NOVA SCOTIA. 



NURSES, TRAINED. 



659 



and denied the accuracy of the statement with 

 regard to the excise duties. Admitting that, 

 before the union, while Ontario and Quebec 

 had extensive railway systems, that of Nova 

 Scotia was limited, it declared that the policy 

 of all the provincial governments had been to 

 subsidize railways. Between 1867 and 1884, 

 Ontario expended $3,466,888 on railways (be- 

 sides giving $1,760,000 to municipalities), Que- 

 bec spent on railways $12,662,083 ; New 

 Brunswick, $2,880,465 ; and Nova Scotia only 

 $1,578,601, of which $643,543 was given to 

 the Eastern Extension, now forming part of 

 the Intercolonial Railway owned by the Do- 

 minion, and most of the remainder was given 

 to " feeders " of the Intercolonial. The Legis- 

 lature declined to allow the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment any credit for its expenditure on 

 the fisheries, because, under the British North 

 America act, the Dominion is bound to protect 

 the fisheries ; moreover, the Dominion had ad- 

 mittedly received more out of the territorial 

 waters of Nova Scotia, through the appropria- 

 tion of the Halifax award, than it has cost to 

 protect the fisheries. The Dominion Govern- 

 ment was reminded that from 1867 till 1884 it 

 had expended on canals, public buildings, har- 

 bors, and rivers, $44,615,072 in Ontario and 

 Quebec; but on the same class of work in 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, only $2,276,- 

 320 and $2,127,187, respectively. With regard 

 to the Halifax debt, it was urged that the fact 

 that the citizens of Halifax owned a portion 

 of the Intercolonial Railway, appeared from 

 the public statutes, and therefore no obligation 

 rested upon the province to notify the Domin- 

 ion Government ; further, the province could 

 only transfer its own interest in the line ; the 

 claim was an asset of the province at the time 

 of the union and passed to the Dominion un- 

 der the British North America act, which act 

 could be pleaded in bar to any action by the 

 province against the citizens of Halifax; the 

 principle had been conceded by the Domin- 

 ion's having refunded $400,000 to New Bruns- 

 wick, and about $3,000,000 to Quebec, on ac- 

 count of roads now held by companies ; and, 

 finally, that the Dominion has taken possession 

 of the whole railway, including that portion 

 belonging to the citizens of Halifax, and is de- 

 riving revenue therefrom. 



The following claims were submitted : That 

 Nova Scotia shall be granted, pro rata with 

 the province of New Brunswick: A refund 

 of the Halifax debt, with interest since 1867 ; 

 a refund of the money advanced by the coun- 

 ties and province to pay railway damages as- 

 sessed against the several counties of Nova Sco- 

 tia on account of railway construction ; a re- 

 fund of the subsidy paid by Nova Scotia to 

 the Eastern Extension Railway, which is now 

 owned and operated by the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment; that this province shall be granted 

 such a sum of money as shall place her on the 

 same footing as Ontario and Quebec, under 

 the act whereby the Dominion assumed in 



1873 the debt of $10,500,000, up to that time 

 charged against the above-named provinces, 

 the provinces of Ontario and Quebec being 

 thus relieved of that charge, while the assets 

 that had been left with them for the purpose 

 of paying the interest on the $10,500,000 still 

 remained vested in the two provinces, from 

 which they derive a large amount of revenue. 



On May 8, no satisfactory reply to this ad- 

 dress having been received from the Dominion 

 Government, on motion of the Premier, the 

 House of Assembly passed the secession reso- 

 lution, moved at the previous session by Mr. 

 Eraser, which will be found in the "Annual 

 Cyclopaedia" for 1885, page 644. At that 

 time an amendment was carried, on the mo- 

 tion of the Premier, in the form of an ultima- 

 tum to the Dominion Government. The reso- 

 lution was now carried by a vote of 15 to 7. 



The elections were held on June 15, "se- 

 cession" dominating over all other issues, and 

 the result was an overwhelming victory for 

 the "Repealers." Thirty-one constituencies 

 were carried by them, leaving only seven seats 

 for the Conservative's. About 60,000 votes 

 were polled, and the majority in favor of se- 

 cession was about 12,000. 



While the feeling in favor of repealing the 

 union between Nova Scotia and the Dominion 

 had taken such a firm hold of the people of 

 the province generally, a movement was on 

 foot in Cape Breton for the secession of that 

 island from the province of Nova Scotia, and 

 its formation into a separate province of the 

 Dominion. A resolution in favor of this was 

 unanimously passed by the County Council of 

 Cape Breton. The principal grievance of Cape 

 Breton is, that the Provincial Government 

 spends nothing on public works in the island. 

 There is a strong Dominion sentiment there, 

 because the people find their principal mar- 

 kets in the old provinces of Canada. 



MUSES, TRAINED. In a recent address to 

 the graduating class of the Training-School for 

 Nurses attached to Belle vue Hospital in New 

 York city, Dr. William T. Lusk said : " It is of 

 the old-time nurses that I wish especially to 

 speak to-night. They were, without excep- 

 tion, a hideous crew, callous to suffering, and 

 brutally indifferent to death. Upon my own 

 service, as I recall them, one was addicted to 

 the use of opium ; another was decrepit with 

 years and wholly imbecile; and a third I al- 

 ways think of as the embodiment of everything 

 that was wicked, cruel, mean, and mercenary." 

 These words were addressed to an assemblage 

 of intelligent, thoughtful young women, mem- 

 bers of the training-school, twenty-four of 

 whom were about to receive their diplomas as 

 graduates, and were ready to enter upon the 

 practice of their profession. At about the 

 same time more than twenty other similar 

 schools in different parts of the United States 

 held similar annual meetings for a like pur- 

 pose. How it has come to pass that intelli- 

 gence, skill, neatness, and humanity have been 



