Hon. Mr. FIELDING.

Dinner-Soup, roast mutton, corned beef, potatoes and vegetables, Queen pudding.

Supper-Cold meats, fried potatoes, baked beans.

(Wednesday).

Breakfast-Porridge, salt cod and pork scraps, liver and bacon.

Dinner-Pea soup, corned beef, beefsteak pie, potatoes and vegetables, pastry.

Supper-Fish patties, cold meats, fried potatoes, Washington pies.

(Thursday).

Breakfast-Ham and eggs, baked beans. Dinner-Soup, roast or boiled poultry, boiled or roast meat, potatoes and vegetables, apple and plum pudding, fruit.

Supper-Haricot meat, cold meat, fried potatoes, tea biscuits and preserves.

(Friday).

Breakfast-Porridge, salt herring, lamb chops. Dinner-Pea soup, fresh fish, beefsteak and kidney pudding, potatoes and vegetables, blueberry tarts.

Supper-Fish patties, cold meats, doughnuts, marmalade.

(Saturday).

Breakfast-Porridge, beefsteak, boiled eggs. Dinner-Soup, cbrned beef, roast lamb, potatoes and vegetables, bread and butter pudding.

Supper-Irish stew, cold meats, chipped potatoes.

5. Have the officers to provide out of their

pay the difference between the cost of this bill of fare and the allowance made by the government ?

6. Has the government taken steps to ascertain whether the meals can be furnished at 11 cents.

1. No.

2. Answered by No. 1.

3. The existing bills of fare have been in force for many years, and no reduction has been made. The agents are empowered to alter them if articles mentioned cannot be obtained at reasonable prices.

4. Yes. *

5. No.

6. Not necessary. Agents report at the end of each season cost of vitualling the crews of the different government ships, which is entirely controlled by the market, and the inspecting officer reports that no complaints have ever been made by any of the officers or crew.

Mr. F. B. WADE (Annapolis).

Mr. Speaker, there has been so much said on

this question by different hon. members on both sides of this House that it is difficult for one to present any new facts or matters that will be of interest to the House. At the same time I do not feel that I can allow some statements that have been made to pass unchallenged, and I do not care, upon a project of such vast importance to Canada as this is, to give a silent vote. I believe that every man who has taken part in this discussion, that every man who has thereby aided in pressing this scheme forward, that every man,' who records his vote in its favour, will in the future have cause for congratulating himself that the privilege was afforded him here and that he improved the opportunity. In the first place up to a few weeks ago every person almost through the length and breadth of Canada, not admittel, but contended, that this project was absolutely necessary, and that it was an incumbent duty upon the government to proceed at once with the work. I would like to know what would be said of the government to-day by the opposition press if parliament had prorogued without the government bringing down a scheme for another transcontinental road. The whole country, the whole opposition press woull have been up in arms soundly denouncing it, and I believe properly so, because the government would have been recreant to its [DOT]duty if it had not brought down this measure. The project then was necessary, the people demanded it, the country required it, and the only objection that is now taken is that the government has not delayed long enough, that it has not taken sufficient time to obtain the necessary information. Well, I mean to say, Sir, the hon. gentlemen on this side of the House would be very loth indeed to support this scheme were they not convinced that all the information necessary was at hand, t for one would be loth to do so. Do hon. gentlemen on the other side of the House suppose that we have been sitting quietly by all these weeks and months and years, and that we have not possessed ourselves of sufficient information? I mean to state here that my judgment has been convinced that this road Is necessary, and that the government has all the information in its possession for the purpose of entering into the contract that has been made. Now, the hon. leader of the opposition (Mr. Borden, Halifax) asked if ever a company had made a contract to build a railroad with such slight information, or if ever a contract for the construction of a railroad had been entered into before instrumental surveys by engineers had been made. I need not go very far afield in answering that question. Let me refer him to a railway at his own doors-the Halifax and South-western Railway. In 1891 the Premier of Nova Scotia entered into a contract with the South-western Railway Company to build a railway from Halifax to

