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"Probably my honorable friend. having knowledge where the check came from, may be able to give me information as to when and how it was cashed," shot back Mr. Lucas. r"... "No. I don't want to humbug public." "It my honorable friend make that statement 1 will give a Commission of Inquiry at Ol declared Mr. Lucas. hotly. "I am afraid it is hurting," torted Mr. Dewart. The Homer case came next on Mr. Dewart's list. He said it had been in charge of two very intelligent Sleuths, one of whom was Charles Clyde. whom he quoted as having said when the matter was flrtst dis- cussed, that he "was employed by the department to see that the o. T. A. is not violated." Hon. Mr. Lucas interrupted to ask it the speaker inferred there had been evidence that a check for $3,- 200 tendered in payment for the liquor had been cashed. or if he were trying to "humbug" the public. These cases and the methods used by the agency had been brought to the attention of the Provincial Treasurer. and the license should never have been issued. Notwith- standing he found in the public ac- counts for 1917-18 that W. J. Burns had been paid for services and ex- penses of operatives. $807.36. He wanted to know what service had been rendered. "I ask the. gentle- men ot this House it they think it is fair and right that an agency with 'the reputation of this agency. an agency that cannot be entrusted with fair dealingss---that the business of enforcing 17h: oiGhi," Temper- ' ance Act should be entrusted to! hired thugs?" F , The Homer Case. I The License Board was the next! arrow to Mr. Dcwart's bow which iiil mm. He dealt with it at tho first! having particular regard to the C'TIt- ployment and activities of private detectives. Some days ago Mr. Mc- Garry answered several questions asked by the member for Southwest Toronto went tho Wm. J. Burns Duncan Agency. At that time he was to" that a liven-cum": . the agency on May 12, 1918, and is- sued tn September 3. 1918. He went on to more at length. by citing sev- eral cases in which the representa- tives ot the, agency had taken part, that the lic- ense should never have been granted by the Province. First. he directed the attention of the House to the Mitchell and Willard N. Jones case, and the Oregon Land Fraud cases of a tew years ago. Passing on. he told of the case, of the Tor- onto man, Alex. P. Macaulay, who figured in a case at St. Louis two years ago, and was finally acquitted. The Burns Agency was responsible for pressing that case. when "Christ- mas Keough" was the man wanted. he said, and J. P. Morgan & Co. and the Bankers' Association had some- times used them. 'Ut affects the people not only in this city, but throughout the Pro- duce." proceeded Mr. Dewart. "It is no wonder that we have to com tend with the high cost of living. It is no wonder that the commission man and the packers are waxing lat." These were reasons why an Inquiry should be made and the Government should consider, he said. whether the packing houses could not be taken over in the inter- ests of the people. Attacks License Board. "If a butcher buys he had to buy the best meat. and he had to pay the price asked by the Packer. When the butcher gets it he does not get the heart, the livers, the calves' liv- ere or the sweetbreads. The result of this live stock association combine and the packers' combine affects the ale to the 'butcher. and what the farmer has sold for 12 cents on the hoof costs the butcher, when he buys, 23 cents a pound for the parts he gets," declared the speaker. The packer not only got their profits that way, but from offal, etc. "To. ai5riiiithrirton iiian before he could get hitt money. Nine-tenths of the cattle sold in Toronto did not go to Buffalo or Montreal, but were bought by the-large companies .-- Davies, Blackwell and Gunns. The packers had an association. too. want to humbug the Inquiry a? GG",""" hurting," re- him will oliver the panel: "If --__r_ w..." uuAJ one in which there were wholesale transactions. he argued. He pro- ceeded to give an instances. There was a shipment of liquor that came from Montreal to Toronto early in December. It consisted of 61 tins of high wines, and a considerable quantity of bottled brandy and other liquor. The liquor was seized by enema of the department. and his tnformation was that an agent, ot the dtertlttent, who w to a... i "It would be interesting to know what the position of Mr. Ayearst is in these matters. His explanation of these matters has been far from satisfactory. If Mr. Ayearst is put in the witness troxr.he would have to admit that he himself has pront- ed by the earnings of private de- tectives at a time they were in his employ. He would have to admit that he has had on the payrolls of the Government private detectives who were in the service of private detective agencies and who divided with him monies they received for their services in a private detective agency, which he deposited in a special account to his own credit. He would have to admit that for some time he was receiving a share of the monies these men neceivcd from the private agencies. An in- vestigation of these accounts over the five years will force from Mr. Ayearst a 'statement. that he was sharing the money they so receiv- ed." In view of this close connec. tion he wondered if there might: not he some reason for him select-l ing that agency. . I The Homer case was not the onlv "Is it any wonder that any self- respecting. decent Inspector should resign instead of working with these private Sleuths?" asked Mr. Dew.. art. Further, he wanted to know "hat guarantee there was that the ac- counts had not been padded, when the employees were not responsible to the Government. He ventured the opinion that if an investigation were held it would be found there were various charges which ought to be under the direct control of the department itself. Accnunts Padded ? I The $8,200 Cheque. Ayearst had been reported as say- ing that the White Detective Agency was the department, whereas he knew it was the Employera' Detee- tive Agency, which had been em- ployed by the board for years. These detective agencies were incorporated under Dominion statutes, and there was no way of knowing who were the shareholders of it. However, from the classified section of the 1910 directory the omeialn of the company were given as W. N. Simpson as President, H. w. Wright as Vice-President. and M. Fh White. The Public Accounts of the last tive years showed that M. F). White and w. N. Simpson had ro- ceived sums of money from the Gov- nrnmem. Over $14.000 was in the Public Accounts of ia<t year ending October BL and a total of $44,764.7,'t had been paid to them in the last tire years. Eighty cases were ordered for de- livery at. Homer; 75 were delivered and tive were missing. a $200 cheque being given back to the seller by the purchaser for the amount not de- livered. "I submit that so far as these matters are concerned there is no reason why they should be put in the hands of detective agencies," declared Mr. Dewart. Why, or all places. he asked. was Homer. in the riding of St. Cath- arines. chosen as the place to ship the liquor on February ll, when a, by-election was to be held on Feb- ruary 1.5? "Why this particular location? That is something we will discover if we have an inquiry that we should have?" The statement that White was employed in the License Depart- ment was a misstatement. Mr. Dew- art declared. It was not necessary to trick men into buying liquor. inspector Ayearst had denied that the $3,200 belonged to the Govern- ment. If it did not belong to the Government. he wanted to know whose cheque it was. "Is there any plausible reason why a man named White. who has nothing to do with the Government, would give a marked cheque for $3,200 worth of liquor that the Government was {wing to seize?" Continuing. Mr. Dewart quoted from The Toronto World of Petr. ruary 22 an interview with Lorne W. Smith, one of those who was convicted. that the cheque of $2,200 was a marked one, and that it had been cashed. the only 'ot'