612 



ONTARIO. 



"In view. of the great number of election peti- 

 tions awaiting trial, it is desirable to facilitate their 

 disposal by the courts and to lessen the expense 

 and labor of the trials as far as may be practicable, 

 and so that they may, if possible, be disposed of by 

 the time this Assembly may again meet in the 

 early part of the coming year. To this end a bill 

 will be submitted for your consideration making 

 provision for the speedy determination of the ques- 

 tion of the right of electors to vote who have been 

 called upon or appointed by the returning officers, 

 or deputy returning officers, under the election act, 

 to act as constables or special constables on election 

 or polling day, or to perform other work or public 

 duties connected with the election and for other 

 purposes. 



"The long-contested question between the Gov- 

 ernment of Canada and the provinces relating to 

 the rights in and over provincial fisheries has at 

 length been finally decided by the Privy Council. 

 Leases of fishing rights in provincial waters, and 

 licenses and permits to fish in provincial waters, 

 have heretofore been granted by the Department of 

 Marine and Fisheries under the laws and regula- 

 tions of the Dominion. The judgment of the 

 Privy Council has determined that the right to the 

 fish in provincial waters, including the waters of 

 the Great Lakes and international and interprovin- 

 cial rivers, can be granted only by the provinces, 

 and that the revenues derivable therefrom are pay- 

 able to the provincial governments. The regula- 

 tions as to the time and manner in which fish may 

 be taken, the instruments of capture which may be 

 employed, the fixing of close seasons, and some 

 other minor matters of regulation, are by the judg- 

 ment declared to be subject wholly to Dominion 

 legislation, and the Government of the Dominion is 

 held entitled to impose a tax for revenue purposes 

 as a consideration of right to fish. 



" The proposed legislation in respect to the two 

 last-mentioned questions is among the reasons for 

 your being called together at this somewhat un- 

 usual season of the year, and I trust that you will 

 deem them of sufficiently pressing importance to 

 secure your approval of the course which has been 

 taken. It is presumed that when you have disposed 

 of matters which are immediately urgent, you will 

 prefer postponing the consideration of other and 

 general business until the early part of the next 

 year." 



Mr. F. E. A. Evanturel was re-elected speaker. 

 A stirring debate ensued upon the formal address 

 in reply to the speech from the throne, and Messrs. 

 Hardy and Whitney covered the whole political 

 ground in able speeches. Immediately following, a 

 bill was introduced to bring before the Court of 

 Appeal the question whether constables had the 

 right to vote and declaring that, should the decision 

 be in the negative, any member unseated by the 

 striking out of these votes should be entitled to ap- 

 peal to his constituency again under a change of 

 law by which the constable should be given the 

 clear right to vote. This was a different policy 

 from that proposed in Mr. Hardy's memorandum, 

 in which he had favored retrospective legislation 

 legalizing the votes in all past as well as future 

 cases. But the public opposition was so strong to 

 a proposal which involved the possible seating of 

 members by legislation and their own votes in the 

 Assembly, that it was abandoned. After a warm 

 debate the bill passed by 6 majority on Aug. 19. 

 Eventually the Court of Appeal decided that the 

 constables were not disqualified by law, and the 

 whole question was settled. On Aug. 24 the brief 

 special session was adjourned. 



Agriculture. The crops in Ontario were very 

 good during the season of 1898, the following being 



the acreage sown : Hay, 2,453,503 ; oats, 2,376,360 ; 

 winter wheat, 1,048,182 ; peas, 865,951 ; corn, 520,- 

 696; barley, 438,784; spring wheat, 389,205; po- 

 tatoes, 169,946; rye, 165,089 ; turnips, 151,601 ; buck- 

 wheat, 150,394 ; mangels, 47,923 ; beans, 45,220 ; car- 

 rots, 12,418. 



The total yield of fall wheat was 25,305,890 bush- 

 els, and of spring wheat 6,714.516 bushels. Oats 

 were 82,132.026 bushels, and hay 4,399,063 tons. 



The live stock in the province in 1898 was as 

 follows : Horses, 611,241 ; cattle, 2.215,943 ; sheep, 

 1,677,014 ; hogs, 1,642,787 ; poultry, 9,084,473. The 

 number of live stock sold or slaughtered during the 

 year was 44,404 horses, 552,485 cattle, 664,329 sheep, 

 1,529,697 hogs, and 3,072,767 poultry an increase 

 in each case. 



The Lumber Question. The protection of On- 

 tario timber limits for Ontario mills and workmen 

 was an important question at the close of the ses- 

 sion of the Legislature in December, 1897. It had 

 long been the custom of American mill owners and 

 manufacturers to cut their timber on the Canadian 

 side with American workmen, and float it over and 

 manufacture it in the United States with American 

 labor. This, naturally, was not liked, and the 

 Hardy Government was at last impelled to the fol- 

 lowing legislation : The Government proposed that 

 licenses issued after April 30, 1898, shall contain a 

 condition that pine timber shall be manufactured 

 in Canada. This restriction does not affect exist- 

 ing licenses. All future sales of timber limits shsJl 

 be subject to the manufacturing condition. Tiie 

 new regulation which the Legislature was asked to 

 approve read : " Every license or permit to cut pine 

 timber on the ungranted lands of the Crown, or to 

 cut pine timber reserved to the Crown on lands lo- 

 cated, sold, granted, patented, or leased by|the Crown, 

 which shall be issued on or after April 30, 1898, 

 shall contain and be subject to the condition that 

 all pine >,hich may be cut into logs or otherwise 

 under the authority or permission of such license 

 or permit shall, except as hereinafter provided, be 

 manufactured into sawn lumber in Canada, that is 

 to say, into boards, deals, joists, lath, shingles, or 

 other sawn lumber, or into board or square or other 

 timber in Canada, and such condition shall be kept 

 and observed by the holder or holders of any such 

 license or permit who shall cut or cause to be cut 

 pine trees or timber under the authority thereof, 

 and by any other person or persons who shall cut or 

 cause to be cut any of such pine trees or timber un- 

 der the authority thereof ; and all pine so cut into 

 logs or otherwise shall be manufactured in Canada 

 as aforesaid." Should any holder of a timber li- 

 cense violate the condition, the license will be sus- 

 pended, and shall not be reissued until the Lieu- 

 tenant Governor directs. In order to prevent a 

 breach of the regulation, the Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands is authorized to seize logs illegally cut, and 

 he shall hold them until security is given by the 

 owner that they shall be cut in Canada. In the 

 event of the refusal of the owner to give such se- 

 curity within four weeks after the seizure, the com- 

 missioner may sell the logs by auction to some per- 

 son who will undertake to manufacture in Canada. 

 The proceeds of this sale, after all expenses and 

 debts are deducted, shall be paid to the owner of 

 the limit or the holder of the permit. There is one 

 exception to the general policy which has been pro- 

 posed, made necessary by the fact that the purchas- 

 ers of limits in 1890 under a manufacturing obliga- 

 tion paid a sum of money to be released from the 

 necessity of sawing in Canada. The limits sold n 

 1890 are composed of the last half of the towns!) p 

 of Aweres, in Algoma. containing 184 square mile s, 

 and 22 square miles in the district of Thunder Bay, 

 berths 2, 3, and 4. It is made clear that the regu- 



