5
THE LEADER, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1903.
THE ASSEMBLY.
(Continued from page 1.)
FRIDAY, Nov. 6th.
There was a large attendance of
Members at the opening of the House
today, only three or four seats being
vacant.
Dr. Patrick asked the following questions of the Commissioner of
Public Works, notice of which he gave
on Wednesday last:—
(1) Whether, under date of 16th
June, 1903, he addressed from the
Executive Council, Regina, to the
Right Honorable Sir Wilfrid Laurier,
G.C.M.G., Premier of Canada, a letter
advising him among other things that
he (the Honorable the Commissioner of
Public Works), had "advised the
federal members representing the
Territories" that if the "general representations" made by the said federal
members to his (Sir Wilfrid Laurier's)
Government were adopted it would
reasonably satisfy the general public
in the Territories and would put his
(Sir Wilfrid Laurier's) candidates in
the coming election in a position in
which they could fight with zeal;"
and if so,
(2) Whether the "general representations" referred to in the said letter
as having been made by the federal
members representing the Territories
were such as may fairly be inferred
from the general tenor of the speeches
made by such of the said federal representatives from the Territories as took
part in the debate on the amendment
to the motion to go into committee
of Supply made in the House of Commons on the 13th day of October last
past; and
(3) If such may not be fairly inferred
what were the "general representations" referred to, and
(4) What was meant by the reference
in the said letter to provincial autonomy as an alternative? and
(5) Whether the said letter was written and forwarded with the knowledge
and consent of the honorable Commissioner's colleagues on the Executive
Council? and
(6) Whether the general tenor of the
said letter was "strongly approved"
over the signatures of G. W. Brown,
I. Geo. DeVeber, J. W. Woolf, W. T.
Finlay, C. W. Fisher, A. D. McIntyre,
Charles Fisher, A. S. Smith, P. Talbot,
B. Prince, R. W. Wallace, J. A. Simpson, A. S. Rosenroll, Thos. MacNutt
and A. C. Rutherford, members of this
House?
(2 and 3) The "general representations" referred to in the letter were
the endorsement and backing up by
the Territorial Members of Parliament
at that late (June) of the financial
claims of the Territories then being
considered by the Federal Government.
I must decline to assist the hon.
gentleman in deciding whether the nature of the "general representations"
made at that time (16th June) with
regard to financial questions can be
fairly inferred from the general tenor
of the speeches made on the 13th October with regard to the question of Autonomy.
(4) No alternative proposition was
made to the Federal Government.
Immediate autonomy with its accompanying revenues was demanded. On
the date of the letter (16th June) it was
inferred that the Federal Government
had definitely decided not to deal with
the provincial question this year. We
were therefore forced to consider the
alternative, namely, large increases to
our revenues which had been asked for,
not as an alternative to provincial
revenues, but until provincial revenues
were placed at our disposal.
(5) The letter being a personal one
was not referred to other Members of
the Executive Council, who, however,
were aware that every available legitimate pressure was being brought to
bear upon the Federal Government to
advance the claims of the Territories.
(6) As the letter referred to bears the
signatures of the gentlemen mentioned
in the question, I do not consider that
any answer is necessary. (Cheers.)
Dr. Patrick moved that an Order of
the House do issue for a return showing a copy of a letter written in August,
1903, by J. Obed Smith, Commissioner
of Immigration, to the Commissioner
of Education or any officer of his department, asking that some one be
appointed to make enquires into the
affairs of the Devil's Lake school district.
Mr. Haultain said he could see no objection to the motion, but he would like
to say in anticipation of any possible
misapprehension in regard to any letter
written by Mr. J. Obed Smith in
August that it had nothing to do with
the action taken by the Government
with reference to the Devil's Lake
school district. Any action taken by
the Department of Education was
taken before Mr. Smith's letter was
written. He thought it wise to make
this statement.
Dr. Patrick said he was very pleased
to know that the action that was taken
was not taken at the request of Mr.
Smith. Mr. Smith had interfered in
the affairs of the school district and
had asked for certain things as a right.
Mr. Rutherford introduced a bill to
enroll John Gaddis Tipton as an advocate of the North-West Territories.
The bill was read a first time and referred to a special committee composed
of the Attorney General. Messers. Bennett, Lake, Brown and Rutherford.
Mr. Haultain introduced a bill to
amend the Ordinance respecting the
Legislative Assembly, which was read
a first time.
Mr. Haultain also moved the second
reading of Bill No. 7 to amend the
Ordinance respecting Limitation of
Actions in certain cases. He explained
that this was largely a technical
matter of law.
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