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Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT explained that there had been several increases of salaries to deserving officers, amongst others being $250 to Mr. LowE. There had, however, been a saving of some $6,000 over the whole.

Item carried.

The following items were passsed without discussion:

Department of Marine and Fisheries, $22,210.

Hon. Mr. MACKENZIE said it should be observed that the distribution of this money was restricted by Act of Parliament to the civil service, and the term "Civil Service" had been interpreted to apply simply to those engaged in the departments. Whatever course the Government might feel disposed to follow they were restricted from making its application more general than this. Besides, it must be understood if that $75,000 were distributed over all

Treasury Board Office..$ 3,200 00 $3,250 00 classes of Government servants it would not

Marine and Fisheries De

partment Agencies.. 14,900 00 Dominion Lands office,

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14,515 00

4,000 00

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.175,000 00

Stationery Office for Sta

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20,000 00

175,000 00

20,000 00 On the item $70,000. Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT said that although this sum was asked under the Civil Service Bill which the Government proposed to introduce, it was not expected

that it would be needed.

Mr. WOOD asked if this sum was to be devoted entirely to the officials at Ottawa. The outside service should have some fair consideration at the hands of the Government.

Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT said that this sum was especially appropriated, as had been explained by the right hon. member for Kingston, when the vote was first asked on behalf of the service at the capital. The outside service had been in some cases levised and increased.

Mr. IRVING said it constantly appeared in the newspapers that there had been some benefit granted to the civil service, and the outside services throughout the country thought that they had been unfairly treated when they did not get a share of it. The appropriation should be so made that there could not be any doubt as to whom it was intended for.

Mr. SCRIVER said he quite agreed with his hon. friend the member for Hamilton. There had been a great deal of dissatisfaction, founded upon the idea that this appropriation was intended for the whole service, while only those in Ottawa had the benefit of it. Collectors of Customs were living, or rather starving, upon salaries just the same as they had fifteen years ago.

Hon. Mr. Cartwright.

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two classes in the Civil Service-the inside service and the outside service.

this fund would be applied to increasing Mr. MCDONNELL hoped a portion of their salaries of postmasters, who, in his opinion, were not fairly paid. In the town of Port Hood, in his own constituency, the postmaster was paid only $200 a year including all the perquisites of his office from the sale of postage, stamps, etc. He had to make up two mails a day, one of them arriving between midnight and two This officer had sent in his resignation. The customs officer received $600 per annum for services much lighter than the postmaster's. The latter offered to exchange places with him and to discharge his duties for $200. He (Mr. MCDONNELL) did not believe that the Government should expect a revenue from the Post Office Department.

a. m.

Mr. LANDERKIN said country Postmasters were generally in some other business, and instead of finding the Post Office an injury to them, they found it a great advantage. In the constituency he represented there was a Postmaster whose salary was $23 a year. He had to make up two mails every day, one at midnight he tother before daylight, and his remuneration was five cents a day and five cents a night. He did not complain, because the Post Office was a great convenience to him. Instead of increasing the salaries of Postmasters, he (Mr. LANDERKIN) Would favor diminishing

them in cities and towns. There was a Post Office vacant in his own constituency recently, worth only about $50 a year; yet there were some thirty applicants for it. It could not have been for the salary, and there must have been some other advantage in possessing the office. It was not the duty of the House to encourage officials to look for an increase in their salaries; it would not be consistent with a policy of retrenchment.

Mr. WALLACE (South Norfolk), objected to the principle of distributing the $70,000 to the Civil Service by granting 15 per cent. bonus, as being inequitable, and suggested that the amount should be distributed according to the duties performed and the salary

received.

Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT said they did not intend to amend that system.

Mr. GOUDGE said there were certainly some anomalies connected with the salaries of the Civil Service, particularly the postmasters. In the town of Windsor, N.S., the postmaster received only $680 a year, although he was obliged to devote his entire time to the duties of the office, and had also to employ an assistant, while to his knowledge a junior clerk in the to his knowledge a junior clerk in the post-office at Halifax, and also at Ottawa, received between $800 and $900. There was a heavy responsibility resting upon the Windsor postmaster, as tens of thousands of dollars passed through his hands every week, and his salary had not increased for the last four or five years. His salary, of course, was based upon the receipts, but there were many offices, and Windsor was one, where the receipts were not a fair criterion of the amount of work done. As the inside Civil Service were receiving additions, he thought the outside service should also receive

consideration.

