CANADA, DOMINION OF. 



91 



in 1901, $57,982,868. That the Finance Minister 

 estimates that the total expenditure for the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1902, will be $65,250,000; 

 that the annual expenditure on both consoli- 

 dated revenue and capital account has increased 

 between 1897 and 1901 by no less a sum than 

 $15,010,110; that during the period above men- 

 tioned the revenues of the country have been un- 

 usually large, and the Government claims a total 

 net surplus of $19,743,527.69, but no portion 

 thereof has been applied in reduction of the pub- 

 lic debt, which, with the addition estimated by 

 the Finance Minister for the current fiscal year, 

 will have increased from $258,479,432.77 in 1896 

 to $274,480,000 in 1902, an increase of more than 

 $16,000,000; that the Minister of Finance esti- 

 mates that the total revenue for the year ending 

 June 30, 1902, will be $56,800,000; that notwith- 

 standing this very large revenue the Minister of 

 Finance estimates that the public debt will be 

 increased during the current year about $6,000,- 

 000; that the House desires to place on record 

 the opinion that the expenditure for the year 

 ending June 30, 1902, and the proposed expendi- 

 ture for the year ending June 30, 1903, are ex- 

 cessive and extravagant, and regrets that the 

 Government, with the exceptionally large reve- 

 nues at its command, has not only failed to re- 

 duce, but has largely increased the public debt 

 and has incurred capital expenditure for which 

 the country does not receive and can not expect 

 an adequate return." 



The motion was lost on a party division of 84 

 to 41. 



The supplementary estimates for the fiscal 

 year ending June 30 were presented to Parlia- 

 ment on May 6. The total was $5,739,301. Of 

 this amount, $3.386,201 was chargeable to con- 

 solidated fund and $2,353,100 to capital account. 

 This made the main estimates $59,100,939 for the 

 year beginning in July, 1902. There were $10,000 

 for experimental farms; $175,000 for the St. Louis 

 Exhibition; $20,000 for the Cork and Wolver- 

 hampton Exhibition; $50,000 defenses at Esqui- 

 malt; $300,000 arms and ammunition; $150,000 

 to purchase rifles; $50,000 for the coronation 

 military contingent; $315,000 for the Halifax gar- 

 rison; $1,315,000 for the intercolonial and $36,000 

 for Yukon public buildings; for the Northwest 

 Government, $107,000; and for the Yukon Gov- 

 ernment, $384,500. 



Canada at the Coronation. During the 

 greater part of the year the subject most univer- 

 sally discussed in Canada was perhaps that of 

 the coronation. Bound up with it also were the 

 visits of Canadian premiers and leaders to the 

 motherland; the conferences held there upon 

 many important subjects; and the hospitalities 

 extended to Canadians. The royal invitation 

 specially extended to the Premier of Canada made 

 him the guest of the British nation during a 

 specified period, with headquarters at the Hotel 

 Cecil, in company with the Premiers of Australia, 

 New Zealand, Cape Colony, Natal, and Newfound- 

 land, and certain appointed representatives of the 

 Crown colonies and the Indian Empire. The pre- 

 miers of all the provinces of Canada were also 

 invited to be present at the coronation, though 

 not as guests at the expense of the nation. In 

 accordance with the King's desire to make the 

 coronation an imperial event, each part of the 

 empire was asked to send a contingent of troops. 

 Canada sent 656 soldiers, chiefly veterans of the 

 w;ir. the cavalry being under the command of 

 Lieut.-Col. R. E. W. Turner, V. C., D. S. O., of 

 Quebec, and the infantry under Lieut.-Col. H. M. 

 Pellatt, of Toronto. 



The Coronation Conference. In a commu- 

 nication addressed to the Governor-General of Can- 

 ada, on Dec. 27, 1901, Mr. Chamberlain conveyed a 

 formal intimation of the coronation having been 

 fixed for June 26 following, and an expression of 

 the King's desire that the Premier of Canada should 

 be present and be a guest of the Government, to- 

 gether with his wife, for a fortnight from the 

 time of arrival. On Jan. 23, 1902, the Colonial 

 Secretary cabled Lord Minto as follows: " It is 

 proposed by his Majesty's Government to take 

 advantage of the presence of the premiers at the 

 coronation to discuss with them the questions of 

 political relations between the mother country 

 and the colonies, imperial defense, commercial re- 

 lations of the empire, and other matters of gen- 

 eral interest. Should your ministers desire to 

 submit definite proposals or resolutions on any 

 of the above questions, or should they wish to 

 suggest any further subject for discussion, I 

 should 'be glad to be informed of the purport by 

 cable, in order that the other governments can 

 be communicated with." The period of three 

 weeks after the coronation was suggested as that 

 during which the premiers should remain as his 

 Majesty's guests. Under date of Feb. 3, Lord 

 Minto replied, accepting the invitation for Sir 

 Wilfrid and Lady Laurier, and dealing with mat- 

 ters of policy as follows : " Referring to the sev- 

 eral questions mentioned in your despatch of 

 Jan. 23, the only one which, in the opinion of 

 my ministers, gives promise of useful discussion, 

 is that of the commercial relations now existing 

 between the mother country and the great self- 

 governing colonies, and particularly Canada, 

 which are regarded by my ministers as entirely 

 satisfactory, with the exception of a few minor 

 details; and they do not anticipate that in the 

 varying conditions of the colonies there can be 

 any scheme of defense applicable to all." 



This correspondence was laid before the Cana- 

 dian House of Commons on March 11, and Mr. 

 Borden, leader of the Conservative Opposition, 

 brought up the subject in the House on May 12. 

 He read the correspondence between Mr. Cham- 

 berlain and Lord Minto; deprecated as discour- 

 teous the action of the Government in declining 

 to discuss imperial defense; declared that of the 

 three possible features before the country inde- 

 pendence, annexation, or present conditions he 

 preferred the last, and believed that it would be 

 the permanent one; and pointed to advantages 

 which Canada had long received from its pro- 

 tection by the British naval and military forces. 

 He then, at considerable length, discussed the 

 existing preferential tariff and the various pro- 

 posals for preferential trade in its wider sense: 

 quoted the Premier's statement in the session of 

 1901 that preferential trade throughout the em- 

 pire could not be discussed without premising 

 the abolition of the protective conference, and 

 could have no useful result under present con- 

 dition of government in the Dominion. He con- 

 cluded by asking for an authoritative statement 

 as to the policy of the Government in connection 

 with the coming -conference. "We want to know 

 whether the Government, while retaining for 

 Canada full control of all her public moneys and 

 her system of defense, is prepared to discuss with 

 the imperial authorities a system of imperial de- 

 fense. We want to know whether the Prime 

 Minister proposes, as he did in 1897. and as the 

 Minister of Agriculture did in 1901, to tell the 

 Government and the people of the mother coun- 

 try that Canada desires no preference in the Brit- 

 ish markets. We want to know whether the 

 Government are yet fully seized of the fact that 



