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ty--five years, and the measures which the Liberal Administrations had taken to aid in that development. He vigor--, »usly condemned Mr. Whitney's spegch «t Niagara Falts, in the recent bye-- 'lection in Welland, charging that the leader of the Opposition had promised free Niagara power in an attempt to sorrupt the constituency. Mr. Strat-- .on also charged that the member for West Elgin, Mr. Macdiarmid, held hlsi seat by reason of personation. The ijebate will be resumed by Mr. Hoyile for the Opposition on Tuesday. . The Provincial Secretary. Hon. Mr. Stratton, on rising to re-- sume the debate on the budget, was regeived with hearty Ministerial ap-- plause. In his opening remarks he said that while he had no desire to hurt the feelings of the financial critic of the Opposition, he was bound to say that Jolonel Matheson's speech on the bud-- get was the weakest made in the his-- tory of the House. The only conclusion ae (Mr. Stratton) could reach was that the hon. member from South Lanark had become conscience--smitten, and was feeling that the task of attacking the financial status of the Province was useless and profitless. He aefied the hon. gentleman or any other hon. gen-- tleman insidje or outside of the House to show where the statement of <the "Treasurer was incorrect. Would auy hon. gentleman undertake to say that the statement was misleading; and if he didt was it not bis _ du-- ty to point out wherein the errors lay ?° HMHe desired hon. gen-- tiemen and the country to understand that the statements made by hon. 'Treasurers during the time that a liberal Government had controlled the affairts of the country were as correct and as accurate as they possibly could he. No country, as had been said be-- fore. was in so happy a fAnancial con-- dition as the Province of Ontario. Finances of the Province. Continuing, he said his hon. friend from South Lanark, the critic of the Opposition, always argued that the railway certificates and annuities were presantly payable, while, as a matter af fact, they were not ; and, further. the Province had coming from the Do-- minion more interest than would retire the annuities and railway certificates if they were twice the magnitude that they were at presemt. He referred to the proposed railway agreement which the Conservative Manitoba Government All times aggressive address. The criti-- ~Isms of Colonel Matheson and Nn Whitney were vigorously combatted by the speaker, and the interjections of the leader of the Opposition falled to dis-- turb his equanimity in the slightest legree. Mr. Stratton dealt in a com-- prehensive manner with the expansion "f the Province during the past twen-- giving the amounts of railway bonds which it was proposed to guarantee. Would the hon. gentleman argue that these were liabilities presently pay-- able ?¢ Assuredly not; they were or would be payable if the agreement #hould pass, just as they were in On-- tariq, namely, when due. (Government applause.) 1t had, he continued, been contended by hon. gentlemen opposite that the moneys belonging to Ontario and held by the Dominion were not pre-- sently payable, and quoted from the re-- port of the Royal Comunmission on fin-- ance and a letter from Hon. Mr. Fielding to refute this view. As a matter of fact, however, the Province had no desire to interfere with an asset so valuable as that, because. as busi-- ness men, they knew that it would be a matter of the greatest possible ditficulty to invest the $2,848,000 held for the Province in so good & security and at such a high rate of interest. (Govern-- ment applause.) He spoke of Mr. Whitney's references to the gontlemen who composed the Royal Commission on the finances, and stated that any man who did not know the high posi-- tion occupied in the financial world of this country by such men as Dr. Moskin of the General Trusts Com-- pany, Mr. Byron E. Walker of the Bnk of Commerce and Mr. Kirkland of the Bank of Montreal had been liv-- ing in a part of the Province where knowledge of financial affairs was very The hon. leader of the Opposition was not able to show that any of the moneys which had been appropriated had been appropriated wrongly. He had been unable to do more than in-- dulge in a few glittering generalities. (Ministerial applause.) His hon. friend (Mr. Whitney) had complained of the depletion of our forests. Where our great pine forests used to stand the Province was now populated by a hardy people, a far better asset than standing timber. Not one breath of scandal was attached to any Minister of the Crown in conncction with the great expenditures since 1872, and the people of the Province had obtained good value for the money that had been expended. (Applause.) He would be very sorry if the expenditure of the Province was not larger than it was in 1872. "I would not be a member of a Government or of a party that stood still," Mr. Stratton declared. '"The hon. gentleman had better go to China, where they are standing still and marking time. That is about the only country in the world that is not pro-- gressive." (Ministerial applause.) Last year Ontario gave $1,980,783 for edu-- cation, public institutions mainten-- ence, agriculture, and hospitals and charities. One--half the expenditure was for municipal or philanthropic pur-- pos»s. No Etate in the United States spent anything like as large a propor-- tion of their income as we did upon public benevolence, unless by direct taxation. New York State, with a population of six millions, had an ex-- penditure last year of £$25,837,000, and of that $7,942.000, or less than one-- third, was spent on those charitable or Mr., Whitney Criticized. 97