260 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



and speedy decease of the Premier, Sir John 

 Alexander Macdonald, on the 6th of June. After 

 the ex-minister's obsequies, the Hon. Senator J. 

 J. C. Abbot was called upon by the Governor- 

 General to form a new Government, as, accord- 

 ing to British usage, all ministers resign upon 

 the death or resignation of the Premier. Mr. 

 Abbot invited the ex-ministers to resume their 

 several portfolios, which was done, and the work 

 of legislation was resumed. There was the \isual 

 annual protracted debate upon prohibition of 

 the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, 

 terminating in the adoption of a ministerial mo- 

 tion to appoint a royal commission to inquire, 

 during the recess, into the results of the liquor 

 traffic. In the course of his budget speech, the 

 Finance Minister remarked : 



With reference to the foreign trade for the year 

 1889-'90, 1 may say that the aggregate trade was some 

 $14,000,000 in excess of that of the preceding year, 

 and marked one of the best years in the history of the 

 confederation, being some $65,000,000 in excess of the 

 trade in 1878-'79, the last year of the Administration 

 which preceded the present Government. The ex- 

 ports for the last year under review were $7,500,000 

 more than they were in the year 1888-'89, and some 

 $25,000,000 in ad/ance of the exports for the year 

 1878-'79. There was a gratifying increase of the trade 

 between Canada and Great Britain of $7,000,000 over 

 and above the year 1888-'89, and our trade increased 

 to a greater or lesser degree with France, Germany, 

 Portugal, Italy, Holland, Belgium, China, Japan, and 

 Switzerland. There was a decrease of about $1,000,- 



000 in our trade with the United States of America, a 

 slight decrease in our trade with Spain, and some- 

 what larger with Newfoundland and with South 

 America and the West Indies. . . Our interprovincial 

 trade, which year by year has been becoming more and 

 more a factor and an incident of our development, has 

 its steady increase ; and, although we have not at hand 

 an unerring means of denoting by statistical records 

 what the exact increase in the volume of this trade is, 

 yet from certain large indications that we get we are 

 assured that it is a constantly increasing factor, and 

 that it carries with it all that increased energy and 

 life and prosperity which come from such a branch 

 of industry. 



After referring to the large increase in railway 

 traffic and in mining activity during the year, 

 Mr. Foster went on to say : . 



I think we can congratulate ourselves upon the 

 buoyant nature of the revenue of the past financial 

 year a revenue the largest in the history of this 

 country a revenue which did not come from in- 

 creased taxation as a result of charges and additions 

 to the tariff, but which is an evidence of the power 

 of the people to buy, and consequently marks, to a 

 certain extent, their prosperity and the soundness of 

 their financial condition. . . . Taking, then, into con- 

 sideration the fact that the revenue gave more than 



1 anticipated, that the actual expenditure fell below 

 the receipts, I air. able to say to the House that, on 

 Consolidated fund account, after all the services for 

 which appropriations have been made had been tak- 

 en care of by the Government, there remains a sur- 

 plus of $3,885,893 over the ordinary receipts. That 

 is not, however, to say that we have that sum of $3,- 

 885,893 actually in pocket. There are capital expen- 

 ditures as follows: Eaihvays and canals, $3,419,132; 

 on public works, $495,421 ; Dominion lands, $133,- 

 832 ; Northwest Rebellion claims, $47,000 ; to which, 

 if we add the railway subsidies, $1,319,500, and the 

 transfer of the Cobourg debentures, $44,49(5, we have 

 a total capital expenditure of $5,776,301. So that the 

 account as a whole of expenditure and income comes 

 in this way : That we took care of the ordinary ex- 

 penses of the country out of the Consolidated fund ; 



that we laid up in the sinking fund against our debt 

 and for the reduction of our debt $1,779.237 ; and had 

 a surplus of $3,885,893, which we placed over against 

 a capital expense, and came out at the end with an 

 increase of debt of only $3,170. 



No general revision of the tariff was proposed, 

 but the duty on sugar, amounting to about $3,- 

 500,000 annually, was wholly swept away. On 

 the other hand, small additional duties were im- 

 posed upon malt and malt liquors, spirits, and 

 tobacco, and a few other articles. 



Frauds Discovered. The principal cause 

 of the session's being protracted to an inordi- 

 nate length was the startling discovery of al- 

 leged frauds on the part of certain public offi- 

 cials, and of other persons associated therein 

 with departmental officers. This led to a long 

 and thorough investigation before a large com- 

 mittee of the House, in which both Ministerialists 

 and Oppositionists, as a rule, obviously used 

 their best efforts to unearth the suspicious facts 

 and to fix the blame where it belonged. The 

 more startling and momentous of the transac- 

 tions in question occurred in connection with 

 the Board of Works Department, and, in a minor 

 degree, with the Department of the Interior. It 

 was maintained by those who assumed the part 

 of prosecutors that certain contractors and 

 would-be contractors had glaringly used bribery 

 and other currupt schemes in their relations 

 with department officials in order to secure Gov- 

 ernment contracts and to enable them to "scamp"' 

 their work with impunity when contracts were 

 thus obtained. In other instances it was de- 

 clared that departmental subordinates had them- 

 selves boldly swindled the Government which 

 they professed to serve by procuring contracts 

 and Government favors in the names of friends 

 who were willing to become their accomplices. 

 It was maintained in certain quarters that these 

 fraudulent proceedings had reached such pro- 

 portions and had arrived at such a degree of 

 effrontry that even some of the ministers them- 

 selves could not have been unaware of the frauds ; 

 that at least, if they did not connive at these 

 proceedings, they were highly censurable for 

 their lack of vigilance and general remissness in 

 the discharge of their duties. At least one mem- 

 ber of the House of Commons was implicated in 

 these charges. Early in the course of the inves- 

 tigations referred to there was a flutter among 

 the parties implicated. As revelations were 

 evolved numbers of departmental officials were 

 requested to resign. Others did not wait for the 

 request. Several of them have judiciously gone 

 to parts unknown. Meanwhile one member of 

 the House of Commons was, on motion of the 

 Minister of Justice, expelled the House, and a 

 writ was issued for a special election to choose 

 his successor. 



While the investigation was still going on 

 the Minister of Public Works thought it wise 

 to resign his portfolio, although at the close 

 of the committee's proceedings the majority re- 

 port exonerated that gentlemen (Hon. Sir Hec- 

 tor Langevin) from all knowledge of or part in 

 the reprehensible transactions in which some of 

 his subordinates figured. The minority report 

 of the committee in question declined to ac-cede 

 to that of the majority on this point. The vote 

 was a strictly party one. Legal proceedings 



