year? The Minister of Agricul- ture, who is also the rafllllnfihl Treasurer, must he held responsible. He has a special note at the end of his own departmental report, as Minister of Agriculture, to the effect that he had an order-in-council passed protecting him again this in- crease; but he, left his colleague the Minister of Public Works, out in the cold. He didn't take care of him at all. Yes lt was lib duty to have done so. He is the watch-dog of the treasury. and he should never have allowed the Minister of Public Works to go over his estimates. (Applause).

Resurning the debate on Thursday afternoon, March 27, Mr. Stewart said; z

Mr. Speaker, when I moved the adjournment of the debate I had suggested that the present budget deliverance was very remarkable. I think perhaps I should revise that statement. After all, when you con- sider it in detail, it was very true-to form. The leader of the Govern- ment has been noted for a. long time as a wizard at figures. Perhaps he excelled himself last night in his manipulation and contortion of the finances, but it was really only in a matter of degree. He remained. as 1 said, true to form. He gave us noth- ing new. He was perhaps a little stronger than usual in bombsst, but in that also he is developing true to form. I might, under other circum- stances, say that his speech was a barren one; but we have learned to expect that. The point that struck me was that while it purported to be a Budget speech’. it ‘ ' ed noth- ing for the future, no outline of po- licy so far as any department of Gov- ernment was conccrned. It consisted very largely of vituperatlon aimed at this side of the House. He, appar- ently, forgot his position as leader of the Government and fell__back on the old tactics which he employ ed when he was leader of the Op- position. and seemed to think it his duty to spend the time of the House ‘in criticising former policies of pre-

Taking The "Blood Money"

I want to take up the matter of finances, and I shall deal first with this question of surplus. I think we all know what a ssrpfil er a deficit means. It simply means the differ- ence, one way or the other, between the yearly revenue and the yearly expenditure; That is very simple. My hon. friend last night proclaimed a surplus of some 03,700. Well, Mr. Speaker, surpluses depend a great deal on where you draw the line be- fore you add up the figures. My hon. friend could have rearranged the fi- gures in the relative columns of re- venue arid expenditure and he could have arrived at a different result. The method he followed lest evening produced a result which was quite different to that which had been published before, even by his own party newspaper» He attained this result by including the “blood money" that he had protested against so strongly and so loudly a few years ago. His attitude when in Opposition as you will recall, was that‘ it was a sin to use, as revenue of the Pro- vince, the proceeds of the sale of in- toxicating liquor. Yet he took some thousands of dollars of it this year. in order to show that he find a aur- plus. _Now I submit that if it ls a sln to use this money, it is just as great a sin to use 811,000 as $170,000 of lt. Surely the quantity of money used does not affect the enormity of the transgression!

Proper Financing

As I said before, the only way to arrive at the true surplus or deficit is to take all the expenditures and re- venues for the year. Those are shown by the Provincial Auditor on pages 0 and '1 of Part 1' of the Audit- or's report. In drawing» his line last evening my hon. friend stopped at. "Telephone Extension." But below that we have: "Right of Way; Road Machinery; Grand River feny." etc. Were those moneys not expended? Certainly they were, Just as much as the money expended. for telephone extension. And were they not ex- pended in carrying on the govern- ment of the Province. If they were -snd there can be no dispute about it-thcn they were all provincial es- peuditures by the Government of this Province, and my hon. friend had no‘ right to pick and choose and say that one goes into eafclsnlfleatlea and another late another. because they are all moneys that have beta mules. b1 this heviaee la carry-

“lagsstbasmlessdsrhglleyaar.

_ .

the Auditor's report on this very page that I have referred to, which makes it very confusing. The figures are misplnce’ in some way so as to affect the addition in one place. But if you take these expenditures down to "Sinking Funds", including the amounts i for the Banatorium, etc. which are all actually paid out of the treasury, you will find that they total 01,000,054. We do not include in this amount all the Sinking Funds, beoluse two of them are provided for in special accounts. The highway im- provement debcntures are provided for out of a certain fund, and anoth- er: amount which appears here is simply a. cross-entry, Interest on Sinking Hind, which is also provided for by an interest credit on the op- posits side- But we. take the ordin- ary appropriation. 010,320; that is an amount, as I said before, that is tak- en. out of current revenue and paid out to provide for the sinking fund appropriation. I do not csre where it is placed; it is taken out of current revenue and therefore it is an ex- penditure.

