DOMINION OF CANADA. 



259 



succession of imbecile blunders, a policy of blus- 

 ter and annoyance. He had no doubt that a ple- 

 biscitum would show the people of Canada over- 

 whelmingly in favor of closer trade relations 

 with the United States, and if it were possible to 

 obtain a fair and honest expression from the 

 people at the polls, free from the effects of 

 gerrymander acts and franchise bills and a sub- 

 sidized press and all the side issues which dis- 

 turb a political election, the result would be 

 the same. He claimed that the failure of the 

 national policy was indicated by the slowness 

 of the growth of the rural population. Taking 

 Ontario as an illustration, he showed that dur- 

 ing the seven years of Mr. Mackenzie's ad- 

 ministration, the rural population increased by 

 a little less than 11,000 souls, or, in other words, 

 eight times more than it did during the Con- 

 servative administration of nine years. Of 83 

 rural constituencies in Ontario, the population 

 in 50 had actually retrograded in those nine 

 years ; many of the others were stationary in 

 population, and hardly one had maintained" its 

 natural increase. Sir Richard next took up the 

 question of farm mortgages. Admitting that in 

 newly settled countries an increase of indebted- 

 ness "is not always a proof that the country has 

 retrograded, he argued that in old settled coun- 

 tries there could be no clearer proof that farm- 

 ing has become unprofitable, than that the farm- 

 ers are increasing their indebtedness. Both the 

 Dominion and the provincial governments hav- 

 ing failed in their duty to investigate this im- 

 portant question, he himself had taken such 

 means as were fairly open to him to ascertain 

 what was the extent of the mortgage indebted- 

 ness of the Ontario farmers, and he submitted a 

 statement showing that the total for Ontario was 

 over $200,000,000, if it did not reach $300,000,000, 

 the entire assessed value of the province being 

 about $429,000,000. This indicated that a large 

 population of the once prosperous farmers of 

 Ontario had sunk below the level of tenants at 

 will. Simultaneously with the increase in mort- 

 gages there had been an enormous depreciation 

 in the value of farm lands. He admitted that the 

 same state of things existed in the United States, 

 or rather worse, because they had had the pro- 

 tective system longer there. He did not regard 

 the mischievous policy of the Government as 

 solely responsible for the disastrous conse- 

 quences he deplored. Some of the causes were 

 beyond their control, and his charge against the 

 honorable gentlemen was rather that they falsely 

 pretended to be able to avert those disasters than 

 that they had caused them. One feature that 

 they were directly responsible for was the out- 

 rageous taxation levied upon the people. In 

 conclusion, Sir Richard moved, in amendment 

 to the motion to go into committee of supply, to 

 substitute the following : 



The total ordinary expenditure of Canada charge- 

 able to the consolidated fund in the fiscal year 1878 

 was $23,519,301. 



That the total taxation collected in the same year 

 was $17,841,938. 



That the total ordinary admitted expenditure in the 

 year 1889 was $36,917,834. 



That the total taxation collected in the same year 

 was $30,613,522. 



That, over and above the amount of the taxes actu- 

 ally paid into the treasury, an immense additional 



sum is annually taken out of the pockets of the people 

 and is paid over to certain private individuals and 

 corporations under pretense of protecting and encour- 

 aging certain special industries. 



That in the decade terminating on the first day of 

 July, 1889, the sum of $262,812,878 has been raised 

 in the way of taxes actually paid into the treasury, 

 independently of an immense additional amount ex- 

 tracted from the people for the aforesaid purposes. 



That the said taxation is enormous and oppressive 

 in its incidence, and that it is so imposed as to dimin- 

 ish the value of lands used for agricultural purposes 

 and to increase the indebtedness of the agricultural 

 class in especial. 



That in fact the values of farm lands have greatly 

 diminished and the amount of mortgages thereon has 

 been much, increased throughout a very large portion 

 of this Dominion since 1879. 



That the additional taxation which, it is now sought 

 to impose will still further increase the burdens of 

 the people and is likely still further to aggravate the 

 distress unhappily existing among a large portion of 

 the farming population ot this Dominion ; and that, 

 under such circumstances, it is the bounden duty of 

 this House, instead of adding to the existing oppress- 

 ive taxation, to apply itself to the reduction of the 

 burdens now impeding the progress and prosperity of 

 the principal producing classes of the Dominion, and 

 for this purpose to abolish or reduce the taxes now im- 

 posed on articles of prime necessity to farmers, miners, 

 fishermen, and other producers. 



Hon. Mr. Colby challenged the Opposition to 

 name any State in the Union in which farm val- 

 ues had maintained such steadiness as in On- 

 tario. He quoted from the report of Mr. Blue, 

 the Provincial Statistician, to show that during 

 the seven years from 1882 to 1888 inclusive, the 

 value of the Ontario farms averaged $637,732,- 

 000, while the value for 1888. the last year of the 

 period, was $640,000,000. The value of farm 

 buildings averaged $172.000,000 during the seven 

 years, and was estimated at $188,000,000 in 1888. 

 Farm implements averaged $46,000,000 during 

 the seven years, and reached $49,000,000 in the 

 last year. Live stock averaged $99.000,000 dur- 

 ing the seven years, and was estimated at $102.- 

 000,000 in 1888. The total value of farm prop- 

 erty averaged $956,882,048 during the seven 

 years, and the last year's value was $981,368,094. 

 The average value per acre of wheat in Ontario 

 was $15.78, against $9.44 in the United States. 

 Corn was worth $18.90 an acre in Ontario, 

 against $9.32 in the United States. The value 

 of barley per acre in Ontario was $14.98, against 

 $12.67 'in the United States. Mr. Colby con- 

 trasted the condition of Ontario with that of 

 Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, which 

 States were rapidly being depopulated by the 

 natural movement of the people westward, ne- 

 cessitated by the new methods of agriculture. 

 The movement would be the same among the 

 farming classes under free trade or protection, 

 with reciprocity or without reciprocity ; but he 

 claimed for the national policy that it had re- 

 tained for Canada so much of her population as 

 is engaged in the manufactures and associated 

 industries which it has created. 



After a long debate, Sir Richard Cartwright's 

 amendment was negatived by a vote of 97 to 60. 



Banks and Banking. The expiring of the 

 charters of the incorporated banks of Canada in 

 1891 necessitated the passing of a new banking 

 act in the session of 1890. The Canadian system 

 of banking under the old law, although not with- 



