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"But the fact remains," declared the former Prime Minister and Pro-- vincial Treasurer of the Province, "tkat my honorable friend (Mr. Hepburn» was practicing deception that any small boy on the street could detect, when he stood up in the House and stated that while, when he had assumed office it had taken forty--three cents out of every do'llar of ordinary revenue to meet the interest on the funded debt., it took only twenty--six cents in 1936. In 1932, he said, the debt charges amounted to $£13,566,000, exclusive of exchange. In 1933, they were $16,673,000, including an exchangze bili of $1,303,.000. No accurate fig-- ures were available for 193, he said, because the Budget statement given 'by the Premier for that year had been "built purely for political purposes." And no real 1935 state-- ment, he added. was available, be-- cause of the change that year in the fiscal year period. But in 1936, he stressed, the dobt charges had reached the total of $21.287,000, "with the exchange bill of which the Premier is always trying to make such a bubble a mere $185,-- 000." In 1937, he said, the charges had dropped slightly to $20,543,000, ard in 1938, to some $19,000,000, Charges Deception. | Mr. Henry claimed that the Gov-- ernment could take no credit for the buoyant situation in which the Province and the people found themselves today. Simply because highways revenue was up $6,000,-- 000, and more and more tourists were coming in, the Government could not say "I did it." More people were driving cars than in past years, because they had more money to spend on gas tax, and the tourists were increasing in numbers for the same reason. The Govern-- ment, he said, had claimed another big surplus, but the function of Governments, he warned. was not My honorable friend knows that statement is untrue. The amount of the debt charges is greater now than ever before in the history of Ontario, in spite of what he told the House and possibly the elec-- tors of East Lambton during the last few days. In spite of the slight recessions of the last two years, the debt charges are much higher now than when my honorable friend came into office." Fremier Hepburn's recent Budget declarations that the debt charges of Ontario had been materially re-- duced under four years of Liberal Acdministration were labelled yes-- tergay by Hon. George S. Henry, Opposition _ financial | critic, as "grossly misleading, entirely decep-- tive. and false." "The debt charges of this Prov-- ince," he told the Legislature, "have gone up, and not down. And well the Prime Minister knows it." TERMED DECEPTION Financial Critic Assails Building of Surplus As Unwarranted Hepburn's Budget Claim Grossly Misleading, | Henry Charges | DEBI COST REDUCTION RIDICULED "Of course," said Mr. Henry, "that can be easily explained. We know full well that last year's highways program was to buy the electorate of the Province with its own money, and to borrow the money with which to do it. Why this, the greatest construction cam-- paign in the Province's history, was actually under way when the elec-- tion campaign started." It was amusing, said Mr. Henry, to watch the Premier pat himself on the back for abolition of the amusement tax, and for increasing, as the Budget speech claimed, the grants to schools. In the first place, he said, in abolishing the amuse-- ment tax the present Administra-- tion was in the main merely wiping out what it had inflicted on the public after assuming office. In respect of the grants to schools, he charged that the situation involved was not one of giving more money but of merely paying for what the school boards earned. Lauds Municipal Control. Mr. Henry sarcastically labelled the 1938 motor license plates the "invisible markers," and said they constituted another move on the Government's part to improve traf-- fic conditions and promote driving safety. '"'The Premier," said he, "tells the House we are doing all we can to prevent accidents, and yet he refuses to withdraw plates that prevent you from establishing the identity of people responsible for the accidents." ernment was cutting down its $35,-- 000,000 expenditure on roads of last year to $14,000,000 for the year in prospect. Mr. Henry lauded the control that has been exercised through the Department of Municipal Af-- fairs upon municipal expenditures. He said he was satisfied that fewer municipalities would have fallen in-- to difficulties had some of their ex-- penditures beer halted by a super-- vising body which, possessed with a long view of each municipality's affairs, could have recognized when they were going beyord reasonable bounds in expenditures. In his Budget speech, said Mr. Henry, the Premier had stressed the advisability of doing everything possible, in the way of improved highways