‘ Y ‘It.

M

3rd Prince Representative Hits Oaif~From Shoulder,

- F? Arsendlllt Examines Some 0f The Fallacies

Advanced A3 Afgllments In Su ppert-Of The Saunders Administration And Finds Abundant Material For Good Humored Sarcasm And Trenciiant Analysis.

‘I119 following speech was deliver- ed in the Legislature during the Budget Debate by Mr. A. F. Arsenault Jcnservatlve member for 3rd Prince.

spent our surplus and spent 3|] the faxes collected durhiQ the fouowhm "Willis. and Cflrne out with u deficit of $159,000. It was a fine beginnlngl

Mr. Arsenault began his speech on A...‘ what do we find last year? we

Monday evening, April 8th:

find that again they have lncreig.

Mr. Speaker: I was delaying 1n my: cd the debt of the province, thl; fling

remarks as I thought that the Min- isicr of Public Works would speak first.

llan. Mr. McIntyre: I \vlll speak when you me done.

Mr. Arscnault: I didn't want to gppehl‘ too bnxiouzr because, as it is him‘, I think that whatever defence has been put up by the leader of thc Government has been destroyed by the leader of the Opposition, and thcre resiains very little to answer. iioivever, it, il our duty 0n this side of the House {criticize the actions of the present administration, That k one of the duties of the Opposi- tion, to criticize them and to watch every step they make and call f0 their attention their errors. And 1 may fell you, Mr. Speaker, that it has kcpt us very busy.

The Minister o! Public Works has chosen not to speak just now. I presume that when he thinks iilfiffl will be no more Opposition members left to criticize or answer him he will arise, as he did 18st Yfifll‘. HOW- crcr, we can foresee a similar speech to the one he made at thc last ses- sion. Perhaps ho will not fccl so claicd thlsuycar, and his speech, al- though it will make the Chamber re- scund with his loud. deep voice, will be more or less like the foam on a glass of beer. Perhaps I should not “speak thatjway, lest I should scan- dalize the hon. leader of thejiovern- olcnt and his fellow members, and rand them to their room—fcr c glass cf water. (Laughton)

A BROKEN PLATFORM

There are certain ways of judgill! of the efficiency of the Liberal Parity during the past year, Mr. Speaker, One of them is to refer to their platform of 1927, and see how they have kept their promises, and which promises have been broken, 11y their platform the Government undertook i0 carry on the affairs of the prov- incc with the revenue at their dis- posallalld make revenue and expendi- lure meet. As a matter of fact, the)’ thought, they would have c. deficit 0i $15,000 last year. Instead, they came cut with u. deficit, on ordinary ex- penditure of only some $1500. We van judge of the accuracy of that statement. however. by the fact that we were refused an external audit this year. In my experience in the H0115" I do not remember any other occa- sion when this audit was refused. I-‘l 1023. the first, year I was in thc House, Premier Bell did not bring in the external audit until the 185i of the session, after being pressed t0 do so; but there was never any your under the Bell Government that the audit did not come out. The Pre- mier has ‘stated that the external all- fiit would tend to confuse matters 0nd in the same breath he said that after all it was only a reproduction of the statement, of the Provincial Auditor, as he gets his figures from him ind fie Comparative statements Bro made under his co-operatlon. How, then, could it tend to collflm matters? I um cure, Mr. Speaker. it would tend to reassure our ilwll" throughout the Province that the fl- nnnclnl statement as tabled ll a. true ltltcmcnt; and a great many peolllr do not believe that that showing of l $1500 deficit is correct. In iflflt W!

-know of many bills outstanding.

which should have been pnld before the lut of January and which were not. paid. Tho external audit would allow the amount of Inch bills and would may indicate the correct Ii- nunclul ltohmcnt of the Province uP to the lut of December, 1928; and ii this duh we have not got such l "lit/INN. though we are still fllhi" l"! for it.

