ONTARIO. 



549 







an 



E 





re served; (c) any person having a ballot paper 

 utside of the polling booth may be arrested and 

 'Unished; (f) any minister or candidate who in- 

 imates that certain public finances shall follow 

 e election may be unseated and disfranchised; 

 g) the numbered ballot to be abolished; (ft) make 

 t a criminal offense for a license inspector to at- 

 mpt to intimidate license holders; (t) all offenses 

 to be punished by imprisonment. The Government 

 should not have gone outside of the house to secure 

 a Minister of Public Works. To appoint a com- 

 mittee to investigate the timber wealth of the 

 province. The investigation into the finances of 

 the province should have been postponed until 

 after the award of the arbitration between Ontario 

 and Quebec." 



The reply to these suggestions was made by 

 r. Andrew Pattullo, a Liberal member of the 

 louse. He declared that the Legislature should 

 not deal with nickel and similar questions as 

 party questions. They are business questions, 

 and should be treated as such. The Government 

 should go still further in the control of railways. 

 There was no more danger in a member of the Cab- 

 inet being at the head of a financial corporation 

 than if a private member were in the same position. 

 He had an ardent desire to punish the bribers on 

 his side. He would not follow the Premier one 

 minute if he did not believe that he was sincere 

 on this question. He would support any sensible 

 amendment to the election laws, but hoped that 

 " e house would not rush off under popular clamor 

 .nd pass laws which could not be enforced. The 

 true remedy for corruption was to give people 

 something worthy to think about, give them great 

 leaders and great measures. Then people would 

 have more marked convictions; then there would 



<no corruption. He would like to get farmers 

 m England into old Ontario. 

 3n March 10 Mr. Whitney proposed various 

 changes in the election 'law, but they were ulti- 

 mately voted down by the Government. A few 

 days later he presented to the house a sworn state- 

 ment by a reputable man -named Pritchard which 

 appeared to prove distinctly a condition of gross 

 corruption in the constituency of West Elgin, en- 

 gineered and controlled by a paid gang of Govern- 

 ment party men. The dominant public opinion 

 of the province at the time apparently was that 

 the Government were not anxious to punish the 

 perpetrators of undoubted corruption in the con- 

 stituencies of West Elgin, Brockville, and South 

 Ontario during the provincial elections. The Com- 

 mission of Inquiry, which w r as appointed early in 

 the session and was composed of County Court 

 Judges Barren, McTavish, and Morgan, eventually 

 reported in such a way as to clear the Government 

 of any direct share in the actual corruption. Every 

 confidence was felt in the commissioners, but it 

 was known that they had been limited in their 

 powers, and that the chief men connected with 

 the actual bribery and ballot-box stuffing had fled 

 the country. 



On March 13 the Government presented to the 

 house details of their agreement with the Spanish 

 River Paper Company, and a grant of 250 square 

 miles of unoccupied and unlicensed public land 

 for cutting pulp wood and erecting mills. It was 

 found that a right of granting cutting privileges 

 in other tracts of country was included, and that 

 in return the company was to expend $500,000 

 in erecting a pulp and paper mill within the next 

 three years. In defending the arrangement in the 

 house, on April 10, Mr. Ross said the object of this 

 contract was to promote a very valuable industry 

 in \f\v Ontario. He pointed out that for years 

 the Government had pursued a system of building 



colonization roads and otherwise encouraging set- 

 tlement in New Ontario, and he was pleased to 

 say their efforts had met with good success, as he 

 believed at the next census it would be found that 

 there is now a population of 120,000 in that dis- 

 trict. In New Ontario there was a great deal of 

 land, but it was of no value unless developed. 

 Much of this land was of little value from an 

 agricultural point of view, but there were some 

 fertile belts, much timber, and considerable min- 

 eral wealth. In 1885 the Government had entered 

 into its first pulp-mill contract with Mr. F. H. 

 Clergue, of Sault Ste. Marie, and the success of 

 Mr. Clergue's undertaking had been most remark- 

 able. In fact, it showed him to be a very remark- 

 able man, and quite justified the Government in 

 the course they had taken. Mr. Clergue had 

 agreed to expend $400,000 and employ 260 persons. 

 He had already expended over $2,000,000, and now 

 employs more than 700 persons. Mr. Clergue was 

 now engaged in the building of a railway at an 

 estimated cost of $6,000,000, but was not asking 

 the public for a cent. It was true that Mr. Clergue 

 asked a certain land grant; but with the comple- 

 tion of the enterprises he had now under construc- 

 tion Mr. Clergue will have expended from $14,- 

 000,000 to $16,000,000. 



Mr. Ross went on to say that the second indus- 

 try which the Government had endeavored to 

 bring into the country was a pulp mill on Lake 

 Nipigon, but this had fallen through. The next 

 industry of this character was the one on Sturgeon 

 river. This company had a capital of $1,000,000 

 and employed 250 persons. The thriving town of 

 Sturgeon Falls had sprung up as a result of the 

 operations of this company, and the district had 

 been greatly benefited. All these contracts, with 

 the exception of the one on Lake Nipigon, had 

 been crowned with success, and all had received 

 the unqualified approval of members on both sides 

 of the house. The fourth contract, he declared, 

 was more favorable to the Government than any 

 of the others. In this the company was limited 

 to the spruce, poplar, and jack pine, while all the 

 hard woods reverted to the Crown. This was an 

 agreement entered into with Canadian capitalists, 

 while the first one had been with Americans. 



The agreement was opposed by Mr. Whitney 

 on the ground of favoritism, failure to open these 

 lands and privileges to public competition, and 

 an evident lack of knowledge as to the extent of 

 the resources of the province in connection with 

 its stores of timber and pulp wood. But it was 

 approved by a party vote. Some further discus- 

 sion took place regarding the duties placed upon 

 Canadian lumber by the United States, and the 

 Ontario Lumbermen's Association declared again 

 in favor of " free logs for free lumber." At their 

 annual meeting, on Feb. 22, the following resolu- 

 tion was passed : 



" That the Lumbermen's Association of Ontario 

 express their satisfaction with the provincial Gov- 

 ernment in putting the manufacturing clause in 

 all licenses; and further, that this association re- 

 iterate the opinion, expressed on former occasions, 

 that in the absence of reciprocity in lumber be- 

 tween Canada and the United States the Govern- 

 ment of Canada be requested to impose an import 

 duty on lumber corresponding with that imposed 

 by the Government of the United States, and 

 thereby remove any injustice which at present 

 exists to Canadian lumbermen." 



On May 1 the Legislature adjourned after a 

 congratulatory speech from the Lieutenant Gov- 

 ernor and his assent to the following measures, 

 among many others: 



The provincial drainage aid act. 