Mr. WOOD hoped the Finance Minister would bring down a sum in the Supplementary estimates for some additions to the salaries of the outside service. He might mention that one officer in the Customs, who had been over twenty years in the service, occupying a very responsible position as appraiser, and who was now receiving only $800 or $900 in the second largest port in Ontario, his predecessor had received $1,500.

Mr. Landerkin.

Hon. D. A. MACDONALD said his friend from Inverness had made out a strong case from his point of view, but he could tell him that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had less to complain of than the other Provinces, as in those Provinces under the system in force before Confederation the postmasters received 80 per cent. of the collections, whereas in Ontario and Quebec they received only 40 per cent. He admitted that the pay

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was small, and he wished it was in his power to increase it; but to add $50 to each postmaster would make an additional charge on the revenue of no less than $225,000. In ninety cases out of a hundred he had half a dozen applications for every vacancy. been found in the management of the A great difficulty had offices in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on account of the system of Way Offices, which he intended to convert into post offices as speedily as possible.

Mr. MCDONNELL contended that

the argument that the remuneration to

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postmasters would because the Post Office Department could not permit of it, was not a sound one, because the rates of postage had been greatly reduced. Surely it would not be contended that if the postage on letters was reduced to onehalf a cent, postmasters would receive only the same percentage.

be increased revenue from the Post

Mr. BUNSTER said the postmasters in his Province complained of insufficient of Mr. HARVEY, postmaster at Nanaimo, remuneration, and he instanced the case who had resigned because he could not get

an increase.

in a new country like British Columbia The duties of postmasters because they received a great many more were greater than in the older Provinces, letters than they sent.

Mr. DECOSMOS called attention to

the fact that although in the resolutions passed in 1873 the salaries of the Lieut. Governors were increased by $2,000, yet in the Act based upon these resolutions the amount of the salary of the LIEUT. GOVERNOR of British Columbia was, apparently by a clerical error, fixed at $9,000. It should have been $10,000, as his former salary was $8,000. He hoped this omission would be supplied, as the GOUERNOR was obliged to draw upon his private income, his salary not being sufficient.-Item passed.

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Under the head of "Administration of Justice,"

Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT explained with reference to the increase of $5,000 for Circuit Allowances in British Columbia, that the expenses of travelling were very heavy. Formerly the vote had not been sufficient, and the deficiency had to be made up out of unforeseen expenses.

Sir JOHN MACDONALD said the first vote was quite experimental. He would like to know if this vote would cover the whole expense.

Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT-Perhaps I should say it is hoped it will cover it. The hon. gentleman will understand that in a country like British Columbia, these expenses varied very much from year to year, according to the amount of work to be done.-Item carried.

The items under the head of Police, votes 23 and 24, were passed.

The items under the head of Penitentiaries, votes 25 to 31, were passed.

On vote 27, Penitentiary, Halifax, N. S.

Hon. Mr, TUPPER hoped there was no truth in the rumor that the increased salary for the warden was given with the object of displacing that officer and appointing another gentleman in his place.

Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT said he had not heard of any such intention on the part of the Government.

Hon. Mr. FOURNIER said he had heard the rumour, but that was all he knew about it.

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On the item of $37,000 for maintenance of prisoners in Manitoba, British Columbia, and P. E. Island.

Mr. BUNSTER called attention to an act passed last year to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors to Indians. He thought the Indians should be allowed to go to a bar, and have a glass of comparatively pure liquor, rather than drink the foul stuff they obtained from the United States, in fact, they had become so disgusted with that article that they had resolved to distil liquor for themselves. He hoped the Minister of Inland Revenue would give favorable consideration to the Indians of British Columbia.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM said he could not allow the remarks of the hon. member to pass unchallenged. The Liquor Law relating to British Columbia, which was Hon. Mr. Cartwright.

passed last session was doing good work. He was glad to see that those who had been engaged in selling liquor to the Indians had been caught and punished. No greater boon could be conferred on British Columbia than that law. He hoped the day would never come when the Indians of British Columbia could purchase liquors and become intoxicated, for the lives of the whites would then never be safe. To supply Indians with intoxicating liquors was not the way to elevate them in the scale of morality, or teach them the principles of the Christian religion.