LIIIIAI. lxknavaoancu,

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Let rhcrofer you. Mr. speaker, f0 the time w the Liberal party took Dower in A uat, 1927. They carried m for four months. and at the end of tbctiygur they mowed, accordfnl to thou-mm bookl. no incrme in the debt of tho Province of stucco. And remember, we ma 1m them U Audi-n q rimiul of 0101000, ‘they

u 1

by $102,000, notwithstanding that the external audit is not forthcoming: which means a total increase 0y deb; in one year and fcur months of $351,. 000,

Now they come out this year and say: We budgeted laSt yearyfor a dcilclt of 515.000 and we came out with a net deficit of only $1500; there fore you should give us great credit. But, Mr. Speaker, we remember the 601's 0f the famous Bell administra- tion, when they were trying hard to Fflhiure a modest surplus every year. ranging from two to five thousand dollars, and how easily those sur- iiliifiPs were manipulated, simply by Cilflliflillg expenditures in certain de- pnrtmenfs to their highways grunt. Thcy had c chance, by adjusting their expenses and charging it to such an account, of regulating those sur- pluses. large 0r small. This is what is happening today, for we have the words of the Premier and we have also the statement in the Publl: Ac- counts that the Government borrow- cd $150,000 to gravel the roads. Of that money they spent $83,000, leav- ing a balance of $61,000 which they placed in current revenue and ex- pended on other works not author- ized by thestatutc that authorized them to borrow that money for tho purpose. and purpose alone cf grav- eling the roads.

The Rcui Deficit

They also borrowed $20,000 to build a ferry at Cardigan. They expend- cd of that $20,000 the sum of $14000, leaving u balance of $6.000 which n- gain they placed in current revenue and‘ expended on other works.

Thn they borrowed $100,000 to buy road machinery, and they spent of that $100,000 only 591.000: and awn they placed the balance in current TCVEIHXC-

Tin-so amounts, tofalled, would leave them with a deficit of 584,500, without the unpul bills-bills Whiflh must be paid and which, if we can judge of the contracts going on last fall. would bring their deficit up to some $133,500. We have X10 GXWTUBI audit‘. we can only surmise by the figures we can Bet from their b°°k51 but we are fairly positive that we a" within the amount when we so state.

Now, financially, is that a good rc- for this Government? Certainly not. 11-. “"4 it is true that the Ste- wart Govcllilallt had a deficit 0i $20,005. and that in 1025 we had a (remit Qt $49,605. We admitted our deficits. We got out. external audits every YUM‘ to show how we stood. Blli in 1026 what happened? We went ‘t0 Ottawa and we obtained more sub- sidy and rallivui’ 8mm- Nid came out that year with a surplus of $22.- 000. 1n August, 1927, as I said be- forc, we lcf; a silrpius in the trea- suyy or $10000. And were We coi- lcctlng as much money as they are at present? Wc find that all our col- lections in 1926 amounted to $747-- 000. We cannot say that 1927 was Ill our year, of course. because P"! °1 it W115 under the administration 0i the Liberal Government; but ihfli yem- only.$’738 was collected. This year the ordinary revenue collections amounted t0-$337.°°°-5°m° ‘B0900

more than we had,» Provincial Subsidy -

Keeping these facts in mind, Mr. speaker, leg, mo read certain clauses of the platform of my hfm- “kind” in 1927:

“A; the infer-provincial con- ference to be assembled this fill we will. It returned lo power If- thc ensuing election, exert our utmost endeavor In llfvllllll "l" claims for jncrcued lulllulhl’ our Province." -

That was their pliiml"; and I 5UP‘ p059 perhaps they did. But who! did we do in 1020'! We went to Ot- town; I wu one of the members of the Government who Ivwmlilfllfli Premier Stewart on that occasion. and at that conference we met Mr. Rouel, who suggested that the Mafi-

time Provinces luc to set wuthllr

ma decide on wmpuu um new .

which was available there ever since Mr. Bell was leader of the House, would be divided. Mr. Stewart met the premiers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and after a conference With those men we secured $40,000 a year in lieu of railway taxation. whereas on a mileage basis we were entitled only to $27,000, thus getting $13,000 a year more than we were really entitled to. And that amount, in fuur years, makes $52,000 that the people o1 this Province can thank Premier Stewart for. (Applause)

