CANADA 



1117 



CANADA 



7. Military and naval service and defense. 



8. Salaries and allowances of all officers of 

 the Dominion. 



9. Beacons, buoys, lighthouses and Sable 

 Island. 



10. Navigation, and shipping. 



11. Quarantine and marine hospitals. 



12. Seacoast and inland fisheries. 



13. Inter-provincial or international ferries. 



14. Currency and coinage. 



15. Banks and banking. 



16. Savings banks. 



17. Weights and measures. 



18. Bills of exchange and promissory notes. 



19. Interest. 



20. Legal tender. 



21. Bankruptcy and insolvency. 



22. Patents. 



23. Copyrights. 



24. Indians and their lands. 



25. Naturalization. 



26. Marriage and divorce. 



27. Criminal law, except the organization of 

 courts. 



28. Penitentiaries. 



29. Powers especially stated as not belonging 

 to the provinces. 



Membership. The Senate was originally 

 composed of seventy-two members twenty- 

 four each from Ontario and Quebec and twelve 

 each from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

 The theory of this division was that the Sena- 

 tors should represent the interests of a province 

 rather than of a local district. Since 1867 the 

 admission of other provinces has made some 

 readjustments necessary, and the total mem- 

 bership is now eighty-seven. The Senators are 

 appointed by the Governor-General, on the 

 advice of the Privy Council. The political 

 party in power, therefore, controls the nomina- 

 tion of new Senators. A Senator must be thirty 

 years old, and must own $4,000 worth of real 

 or personal property in the province for which 

 he is appointed. The appointment is for life, 

 but a Senator may resign, and his seat auto- 

 matically becomes vacant if he becomes a 

 bankrupt, is convicted of treason or other 

 crimes, transfers his allegiance to some other 

 power, or loses the property or residence quali- 

 fication. 



The House of Commons represents the body 

 of voters more directly than does the Senate, 

 for its membership is constantly changing. No 

 property qualification is required, but a mem- 

 ber must be a British subject either by birth or 

 naturalization. He need not reside in the dis- 

 trict for which he is elected; this practice 

 is like that of Great Britain but unlike that of 

 the United States. The British North America 

 Act fixes the representation of Quebec at sixty- 

 five members, and each of the other provinces 



is allowed a number of members which bears 

 the same relation to its population as sixty-five 

 is to the population of Quebec. Quebec, by 

 the census of 1911, has one member of the 

 House for 30,810 inhabitants. The population 

 of any province divided by 30,810 gives the 

 number of representatives to which it is en- 

 titled in the House. The total number of 

 members, in accordance with the Representa- 

 tion Act of 1914, is 234, divided as follows: 

 Alberta, 12; British Columbia, 13; Manitoba, 

 15; New Brunswick, 11; Nova Scotia, 16; On- 

 tario, 82; Prince Edward Island, 3; Quebec, 65; 

 Saskatchewan, 16; Yukon Territory, 1. As this 

 act could not go into effect until the dissolution 

 of the Twelfth Parliament, the number of 

 members early in 1917 was still 221. 



Each Senator and member of the Commons 

 receives an allowance of ten cents per mile for 

 traveling expenses, and a sessional allowance 

 of $2,500, provided that the session lasts over 

 thirty days. 



Officers of Parliament. Each house has a 

 presiding officer, called the Speaker. In the 

 House of Commons he is elected by the mem- 

 bers, but in the upper house he is appointed 

 by the Governor-General. In each house there 

 are a number of permanent officers who are 

 not members. The chief clerk supervises the 

 keeping of the journals, the translation of pub- 

 lic documents, etc. All debates and proceed- 

 ings in both houses are recorded by official 

 reporters. French or English may be used in 

 addressing either house, but both must be used 

 in all laws and records. The sergeant-at-arms 

 has charge of messengers and pages, and super- 

 vises the care of the parliamentary chamber 

 and office-rooms. The Senate also has a "gen- 

 tleman usher of the black rod," whose duty it 

 is to summon the Commons to the Senate 

 chamber to hear the Governor-General's ad- 

 dress at the beginning and end of the session. 



How a Bill Becomes a Law. Bills may orig- 

 inate in either house, except that financial 

 measures must come from the House of Com- 

 mons. To become a law a bill must pass three 

 readings in both houses, and must then be 

 approved by the Governor-General. The vot- 

 ing is by yeas and nays; those in favor of a 

 bill say yea in unison, those opposed, nay. 

 If the vote seems close, a roll-call or division 

 is demanded. After a bill has passed one house 

 it is sent to the other for consideration. Here 

 it goes through the same process, during which 

 it may be amended, unless it is a bill for 

 raising money. If amendments are added the 