The Committee rose and reported. Hon. Mr. MACKENZIE moved the adjournment of the House.

The House adjourned at eleven o'clock.

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HOUSE OF COMMONS, Friday, February 19th, 1875. The SPEAKER took the chair at three o'clock.

PRINTING COMMITTEE'S REPORT,

Mr. ROSS (Middlesex) moved the adoption of the second and third reports of the Joint Committee of both Houses on Printing. He explained that the second report referred merely to the usual report of the sub-committee on the accounts of the clerk, and the third report to the rules which a sub-committee had laid down for the reporting and printing of the Parlia mentary debates.-Carried.

REPORTER FOR PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE.

Mr. YOUNG moved that the sub-committee appointed to consider certain irregularities connected with the Intercolonial Railway be authorized to employ a shorthand reporter to take down evidence.

Sir JOHN A. MACDONALD suggested that the motion be modified so as to give authority to the Public Accounts Committee to employ a short-hand reporter, as the House was not supposed to know anything about sub-committees. In fact it was a question whether a Committee of the House had power to appoint subcommittees, though as a matter of convenience they might do so.

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Mr. YOUNG said he had no objection to the modification, and at the suggestion

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of the Premier, the motion was changed to | to put an estate into insolvency, any read as follows:-"That the Select Committee on Public Accounts be authorized to employ a short-hand reporter to take down such evidence as they may find requisite.”—Motion earried.

BILLS INTRODUCED.

The following Bills were introduced and read a first time:

Mr. BABY-To incorporate the Pictou Coal and Iron Company.

Mr. CURRIER-To incorporate the Lower Ottawa Boom Company.

Mr. BOWELL-To incorporate the
Intelligencer Printing and Publishing
Company.

Mr. BABY-To incorporate the Indus-
trial Life Insurance Company.
Mr. FRECHETTE-To incorporate La
Banque St. Jean Baptiste.

THE INSOLVENCY LAW.

merchant desiring to go into bankruptcy could do so. In England, he believed, a merchant could not go into insolvency except after consulation with his his creditors, who decided whether he should become an insolvent or not. He did not see any difficulty in adopting this clause, but if there should be any great objection to it, the Government would not insist upon it. As to the assignee it had been thought proper to leave the power of nominating them in the hands of the Government. He knew the Board of Trade attached a great deal of importance to the nomination of these officers. It must be remembered that these official assignees had the power of receiving assignments and writs in cases of attachment. Under this Bill, power was left to the creditors at their first meeting to appoint an assignee of their own as soon as they proved their claim. He believed there would be found Hon. Mr. FOURNIER introduced a Bill a great advantage in the Government respecting insolvency. He said it was, appointing these assignees. They would with some modifications in certain clauses, be responsible to the Government in case the same as the measure introduced last of malversation, and there would be greater year by Mr. DORION. The House would control exercised over them than before. recollect that the principle features in that They would be bound to give security not Bill were the abolition of voluntary as only for the due performance of their duties signment, the appointment of assignees but also security for the benefit by the Government, large modifications the creditors. The object of the Bill was in the powers of assignees and inspectors, to give the creditors greater control of the and numerous provisions respecting the estate. The power of inspectors was thereexercise of these powers. The judicial fore augmented very considerably. If the functions of assignees were altogether creditors did not appoint inspectors themtaken away and there was a provision re-selves then the courts would. The duties lating to the sale of real estate, especially in Lower Canada, with several provisions respecting the application of the Act to Corporations. These clauses were modified in the Bill now presented. The reasons for changing the clause respecting voluntary assignment were these: Small traders, after having exhausted their assets, frequently rushed into bankruptcy without consultation with their creditors. The consequence was that having gone in merely for the purpose of getting whitewashed the most fraudulent debtors could get a discharge. This was considered a sort of protection to dishonest traders. By doing away with this clause, it was believed that small traders, in such cases, would be obliged to consult more with their creditors than they now did. As this Bill required the consent of creditors holding claims to the amount of only $500, Mr. Young.