MB. SAUNDERS 1N 1927

I am sorry the leader of the Op- position is not in his seat, because I promised him I would show where he had adopted this very method 1n i027. of including the sinking fund appropriation in his calculation. I will now refer to that. I quote from the Evening Patriot of April 0, 1921, from the report of the speech of Mr. A. C. Saunders in the budget debate. In the first column he works out the surplus or deficit for that year. He takes the following figures:

Revenue, Ordinary, 1926 .. $747,060.96 Balance Gasoline Acct. .. . 5,012.58 Balance Highway Improve-

ment Acct- 009.74 ‘ Tctsl—$752.643.28 Expenditure Ordinary $724,058.40 Expenditure Capital .. 500.00

15,120.00 $741,381.29 Surplus-S . 11,255.99 Those are his own figures, given in 1921. And surely. Mr. Speaker, with my hon. friend's ability at casting up figures. we might take his precedent» in that regard! Deducting that amount from ordinary revenue, in- cluding “blood money". we have a re- venue of $000,226. There is an amount of 02,000, gasoline tax, unexpcnded, which I am leaving out ‘ e it is nea a ssvsnus at all but musty In amount that is carried along from year to year to meet the rebates. That leaves a deficit for the past year of $200,048. That is the difference between the xpendliure and the re- venue for the year, and yet the leader of the Government will stand up and attempt to persuade the people o." this Fovince that be had a surplus. To support his contention he selects. certain items from the Public Ac- counts ou each side of the page, adds themttogether and Ignores the rest. notwithstanding the fact that. Ill these amounts are paid out of the treasury. (Loud Applause).

Sinking Funds

s

..._e-

Provincial Liability

Bo much for the “surplus? The thing that was really startling to me in my hon. friend's speech last night was the way in which he calculated the increase in debt. On one point. in his calculation I think we can agree: that is with regard to the amount that we went behind during our four years of oflice. We increas- ed the debt of the Province by a415,- 000 during the time that we were in power. With that statement I have no fault to find. Let us now take the amount that they have gone be- hind. "In making this calculation, I shall take the figures of their own auditors. I do not propose to take the figures which my hon. friend reed off last. night so rapidly that no- body could catch any of them; but I am going to take the figures of his own special auditors, and I will begin with the liabilities at the time he came into power as they were fixed by Messrs. Poole and Bcartn. If you will refer to their audit you will find the debt of the Province at that time was $2,020,000.

Now I submit that none of'our friends on the treasury benches can contravert that statement. because they engaged those auditors specially. We had another audit which showed that the debt was much smaller than that, but I am taking their own fl- gures for the purpose of this argu- ment. The liabilities, as shown at that time, were 82,000,000. The ll- sbllltles a0 the cud of the year 1020, according to the report of the Pro- vincial Auditor which vra are taught to believe ls correct-and we are not. finding fault with lt-were 0359.100. net ptatansst ear be found in o» report of the Prvvlldal Auditor. can 1. page ll. If yea dslset saa sf these amehh from the other you will fhd

‘fliers is soothes-clerical

slflwsssa cl platel- 0000i”.

Those are the figures from their own blue-books. They begin at the very beginning of their regime and they end with the last fiscal year, December 31, 1029. Surely they can- not . that! lA- l. The period covers two years and a few months; so that the true story is that in four years we went behind $115,- 000, and in two and one-quarter years my hou- friends have gone be- hind to the tune of $538,000. (Ap- pleuse).

Outside Audit

Now we come to the startling part of the speech of the leader of the Government. "Oh," he said, "but we have only gone behind $20,000. You went behind 8115.000 all right, but we have reduced that by nearly four hundred thousand dollars. Why? Because we have road machinery, and we have roads, and we have a. great many things that should be taken into account, ‘ that. is the way it has always been calculat- ed." Well, it is not the way it has always been calculated, as my hon. friend knows. ‘ '

PREMIER SAUNDERS: I didn't say that. I excepted three of those items and said that the others were the same.

HON. MR. STEWART: I have his words, liken down as he said them at the time. He said: "That is the way it has been done."

PREMIER. SAUNDERS: 'I‘hat ls not correct.

HON. MR. STEWART: Very well; we shall see how muifir 1s correct with regard to his statement. My hon. friend took it from the view- point of an outside audit. I want. to say that he did not, and I willshow that he did not do anything of the kind. If I were to use the phraseol- ogy which my hon. friend is very fond of using, I would say that he ought to hang his head in shame be- fore he mentioned an outside audit in this House. (Applause). Last year he did away with the outside audit which had been carried on for a great many years, because, as he said, it was of no value; everything was in the Provincial Auditor's report. It is true that last year the Provincial Auditor did attempt to put in some- thing to supply the omission. This year it is left out. and we have ‘noth- lnl- .

We are told that an outside auditor didmsksaoaisulationoftnsaasets and liabilities of the Province. They took stock, so to speak, up to a oer- tain date, just as one would do in a business. What would they include in that calculation? In the first place, they would calculate the 1n- terest on our debentures, the interest on short loans, calculating them right up to date. Then they would take outstanding taxes. I must. say

_ account, u he had tasked" A the ill‘.- gravelled roads ss well grai-

w

Iss0 moment and = House. If he bad any faith in it, why didn't he have it typed and placed In flie hands ofthe melilbfli ‘ before he delivered his speech. Mr.

‘ It ls all a nutty of bluff! (Applause).

