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on the St. Lawrence, it will deal, not with the Beaubharnois Light, Heat and Power Company, but with the Gov-- ernment of the Province of Quebec." On Oct. 10, 1928, it had beon esti-- mated that the necessary 300 miles of transmission lines with a transformer station near Toronto and incidental equipment would cost $18,000,000. Loss by leakage in transmission was placed at from 28,000 to 30,000 horsepower. "The first intimation," said Mr. Roebuck, "of an agreement in con-- templation between the Beauharnois Light, Heat & Power Company and the Hydro Electric Power Commis-- sion of Ontario which appears in the Commission's records is contained in a letter written by Mr. R. O. Sweezey to Mr. Gaby, in which he says, in part: 'I had intended writing you a forma' letter today for presentation to your board in regard to our ten-- tative agreement of last Tuesday, but until a late hour, however, I have boen engaged with the representatives of the Maclaren Company discussing their portion of the proposed contract, viz.. 125,000 horsepower. 'They have agreed to write you a letter tomorrow embodying the proposals as outlined to you. I have discussed with my as-- 'sistams and the Beauharnois Com-- pany the proposals as we outlined | them on Tuesday, and there scems to | be fair accord with me, except in the | case of the ten miles additional into | Ontario, upon which they expect me l This, the Attorney--General de-- | clared. was also the first intimation lthat it was proposed to purchase | 125,000 horsepower from the Maclaren | Company--"and _ that the -- whols | transaction was being enginecred by ? Mr. Swoezey." | | "It is curious that up to this point no reference appears in the minutes of ths Commission of any considera=-- tion having beon given to a proposal to purchase further power from Beauharnois, nor is there any data in the files of the Commission to indi-- cate a study of the details of such a proposal, other than the estimate." | The Attorney--General noted the \ mechanics of the acceptance. ' At the foot of a letter from Mr. iMagnt,h. he said, was a form of ac-- |\ ceptance to be signed by Beau-- < harnois. Sweerey's Name Mentioned. "¥ou will recall the April Fool's Day contract had to be signed on the same day. Why the hurry? Why the hurry with Beauharnois?" A Provincial gencral clection, he noted, touk place six months hence. C EXEEEruiy -- Aeeviee Aereaei t C BRA EN CTERTE s A Commission minute stated that before the contracts were finally completed the power needs of On-- tario were to be discussed with the executive of the O.M.E.A. "One is tempted to ask why this discussion was not with the Commis-- sion's own engineers, unless it be that the Executive of the Ontario Municipal Electric Association--Messrs. Hanni-- gan. Maguire and the rest of them-- could be counted upon to agree with l the Commission's desires whatever they might be, in view of the associa-- tion's record of having approved the | Hydro Radial deal. -- Minor Changes Urged. mont had been entered into for the purchase of Beauharnois power. Be-- yond the approval by the Commission of the Chairman's letter, no resolution had been passed by th> Commission "and no Order--in--Council had been | passed by the Government. No agrce-- ment of this kind by the Commission is binding until followed and validated by Order--in--Council--a provision in-- cluded for the protection of the mu-- | nicipalities. The market crash with | its 'Stop, Look and Listen' warning took place in October, and the formal \ agreement is dated Nov. 29. "Minor chang>s woere suggested on behalf of Beauharnois. It is to be recoliected that the stock market crash took place in October, 1929, and that up to this time no binding agree-- this development | '"Then, just as in the Madawaska |purchase. to add a sinister aspect to the whole procecdings, we find Mr. ESweezey stating under oath that he paid $125,000 to John Aird Jr., as a subscription to the campaign funds of the Conservative Party." The amount of monthly payments and the period of the agreement were reviewed. The Attorney--General again delved into the subject of the incor-- poration history of Beaunarnois. . The Attorney--General continued to refer to the James Maclaren Com-- pany. saying: "That the purchase of 125,000 horsepower from the James, Maclaren Company, Limited, was part.'l and parcel of the same proposition as| the purchase of Beauharnois is indi-- cated from the fact that the parties| were represented by the same promot-- '1 ers, and further, by the fact that the| letter of the Commission to Mr. R. M.l Kenny. manager of the James Mac--| laren Company, Limited, was couched . in the self same language and was dated the very same date as that writ-- ten to the Beauharnois Company. On May 27. 1929, the Chairman of the Hydro Commission wrote to the James Maclaren -- Company, Limited, an offer to purchase 125,000 horsepower at $15 per horsepower for a period of forty years. It was provided that the company should construct a crossing over the Ottawa River, complete with | tower on the Ontario shore, and that | upon its completion the lines from the boundary, together with the tower in Ontario, should become the property of the Commission. That is to say, de-- livery of power was agreed to be at the interprovincial boundary. Election Was Near. "One is again reminded that this was an election year. That Mr. Sweezey was one of the promoters 'ot _ "'Messrs. Sweezey, Gceoffrion, Mac-- ilaren and Kenny met the Commis-- sion for the purpase of finaily con-- cluding the purchase agreement from lthe James Maclaren Company, Lim-- ited, of Buckingham, P.Q., for 125,-- 4000 h.p.' the Maclaren deal as well as of the Beauharnois deal, is clear from the correspondence