of inspectors would be to advise the assignees as to the disposal of the estate. In all matters of importance nothing would be done without their advice. The assignee would lose the control he formerly had over the moneys arising from the sale of the estate. As soon as he had in his possession $100, it would be deposited in a bank not in his own name but in the name of the estate, and afterwards he would be bound to open an account with the bank and keep a pass-book, in which all deposits for the estate should be entered. After being deposited the money could only be withdrawn on a joint check signed by the assignee and inspector, so that the funds would be entirely beyond the control of the assignee. This regulation, it was hoped, would prevent such difficulties arising as the use of the moneys by the assignees them selves. Cases had occurred where the

books of the company and examine their affairs. Provision would be made to oblige the company to give such information as might be required. In case of refusal the court was empowered to punish the company's managers for contempt of court.. If, upon examination, it should appear that the company was not in a hopeless state of insolvency, but only temporarily embarrassed, then it would be in the power the Judge to order the Official Assignee to give superintendence over the manage

of

moneys of estates had been used, and the
assignees were obliged to go into insolvency
themselves or leave the country. The
interest on the money so deposited would
bear interest in favor of the creditors and
the amount coming out of the funds
deposited would be kept in the same way
as the principal deposited. The judicial
functions of the assignees had been done
away with altogether. It had been found
in practice that it was not the assignee
who adjudicated claims according to his
own knowledge of the law or his own judgment of affairs. The Officers of the com--
ment. It was generally some lawyer that
he employed, who might be interested for
some other creditors, or the assignee him-
self might be acting as the agent of some of
the creditors and adjudicating claims in
which he was interested. These powers
were taken away from the assignee, and it
was provided that any difficulties arising
should be settled in a summary way by the
judge who should give twenty-four hours'
notice that he would adjudicate upon such
contestation. In case parties were not
satisfied with his decision, they might
either go into Appeal or Review according
to the law of the Province in which
the case occurred, if the amount was
sufficiently large. One subject upon which
several important provisions had been
established, was the sale of real estate.
Great injustice was suffered in Lower
Canada in consequence of the mortgage
system which was different from the
system prevailing in the other Provinces.
In the Province of Quebec the sale of a
mortgaged estate by a sheriff or by an
assignee had the effect of clearing off the
mortgage altogether. It was not so in the
other Provinces in which the property was
sold subject to mortgage. It often happened
in Quebec that a property mortgaged to
very nearly its value happened to pass into
the hands of a merchant going into insol-
vency, in which case all the costs were paid
by the mortgage creditors, while, in fact,
their claims should have the preference.
It was proposed to remedy this incon-
venience. As to corporations, the differ-
ence between this Bill and the Bill intro-
duced last session, was that no writ of
attachment would be obtained from a
Judge or court without notice having been
given for forty-eight hours to the officers
of the company.
It would be at the dis-
cretion of the Judge or Prothonotary to
order the Official Assignee to inspect the
Hon. Mr Fournier.

pany, after such order, would be considered
as trustees for the creditors. This state of
things might continue for six months.
If after that time the business of the
company were not in a more prosperous
condition, the Judge might order the
winding up of the business. If on the
contrary it should appear there was a hope
that the company might recover from their
embarrassments, it would be in the power-
of the Judge to give another delay of six.
months. A company might have, according
to circumstances, a delay of twelve months.
This was a favorable position to place-
companies in because, under the existing
law, they could be put regularly into
insolvency, and their properties might be-
attached without any delay whatsoever.
The provisions of this Act it was believed,
would protect companies from being forced
into insolvency through the anxiety of
creditors for a settlement. He had availed
himself of the suggestion made by
the hon. member for Kingston, and
printed on a separate sheet the difference
that existed between the present law, and
the Bill before the House.
In the pre-
paration of the measure he had given close
attention to the suggestions of every Board
of Trade. In fact, with very few excep-
tions they had been introduced into this
Bill. Those which he had not adopted
were not in harmony with the principle of ̈
the Bill.

The Bill was read a first time.

Hon. Mr. TUPPER inquired if the Bill would be sent to the Committee on Banking and Commerce, as was done last year.

Hon. Mr. FOURNIER said it would be referred to a Select Committee as was. done in 1871. The Bill would be distributed and sent largely to persons interested.

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