Fooling The People

My hon. friend said, "We have re- duced out debt from $415,000 to 020,- Well, ‘u he hadggtaken this building and other puhlidjxorks inii

elied roads-because you‘ uid Mil one just. as readily as thibther-l s could wipe out the debt; Ifiyou ta‘ e all the assets of the peopl of tlis Province, of course we ,d ‘t ova anything! But the finaneesfare mt carried on in that way, my had. friend knows it! The that we owe is there; it is represented by 4's- bentures and short losmrand tren- endous overdraft: at the bank, and it has to be paid. I sincerely trust tint neither the leader of théllviliovernnr ant nor myself will live to u“. the my when the assets of the-"firovlnczz- when this historic bull .ln which we sit and the other p i proptrty of the Province, will hsvegte be sold to pay the Debt! (Appflfise). we have to raise the money either by in- creased taxation or by‘ fitting our claims for subisdy l ' ’ at. 0t- tswn; and it is cf no use to try lo conceal the situation and fool the people in that cheap son-twp! §y. (Applause). " ‘ "" ' ’ My hon. friend did away with the sutside audit altogether, and no": he introduces this method of makinrpp one himself, apparently; giving l 1 no opportunity of studying or utilising it by tabling the figures“ House. I-ls now proclaims that lfléilfi reduced tho debt of thurrhblénet, contracted during his timegldli? $29.- 000; and it would appear he expected the people to ififle him. But. the facts and figures speak otherwise, and I submit tbatmThiy clearly show his liability to 122F535- 000. 139:

Educational ‘Ia: ______

The leader of the Goverrrnent spoke of taxation; and he uplift“, t_ly thought he hurl discovered thing wonderful. He producfiPfld-il night. when the greatest gestp 1 ' atorieal eontortions, a _ "- tslnins the report of the nrent Commission; a report/wk” l n dated 1911 but which covers” -. If which actually took plau in" ’ spring of mo. He finds‘“ln ' pamphlet a statement signed‘ hon. colleague to the left of myself, .with regard to education; s. report in short, c ‘thy educational situation at i

that I have never altogether agreed with that; policy, because the arrears of taxes cannot be measured or valu- ed any more than you could value outstanding hook debts in a business concern. You may say they are worth forty of fifty per cent. of par, but, af- ter all, it is only a guess.

Government in Liquor Business

which enters into the-accounting in

the outside audit. In the Govern- ment of this Province we have, for a number of years, been carrying on- business of a mercantile nature. For instance, we have been in the liquor business and we are in it yet, unfor- tunately. On Dccember 3i we had a stock of liquor on hand, and it. was perfectly correct to take stock of that because it. was there for the purpose of sale.

On the other hand. in calculating a liability we take into accounts the debts that are outstanding, that are not paid but should have been paid before December 31st. So we arrive at, a fairly correct approxinrstionof our assets and liabilities. That is not whet my hon. friendhas done at all, however; that is where I say he has taken an unprecedented course. He has taken the assets of the Province -not all of them, hutihose that suit,- ed his purpose, no matter what con- ditlon they are in—-and he eeysthst those, and those alone, must be de- ducted. He says, "The road machin- ery i.s worth so much; the gravelied roads are worth so muc ._" when he gets the valuation, nobodyvknows. He said it was from some auditor. I aru quite sure the Provincial Auditor would not undertake to do a thing of that kind. r dontknow who he is; but whoever he is, what would he know about gravelled reads that are covered with snow has lee? Haw

by the Conservative Govcrnm nt to raise more money to pay the tc chers by direct taxation. pened. ’ reasons by my hon, friends-o; posits and their friends throughout the Province. Yet the very policy is‘ recommended today in troy 1'0 to which r shall refer a iittlefje" r eh. Since that Development. ssion sat and reported many ihiligr have been done with regard Irtllwdidl atlon by both sides. thought it was a sirlcnclid th‘ ig to bring up that report. But it‘. him bring up the report of his apr- h in 1021 on the Budget. from W! ch I have quoted, and rend to this ‘louse what he said then with regard ' s re- ducing taxation! He ssys we “tilted about those things for pbiiticq‘ pur- poses. Was there’ ever s more bring instance than that statement

in the session of i021 in orderri) I“ ahead of the Government, that ae-

Well, I think my hon. tricpgrggdd be very careful about with regard to taxation. Thistpgepflp was made many years egg; 7%,!‘ made before the hon. menibzgflfif Charlottetown or myselfillge lri politics at all. 1t was made wlr a the leader of this Government prob- ably a Conservative. Fork-nit Iy, we got. rid of him since that time. iLaughter). Many things haviwhsp- pened since that report was made. There was, for instance, an a tempt

And when hap- It was killed furl: p iitlcal

My 110E, friend

_: his. made on the very first oppoijinll!

count of the increased subsl ‘i er 0125.000 and 040.000 received Q with the Duncan report and frolsthe Canadian National llallwa . i0 would reduce taxation! Th!‘ i8 l sample of his attitude; ‘and; what does he say now‘) why. he we in" contortions mt nlsht in I I "l e1 doing away with the poll Y1. l, butter that il_ln0l0flt outcry M0

because on two elections it has 710i! v psgaedupon. And if my MI!- "i ' announce-castings ~