Besides this we presented the orief for increased subsidy. and it was od- mitted at that conference the», it had been called as a result of the ef- forts of Premier Stewart in making the first move in.this matter. ‘Pre- mier King said in effect: "I have ap- pointed the Duncan Commission; they will visit your Province, take in- formation and evidence from you on those claims, and you will go before them." The King Government was therefore compelled to adopt this clause in the Duncan report and give us this $125,000 as s‘. Jntcrlm pay- ment pending the final disposition of those claims. For the result we can thank Mr. Stewart in large mea- sure. We can thank also the differ- ent Boards of Trude and the many public spirited citizens in this Pro- vince who furnished evidence and facts before the Commission,

We had a brief for increased sub- sidy at the conference to which l have referred. We did not display u. as a formidable document, with lovc- ly covers, well bound and printed to tho number of 2000 copies. we dlclnt go to that expense.‘ The brief tho: my hon. friend the leader 0t the Government talks about—- the brief that he presented with the as. v ance of “Attorney General Inlnan" and Mr. Claire Campbell, cost, this Province over $1300. Mr. Stewart presented his brief himself, assisted by some other members of the House. He did not have to be assisted by Mr. Campbell or any other outsider; and he came; back from that conference

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_ ' foxes about S1

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111 i: i;riAlci.0'|"l‘ETOWN GUARDIAN

have not even a letter to show that there was anything done. Perhaps my hon. friend was told by the Min-

iers at Ottawa not to be too hard 0n the Liberal Government, that we are getting n. cur ferry and he must not press the Federal Government too much, and that lf he was a good boy he might get a Judgeshlp (Jill-Of this. -pcrliaps. (Laughter)

Increasing Interest Charges

While this was going on, Mr. Speaker, while the pressing of our‘ claims was being neglected, willie

nothing was being done that we have icny knowledge of our interest charges ‘have been increasing. We are now paying $117,000 for interest, and in- terest alone; cr in other words we are paying about one-seventh cf our total revenue in interest. And vet we are increasing our borrowings every year. It is quite true that tile Stewart Government borrolved some money. but for what pllYp0F07 Tn continue our hlgilxilay prcgramlne, because a! that. time we were getting 40 per cont of our actual cxpcnditurccn the roads from Ottawa. In other words, we were rcaliy paying only 60 per cent, of the actual cost. and it was perhaps pa-udent and wise for us w borrow mancy for road work uncle": that arrangrmcni. But during Gill‘ four ycars we built permanent, \l.'0‘.'i’.‘i out cf, ordinary revenue to the ex- ifillt 0i 316-11100 and I claim, M1". Speaker, that the Ciovernment that can build permanent works out oi ordinary l'\'.".'E‘Illl: is certainly an ef- ficicng Gcvernunrnt.

lion. Mr. LcPagc: Colllri you name the. things like that you (lid?

and filings like tint. If you ask til: hon. gentleman to your right he will give you the information. I can 29L it for you. Tilers arc a icw works in Rusflco, I l: '

Hon. Mr. llePagcz There \ve"o |bridgcs built in Rusiico. you can b5 iasulred of t‘ t.

Mr. 1111:: . We are that the Pilstflicsun (lovernlnr-nt pur- sucd that policy of building a cer-

h

DO

nil-lured

“thin amount 0f permanent works cv-

rry year frcln nrtfinary revenue, and we find flint fl": Pflaiiilioron ‘foreru- msni. built on-un verztgc £36,000 .1 pcanof permanent \\‘0li1$ out of or- ‘dinary rcrcrvuc, or in all about $288.- ,0il0. And they did this without tax- iing the ptoplc-ilnt like the Dell Jiovernmcnt, which increased the

i’.

lvlaihicscn rcgintc.

ifli'l'f‘i‘..".f“d Jail E::|l':ii:li'.urc-.'

l l So much for the finances. I have 15110-11 that ti!" been very succ l Province. New I wish to come to til". iaclnlinistrcficn of justice. Ye find}

