382 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 



for Dominion subsidies, although this figure 

 might be increased as a result of the census; 

 $270,000 for the Eastern Extension claim and 

 final payment; taxes on incorporated companies, 

 $25,000; succession duties, $25,000; liquor li- 

 censes, $21,500; miscellaneous, $20.500. The esti- 

 mated expenditures included $17,525 upon the ad- 

 ministration of justice; $34.520 upon agriculture; 

 $206,494 upon education; $30,070 upon executive 

 government; $124,000 upon the interest on bond- 

 ed indebtedness; $8.000 on immigration; $11,000 

 upon public health, and the same amount on pub- 

 lic printing; $20.327 upon the Legislature; $61,543 

 upon lunatic asylums and $7,600 upon public hos- 

 pitals; $21(6.077 upon public works; miscellane- 

 ous expenses. $38.300. Mr. Tweedie concluded his 

 speech on March 19 with a declaration that the 

 province was in a good financial condition. 



James K. Fleming replied in behalf of the Oppo- 

 sition. He declared that it had become the cus- 

 tom to claim a surplus year by year, whether 

 there was one or not. On this occasion, however, 

 the Premier and Provincial Secretary had to ad- 

 mit the deficit, though he tried to excuse it by 

 practically declaring that the finances were in 

 such a shape that the slightest outside call w r ould 

 create indebtedness. He pointed out the steady 

 increase in expenditures from $727,186 in 1897 to 

 $794,476 in 1900, and asked how this was going 

 to be met. Even with this increase, the great 

 public interests were being starved. Education 

 received this year $4,044 less than in 1897, and 

 public works received only $2,000 more than four 

 years previously. So with agriculture, which 

 showed an increase in that period of only $4,864. 

 Meanwhile the revenue had only risen from $745,- 

 212 to $758,988 a much smaller increase than 

 was shown in expenditures. The revenue from 

 lumber cut on the Crown lands had, it was said, 

 increased from $96,264 in 1899 to $112,315, but 

 he believed that in the following year the lumber 

 cut would be about one-third less, and the esti- 

 mate of $100,000 from this source was therefore 

 excessive. Mr. Fleming then dealt with what he 

 termed the Government's system of direct taxa- 

 tion succession duties, liquor licenses, taxes on 

 banks, fire and life insurance companies, accident 

 companies, telegraph, telephone, and loan com- 

 panies, street-railways, etc. amounting to $91,- 

 282. He did not think that this money came out 

 of the pockets of rich corporations, as the Gov- 

 ernment said. The banks took it out of their 

 customers and the insurance companies out of 

 their policy-holders. The people really paid their 

 taxes. As to the public debt, he declared that 

 at the present rate of increase the interest charge 

 in four years would amount to $16,695. He criti- 

 cized the salaries and additional sums paid to 

 ministers, and declared that if the present system 

 of open corruption in the construction of street 

 bridges which the Opposition had so long urged 

 had been previously adopted, $35,000 would 

 have been saved in the past four years. 



The Rothesay List. One of the most dis- 

 cussed political questions in the Legislature and 

 the province in 1901 was an apparent attempt 

 to stuff the voters' list of the parish of Rothesay 

 in Kings County. Under the New Brunswick 

 franchise act, non-residents who own $100 worth 

 of real estate in any constituency are entitled to 

 a vote, and early in the year it was found that 

 406 names had been added to the list of non- 

 resident voters for Rothesay. Nearly all the 

 names were said to be those of Government sup- 

 porters, and many of them said, as soon as the 

 matter became public, that they did not own any 

 property in Kings County, had not applied for 



registration, and did not know they were regis- 

 tered as voters. The names were listed by three 

 revisers, one of whom declared that their signa- 

 tures to this list were taken from a genuine one 

 prepared by two of them and attached to the 

 fraudulent one by the third reviser without the 

 knowledge of the other two. The Conservative 

 papers took up the matter in terms of strong de- 

 nunciation, and endeavored to connect the party 

 organizers and the Government with it. They 

 pointed out that no property changes appeared 

 to have taken place in Rothesay during the year, 

 and that if they had it would have been hard 

 work to find $40,000 worth of unimproved land 

 in the parish. 



On Feb. 22 the subject came before the provin- 

 cial Supreme Court at Fredericton, and the fraud- 

 ulent electoral list was unanimously quashed. 

 One effect of this judgment was to sweep away 

 both the spurious and the genuine list and leave 

 Kings County without a member for the ensuing 

 session of the Legislature. The Attorney-General 

 at once announced that legislation would be in- 

 troduced to remedy the wrong and to prevent its 

 repetition. 



Steel Ship-building. In the early part of the 

 year St. John followed the example of Halifax 

 in discussing and encouraging the establishment 

 of this industry. Members of the city council 

 met the promoters of a local company and the 

 papers spoke warmly in favor of the project. 

 On March 5 Mayor Daniel informed the council 

 that among the promoters was J. H. Thomson, 

 of William Thomson & Co., of St./ John, who 

 had confidence in local facilities for this industry. 

 He understood that $100,000 had already been 

 subscribed in St. John for a new company. Their 

 proposed policy was to have a shipyard in which 



4 large vessels could be constructed at one time 

 and in a single year. The number of men em- 

 ployed would be 1,500, and the estimated expendi- 

 ture per vessel about $240,000. Speaking in Mont- 

 real, on March 19, Mr. Thomson declared that 

 during the last five years his firm had built upon 

 the Clyde 9 steamers of the Ballte line and had 



5 more under construction. This represented 

 nearly $3,000,000 expenditure, of which 95 per 

 cent, was Canadian money. The Clyde firms 

 were behind the Americans in speed, and the in- 

 dustry could be carried on better at St. John. 

 Harry Harding, of St. John, one of the most active 

 promoters of the new project, was also inter- 

 viewed at Montreal. He declared that the capital 

 of the new company would be $3,000,000, that its 

 location would depend upon the encouragement 

 given locally, and that it was not impossible that 

 the requirements of the near future might justify 

 a plant at Halifax, one at St. John, and another 

 at Sydney. Finally, the city council decided to 

 offer aid to the extent of $100,000, a free site, and 

 exemption from taxation, to any company en- 

 gaging in the business of building steel ships in 

 that city. The Legislature was asked for the* 

 power to make these arrangements, and this was 

 granted subject to a limitation of the right to 

 manufacture engines and machinery to the re- 

 quirements of the company for their own vessels. 



Railways. On March 5 the Hon. Mr. Tweedie 

 introduced a measure in the Legislature for the 

 construction of a line of rail in the counties of 

 Queens and Sunbury, running from the terminus 

 of the Central Railway, at Chipman, to a point 

 opposite Fredericton, on St. John river. "The 

 object was to enable the large areas of coal in 

 these localities to be developed. The Government 

 undertook to guarantee the principal and interest 

 of the first-mortgage bonds of any company au- 