construction, to cut down the terrible death toll exacted by motoring. And yet, he said, the same speech had contained the as-- tounding information that the Gov-- The former Premier referred to the Government's "reversal of pol-- icy" in regard to agriculture, claim-- ing that under the administration of the former departmental head, MHon. Duncan Marshall, the Govern-- ment had been led into "all sorts of difficulties." Now, probably due to the intercession of the new Min-- ister, Hon. P. M. Dewan, the Gov-- ernment, he said, was "getting away from its policy of buying bulls and high--grade cattle overseas and giv-- ing some attention to the man on the land and his problems." Roads Outlay Cut Surprises. on the part of the assisted munici-- palities, said he, was, in the major-- ity of cases, not to lower the mill rate, but just to let it stand. The only way to effect a lower mill rate, said he, was to "quit spending money." Mr. Henry reiterated his opposi-- tion to the one mill municipal sub-- sidy which the Government insti-- tuted for the first time last year and is continuing. One argument on behalf of that contribution, he said, was that it tended to keep the municipal mill rate down, whereas, he said, there was no guarantee of any such condition. The tendency to build up surpluses--rather to re-- duce taxation, or as an alternative, rovide greater services for the pub-- rlc. The Government's job, he said, was to avoid deficits, but it went no further than that. Big surpluses, n his opinion, were "out." Opposes Subsidy. March 23 What he did say, he claimed, was that heads of departments were un-- able to run their departments with-- out interference from "Civil Servant No. 1," Chester Walters, who is the Pooh Bah of the Civil Service in this Province. I was not talking about the Civil Service, and it is utter nonsense for The Globe to be party to such twaddle. I repeat, you can't have anything unless you get past the gentleman (Mr. Walters) who sits on the third floor of this building." The Opposition critic complained that the only figures available on the Government's financial condi-- tion were contained in the Public Accounts of the year ending March 31, 1937, and consequently, there was no opportunity of comparing figures of the fiscal year just end-- ing with the Premier's forecast for the coming year. "I am not touchy, and I think members of this House can bear me out. I am not touchy so far as The Globe is concerned for they're hopeless. But the point J want to make is, that I did not refer to the Civil Service," he said. It reminded him, said Mr. Henry, of the late P. T. Barnum's phil-- osophy relating to fooling the peo-- ple some of the time. '"Premier Hepburn is new in ex-- perience," said Mr. Henry, "but he will learn that showmanship is somewhat of a sham and doesn't carry one very far in the long run." The budget speech, he claimed, had already been in the hands of the press gallery for ten hours and it was his understanding that a ver-- batim copy of the address was be-- ing sold on Sarnia streets before it was delivered in the House. address in the Throne speech de-- bate Thursday, Mr. Henry referred to an editorial in The Globe and Mail last Saturday, bearing on re-- marks which he had made concern-- ing "Civil Servant No. 1" and which claimed he had cast reflections upon the Civil Service. He scored the Premier for hav-- ing, Thursday night, made a "great flourish of magnanimity and gener-- osity," by presenting Hon. Leopold Macaulay, Conservative House Lead-- er, with a copy of the budget spéééh that was to be delivered on the morrow. Mr. Hepburn, he said, did not explain, that since his advent in office, he had added to the Treas-- ury Department revenues the re turns from the Liquor Control Board, $10,500,000; the Income Tax, $6,500,000; the increase in the Cor-- poration Tax, $2,000,000, and succes-- sion duties, $11,500,000. "Here is $30,000,000 in new reve-- nue. So my honorable friend points with pride to what he has accom-- plished, but he doesn't tell the real story," he said. Mr. Henry attacked the Premier's claim that revenue in the Treasury Department had been increased to $50,000,000, leaving the suggestion that the Conservative regizne was in grievous error and fault because in the last year of his administra-- tion, Treasury Department revenue was stated at $24,000,000. '"What are the facts?" said Mr. Henry. '"The average member in reading this statement would pre-- sume that this Prime Minister must be a genius to increase the revenue by more than 100 per cent in three years." Premier Hepburn was not in the Chamber when Mr. Henry opened his address. The member for East York said he regretted the Pre-- mier's absence, adding: "But I won't say what he did say one night when I left the chamber, He can't take it.'" Hearkening back to his closing