Mr. AlYiEflillliii Culvrrfs and bridgfi: i

Covqrnnlcn; ilas no: 5 ul in financing thci

Old Age Pensions. Their pledge was, as follows:

"Afilireciating the action of the Liberal Government at Ottawa in P5551118 the 01d Ale Pensions A“. We anticipate establishing it in this Province in a manner con- Bi-Stent with the revenue."

l Has that ever been done? Nothing last your ol‘ this year; and we might 58y they have got to establish it, even if they can only give every old gentleman in the Province twenty- five cents a year. They will have to d0 lwmvihinx. be it small or large. They will have to carry out that plank, or they will hear from us ev- -ery year. '(Appiause.) . My hon. friends might say that they have not the revenue. Yet we are asked to vote an amount of $30,- 000 for a Sanatoriunl. They have the money for that. It may be a better Duff-lose: I do not deny that; but at the saIfle time they should carry out their pro-election platform before vcnfuring into other matters.

Promise Re Railway Grant

Another promise they made wns the , payment of an equitable portion hi” the railway grant in lieu of taxes to

the City of Charlottetown and In- corporated towns. ivhat has bcsn done in this connection? Nothing-ii

paid last war: nothing paid this year. i I am sure the hon. member from, Summcrslzia wito entertained us lo ai lcltgfhy cirsertation 0n speed on the! Draft AfHiTEFS, if he wants to keep up

the pace. will see that this is paid‘.

I am sure the hon. speedometcr from . Surnm d: will not stand for that,

and-vnll 5C9, that the money is paid

Lo the town. ,

lllr. L. ll. Allen: I do not think

what my hon, friend can refer to a

mclnbcr of tits House as a speedom-

cter.

Mr. Arsenault: Pasdon mo, I mean: that the hon. member was an au thoriiy on speed. 'l‘l‘.ere was no r01‘ flcciian intended. (Laughter)

I am fiJYly that tile Alinistcl- Agriculture is. not in his seat, miss him very much on fills side cl‘ the Iiouse. inasmuch as he was .1, gocd debaicr. a man who knew the procedure of the House, a man I whom we could fake pride in at least

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contradicting. for it always- meant u n~,u;h_ 1 believe, and ngglecting oilfwwed to 3e; a ugenst They do not

llivcly battle The rcst, over there -‘

zucil. it, is hardly worth while fight-I in; with them! (Laughter) We are.

79/390 ii your 0W1‘ “l9 ‘sincerely glad to hear that the Min- are p. 9;, good a position 8s Aster of Agriculture is improving and “eye a few years 33m why shougdl Atmmey Gene,“ to s“ u," they, IWUVii-h“ I fills bc so? I believe that our DB wconditions are remedied. Instead of Qiiazlzllng the liCll. member from West i ‘Hm. Ivnnlib-‘cn mghqugh a good fflflflflhaving twenty Prohibition inspectors.

iwlil soon be out again,

River iMr. MucPlicei and whatever; pinions he lllfly hold. i

Agricultural Expenditures

Last year in the Department of

lth 40 000 of th ll r L, w s ' e m way g an ‘that in 1028 the Dciiartlncnt of Jus- Agyjgulfure they Spent $39333, 1n 1925

and owing to our presentation of those claims before the Duncan Com- mission we were paid another $125,- 000 l. year increased subsidy. (Ap- plause.)

Returns Empty Handed

My hon. friend the leader of the Government atwnded the next inter- provlnclal conference of 1927. and he had prepared a long brief. It took him an hour and a half to read the headlines at that conference, and it took “Attorney General Inman" an- other hour and a half to do his part; and I think my hon. friend the Premier told us that this brief occu- pied the longest time of any mutter at that conference. And what did they receive? Nothing! They canlc home and told us that all they rc- ceived was anticipatlons. It is true that Premier Gardiner told them ho would not mind giving us $100,000 or $200,000 a year, and in return our Premier promised in do everything he could to amcncl the British North America Act. But s0 far from receiv- ing that $l00.000 or $200,000 my hon. friend has not even suggested means whereby the machinery that will ul- tlmatcly try the validity of those claims can be got together. We have heard Mr. Stewart, on the floor 0f this House, suggest, that there should be a board of experts, and immediate- ly the lender cf the Government comes back, the next dly. and says that ll Just what he was talking about! (Laughter)

