106 



matter that the very moment they are able to place their fruits on the market the 

 United States people might as well keep theirs at home. Now, you gentlemen from 

 Ontario and Quebec, I ask you to consider our position. "We do not want to come 

 up here and oppose any measure which we think is going to aid you, but we ask 

 you not to forget the position we occupy. We claim, after a fall consideration of 

 the question proposed, that it is better to let the matter remain where it is for the 

 present, feeling that no injustice will be done, but that mutual concessions will not 

 only result in the general good, but will enable us the better to push our fruits upon 

 the markets of the world, and enable us to do our best to grow a sample of fruit 

 which the world cannot excel. I ask you to kindly consider our position, and if you 

 can see your way clear, consistent with your own interest, we hope you will with- 

 draw your resolution rather than have us vote agaiust it. 



Mr. Beall, of Lindsay, Ont. — I have not troubled you very much since I have 

 been here. I have no doubt that nurserymen will be benefited as well as others by 

 the protection proposed, but this movement is in the interests of thousands of per- 

 sons. It is in the interest of fruit-growers all over the country who are being ruined 

 during the last year or two because of the removal of the duty. We hope to have 

 it re-imposed, and thereby save a very large number of persons from bankruptcy. 

 A gentleman from the North- West stated that a great deal of the fruit which they 

 got just now came from California. I pity their stomachs. They must be American 

 in taste or they would not buy any California fruit except grapes. They certainly 

 would not buy pears or apples from California. The bulk of what they buy is small 

 fruits ; but they can grow small fruits in the North- West as well as we can. They 

 can grow them abundiintly. One word more respecting the protection for the farmer. 

 I say that the last year that the duties were collected on fruit there was something 

 like $20,000 paid by the people of Ontario. Who paid that duty ? Persons in towns 

 and cities, simply for the sake of having luxuries. Who has paid that same amount 

 of duty during the past year ? It is a long and roundabout way of arriving at an 

 answer. There is the producer and the consumer and the Government. That same 

 amount was collected by the Government. It has got to be obtained from some other 

 source, and it is taken from the general public — the farmers chiefly — instead of from 

 those persons only who were consumers of luxuries. With regard to the subject of 

 free trade, I just thought it was like a story I heard of the Japanese Minister at 

 Washington. He was asked why he had not kept faith with them respecting a 

 standing army. A few days before he had stated that his Government were quite 

 willing to abandon their army. He said: "We are quite willing to keep faith, but 

 as long as our neighbours keep up their standing armies we have to do the same." 

 The Same thing s applicable to us. It must not be a one-sided trade in this matter. 

 If it is to be free trade it must go all round. We cannot carry on free trade and 

 allow our neighbours to impose heavy duties on our products. 



Mr. E. J. Clinton moved, seconded by Mr. E. W. Starr, "That this question of 

 re-imposing the duty be left over until our next annual meeting, when we will be 

 better able to see the results of free trade in fruits and vegetables." 



Mr. Clinton. — This gentleman from British Columbia spoke of his fruit being 

 able to compete in the world's market. Why, then, does he want a protection on 

 that fruit? He speaks of the high rates that the Canadian Pacific Eailway has 

 charged him to bring his fruit into Manitoba. Is it policy for the Canadiaii Pacific 

 Eailway to continue charging that high rate ? If the Canadian Pacific Eailway 

 does not bring the fruit in cheap enough, the Canadian Pacific Eailway will be shut 

 out of that trade entirely by the Northern Pacific and fruit coming in by way of 

 Washington Territory. So far as Manitoba and the North-West Territories are 

 concerned, their representatives here have made their views clear enough. We in 

 Ontario can raise fruit cheaply, and we will send it ix-p there by boats. I send fruit 

 into Detroit, and compete there in what I call the world's market. They let my 

 fruit go in there for a mere entrance fee. If we re-impose this duty they will 

 retaliate, and I will have to be shut out and my fruit will have to come down and 

 compete with the fruit-growers of Grimsby and Quebec. I like to see competition. 