and from a minute of the Commission dated Aug. 13, 1930, in which it is recorded as follows: "The minutes of the mecting of the Commission, dated Dec. 5, 1930, have also a certain significance: 'Mr. R. O. Sweezey submitted a proposition for a new contract to be entered into with the James Maclaren Company. under which the company agrees to the setting back of the date and the first delivery of power to July 1, 1933.' "Further deliveries were set back proportionately, and the minute con-- tinues: 'The Commission agreed to this proposition, and Mr. Sweezey was ad-- vised that a contract would be im-- mediately engrossed in accordance thereto, in all respects Lh to be as agreed upon with 3 Christie.' "It is interesting to note." continued Mr. Roebuck, "that this Mr. Christie joined the staff of the Hydro--Electric Power Commission shortly after the appointment of Mr. Magrath as its Chairman. His position was that of confidential secretary to Mr. Magrath, and as such he occupied the office next door and communicating with VZEL eary PWRW EeW xc ts contract was executed Mr. Christie severed his connection with the pub-- licly owned Hydro enterprise of On-- tario and entered the employ of the Beauharnois Light, Heat and Power Company as secretary of the Board of pirectors. § A PRA CI CCC s "One is not surprised then, under these circumstances, to observe on the executed contract between the Com-- mission and the Jame°s Maclaren Company, Limited, which was dau'a'd Bs CC Cns se d e Aiges < * h o dias dhases 4 M ccaneir P eadc't Dec. 20, 1930, the name of Mr. L. G. Christie in the margin beside the sig-- nature of the James Maclaren Com-- nany. Limited, registering !®s approval pany, Limited, registering !%S at of deals that he and others put in all respects the contract over,." | _ "It is perhaps unnecessary," he said | "for me to make more than passing: reierence, but I would like to turn this disgusting deal inside out and ex-- | pose its details." | |\ _"This company owned a small gen-- "crat,ing plant, with a total capacity 'of approximately 50,000 h.p., located at Docow Falls 35 miles from the City of Hamilton. The purchase included the Hamilton Street Railway, a radial railway between Hamilton, Grimsby and Beamsville, the Brantford and Hamilton Railway, and the distribu-- ',tion systems for Hamilton, Brantford, \St. Catharines, Grimsby, Beamsville, Dundas, as well as some rural lines; also a terminal building in Hamilton, and a steam plant in that city. "Disgusting with the purchase by the Commission on Dec. 31, 1929, of the assets of the Dominion Power and Transmission Company, for the sum of $21,000,000. "The radial railways have been abandoned and the Commission is still running the Hamilton Street Railway at a loss, while it is pre-- paring to expend upward of $1,000,000 . over a period of years, to change over Lconsumers' equipment from 66 2--3 cycle to 25 cycle, When this is com-- \plete. the present generating equip-- mont at Decew Falls will be obrained. | The steam plant is already practically abandoned, and the justification for. 'the purchase which is now advanced ! by those who had the hardihsod to defend it is that it makes possible a \ future peak load development of 200,000 horespowcer. By this I mean | that!200,000 horsepower can be obtain-- <'ed by water collected in a forebay sys-- tem for a short period in each day, with a maximum capacity of 200,000 horsepower. I pass fro mthis most re-- grettable transaction to one of an en-- tirely different character." Chats Falls Reviewed. a property which cost its former owner .the sum of $1.870 and which, some vyears previously, had been acquired | by the Hon. William Hart for the sum | of $400. in td oi ge \ _ _"The rights on the Quebec side in i 1927 were controlled by Nesbitt. |\ Thomson & Company and the Royal | Security Corporation. as appears from | a letter from Mr. Magrath to Mr. Fer-- | guson. dated Nov. 16, 1927. 4 Chats Falls was then taken up by the Attorney--General. a "At Chats Falls," he explained, "the Hydro rights on the Quebec side of the river are owned by the Ottawa Valley Power Company, of which Mr. Killam, owner of the Mail and Empire, is a dominant figure. Some time prior to 1929, the Ontario Government pur-- chased the Hydro rights on the On-- tario side of the river for $751,000-- ~A dadudcut th.cantolatice it dn TV P t "On Feb. 15, 1930, the Commission entered into two agreements with the Chats Falls Power Company. & Quebec incorporation, which later changed its name to the Ottawa Valley Power Company." c Wllly\fl"l.y. "As a result of these agreements," the Attorney--General said, "the Com-- mission built and presented to a private company a fully completed plant and now operates it with its own engineer-- ing staff, charging the company its actual outlay on an amount of both construction and operation and agrees to take its entire output to a maxi-- | mum of 96,000 h.p. at $15 per h.p. | "Just how advantageous this: agreement was to the private company | way be gathered from the fact that on Oct. 21, 1930, Messrs. Nesbitt. | Thomson & Company ,Limited, bond | brokers, issued a circular offering for sale of $9.000,000 of the Ottawa Valley Power Company's 5%%%, 40--year t>nds. maturing on Oct. 1, 1970. "The Chats Falls development is now completed, and the first deliveries of power were made on the 15th of October, 1931. so that by the close of the current year, on the s1st of Octo-- ber, 1934, the Commission has had three years of experience in the oper-- ' ation of a development--one-htlt of which is im accordance with the principles of Adam Beck--public own-- ership--and the other half in accord-- | anc. with the principles of the Con-- | servative Government following the 'l death of Adam Beck--private owner-- ship.