When we naked the leader of the Government to table the correspond- ence he had with Hon. Mr. Robb or any members of the Federal Gov- ernment in connection with increas- ed subsidy. he uki: "It is not in tho but interacts of the public to have on. information tabled just nowi" 171a is not even u good ls the late Premier Bell used to be. When we asked him to table the correspond- cncc ho hid-on this matte/r, he tun- led a couple of letters. Ono of them thawed that he hld written to the Premier of New Brunswick about coll- lng a cordon-once, and that the Pre- mier of New Brunswick bod replied that be In contemplating retin- moul and» ccqltfnot be bothered tak- ing up tho matter. Ho also tabled a letter from Premier Murray of Nova lootin- , nut in the prucnt can we

...-,

tlce cost this Prov‘ . $12,000. clepartnlcnt cost $37,109.43. or a dif- ference of $0,893. Why nus this‘? the Attorney Gcncral Mr. slewast. vras conducting that clcpartlncnt per- i sonally. He was not employing as many Liberal attorneys f0 assist him. The present Premier is employing ton many-Aer perhaps because we find that there are cnlv a couple getting nil the plums, and some others are beginning to coin- plain. For instance, tilcy have been bragging about the conditions in the jails. I took the trcilbic to enquire about the jail in Sununcrsidc. and 1i find the following lvmrcnse in cx- penditures: For meal, in 1926, “e paid $141]. Lrst year tilt- moat bill for illnt insiiilliioil was $850. So they must, be getting sonic good meat there, and a lot of if.

Dr. W. J. lilacllfillan: Prison ftircl

Mr. Arscnzluii: Till-y) rmft. be kerll‘ ing fest days. ihailzhtcr.) Grocer- lcs. iii i926, cost $600. that was high, but last year spent $1200.

Hon. Mr. LePage: You used to lea them out.

Mr. Arscnault: Not in Summersldc. We never ict them out. For medi- cine, again, we paid $3 in 1926, and last year they paid $61.

Dr. Macllflllan: A lot" of Sick fel- lowsl

Mr. Arsenault: Brccd cost $104 in 1920; last year $209. Herc is the point, Mr. Speaker: We are paying u lot more money for the upkeep of our Jails. owing to the fcct that there are many prisoners and ‘the upkeep seems to be increasing every year. We are providing for the enm- fort of those offenders under the Pro- hibition Act and the country l; pay- lng for ft, and yet the Premier docs not wish to take one cent from tho Prohibition Commission to defray that expenditure. The least the Com- mission should do is reimburse the Province ‘for keeping their prisoners there and [buying groceries and such thing: at the public expense. (Al;- plause.)

they

Old Ago Pension!

Another plank of the platform of my hon. friends which we claim has been broken is in connection with the

‘:11 nothing new that he was trying

not enough; I

We thought i

‘ed, Mr. Speaker: The Minister

‘Government; to discontinue the grant.

practically been abandoned. All we have left now are the domestic sci- ence courses for a few girls, and worse than that, our Minister‘ has abandoned all the grants to local fairs. It is true that last fall, through some pull, the exhibitions were held, but the fact that, the Minister is against them has had a demoralizing effect. Our people know the feeling of the Minister and his Government, they know that he ls against grant- ing money to those exhibitions and they are not planning for the future, Those exhibitions will be abandon- will kill them that way. and I believe it lsa big mistake for the Department not to continue those splendid insti- tutions which have done so much to encourage agriculture in this Prov- ince. I hope that this year my good friend from the Third District of Prince will not be as quiet as he was inst year, and will say something on this subject. I hope he will have us much courage as the hon. member from West River and will tell us his mind and not follow in the steps of his leader 0r let the splendid exhibi- tion at Egmont Bay be abolished or languish throughthe threats of the