DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS
150
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UNION ACT.
Hon. PROV. SEC. laid on the table a copy of
the Act for a Union of the British North American Colonies, as it passed the Imperial
Parliament, there having been some slight verbal
alterations from the copy previously submitted.
Mr. MILLER enquired whether some clauses
had not been added in the House of Commons.
Hon. PROV. SEC. said that as the clauses relating to the monetary arrangements had to be
inserted by the Commons, they were printed
in red ink in the bill introduced in the House
of Lords.
Mr. MILLER asked whether it was the intention of the Government to have any copies
of the bill printed for circulation throughout
the country. It contained the constitution
under which we would hereafter live, and it
was most desirable that it should be distributed in some durable shape; and this would
have the effect of preventing the misrepresentations which were being made from one
end of
the country to the other.
Mr. S. CAMPBELL remarked that the Act
had been already published in the newspapers.
Mr. MILLER replied that in that form the
bill could not be preserved, and it was not
probable that fifty persons in the country
could put their hands upon a copy.
Hon. PRO. SEC. said it was of the highest
importance that correct information on the
subject should be widely circulated. Newspaper publications were so ephemeral that
when in one issue of a journal published by
an hon. member opposite, he saw a statement
glaringly inconsistent with the one that preceded it, he found difficulty in making
an accurate comparison. The Act would be placed
in the hands of the public printer for publication in the Journals of the House, and
at the
same time a number of extra copies could be
procured without much additional expense.
Mr. ANNAND said he did not object to the
publication as the information which the bill
would give was very valuable, but he would
suggest that as the Government had been making free with the public monies in circulating
a recently issued pamphlet on the benefits of
Confederation, an equal sum should be placed
at the disposal of the opposition for the purpose of distributing a reply to that
production.
Hon. PROV. SEC. replied that the proposition
would receive a favorable consideration whenever a document of equal value and containing
an equal amount of accurate and reliable information was produced.
Mr. KAULBACK thought that the recent
pamphlet of Mr. Howe on the Organization of
the Empire should be published. It had been
printed in the paper of the hon. member for E.
Halifax, and had been endorsed by that gentleman as the scheme propounded by him and
his colleagues, and placed before the people of
England. That production was considered
utterly fruitless and futile by those whom it
was intended to influence, but it was useful
as showing what the scheme of the opposition
was. Those gentlemen proposed that the question should be settled, not by the people
them
OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.
151
selves, as they recently contended, but by their
representatives. Attempts were being made
to frighten people by the idea that they would
be drafted for military service in Canada, but
that scheme proposed that Nova Scotians
should be taxed to an unlimited extent, and
be liable to be drafted away to any part of the
world. That was the scheme of these gentlemen—they admitted that a change was necessary,
and they were willing that it should be
made by the people's representatives with the
arbitrament of the Imperial Parliament.
Mr. COFFIN said that the hon. member must
fancy himself stumping the County of Lunenburg .
Hon. Mr. McFARLANE, from the committee
on Mines and Minerals, introduced a bill to
amend the present law relating to mines, one
of its objects being to prevent pilfering at the
gold mines.
The house adjourned.
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