Barrington, connecting with the road to Yarmouth, There had been no survey. There was no such information as we have in regard to this. For years and years the people had been clamouring for the road, and for years and years it had been persistently stated that the road could not be constructed along the south shore of Nova Scotia. When the contract was entered into by the Murray government, what did we find the opposition press and the party, of which my hon. friend is the leader, doing? We found them unanimously denouncing the scheme, we found them stating exactly what the hon. gentleman is stating here, mat the government had not sufficient information, we found them stating that the road could not be built, and we found them stating that the engineering difficulties were insuperable. They denounced the scheme as being wild, reckless and fantastic, and all these phrases that we have listened to coming from hon. members on the other side of the House might have been culled from the opposition press of Nova Scotia at that time. The scheme was presented to the people, these statements were made in regard to it, and what did we find as the answer which the people made ? In the province of Nova Scotia there were returned only two gentlemen as the opposition in the legislature, and I understand that in that province the leader of the opposition, who 'has one man behind him to second his resolutions, is to organize that province in a campaign against that project; and I believe further, if I am informed correctly, that he purposes coming in opposition to the hon. member who spoke to the House last night. That was the position that the opposition took in regard to that railway. What are the facts ? The facts are that the construction is proceeding along the whole line of the road to-day, the facts are that a splendid line has been secured, the facts are that within another year probably the road will be in operation from one end to the other, and that in face of the united opposition of the Conservative party in Nova Scotia, and this road will he built and carried through in spite of their opposition. It is a surprising thing to me when I look back over the history of railroad building in Nova Scotia that we find from the earliest times-and the earliest times were in 1854, when Joe Howe introduced his first railway legislation into the provincial legislature-the Conservative party unitedly denouncing him and denouncing his scheme, and saying that it would bring ruin and destruction to the province of Nova Scotia. Almost continuously from that time forward we have had to meet the opposition of these gentlemen. Let me say in passing, that after this road is built and is successful, I would not be surprised to find these gentlemen on the Conservative benches coming forward and claiming credit for the whole business ; just as they did

after the Dominion coal legislation, which was introduced by my hon. friend the present Minister of Finance (Hon. Mr. Fielding) in the province of Nova Scotia, the result of which was virtually to save that province from serious financial disaster, and after the Conservative party had denounced it in the press and denounced it on every platform throughout the length and breadth of the province of Nova Scotia.

Mr. FRASER.

And in this House.

Mr. WADE.

Yes, and in this House, and after it became an accomplished fact and a huge success and that province was rescued from its financial difficulties; we had then the hon. Sir Charles Tupper running in Cape Breton county and claiming credit for it all-'me, and Betty, killed the bear,' as the old saying goes.

I think it will be incumbent on me to make a few remarks here with regard to the statement made by the hon. member for Pictou (Mr. Bell) last night. Whom the gods wish to destroy they first made mad; and when a man has no argument and feels the weakness of his position, his temper is very near the surface and he is liable to make statements which in his calmer moments he would regret. The hon. gentleman (Mr. Bell) last night saw fit to premise his argument by the statement that the loyalty of the gentlemen upon this side of the House was not all wool or a yard wide, to use his own elegant expression. He made statements reflecting upon the loyalty of the people of his own province of Nova Scotia. He did not stop there, but he made use of these words ;

They were rebels to all intents and purposes.

I wish to tell the hon gentleman now, that those were unwise words. He has stigmatized the majority of the people of Nova Scotia as no better than rebels. He has spoken of the people of Pictou county, the Liberals of Pictou county, as no better than rebels, and yet, Sir, I am informed that every Liberal in the county of Pictou" has at one time or other voted for the hon..gentleman (Mr. Bell). Who was it that first brought forward charges like this in this House and in this country V The hon. Sir Charles Tupper was the first I believe to start the cry. A more unfounded; a more cowardly statement was never made in any place. While he was High Commissioner in England, lie induced the people there to believe that the great Liberal party of the Dominion of Canada were absolutely disloyal to the Crown, and at the time this government assumed power in 1896; at the time when the right hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier made his celebrated speech in Montreal, the English papers next morning announced surprise to find that he was loyal to the empire. Why did they express that surprise V It was because our paid agent in London had been over there slandering us.

Mr. WADE.

Now Sir, I ask, who is the meanest kind of a traitor ; who is the most contemptible kind of a traitor, if it be not the man who charges his fellowmen; who charges the majority of the electors of the Dominion of Canada with being traitors and disloyal. The statements made by Sir Charles Tupper have followed him into oblivion. The position he took in that connection, I believe, has done more to destroy him politically than anything else. And, I wish to say to the hon. gentleman who represents Pictou (Mr. Bell) that I believe that in uttering the words to which I have referred, he was sounding his own political death knell. 1 will say no more upon that subject. The hon. gentleman (Mr. Bell) smiles, but he does not feel happy.

I wish now to address myself to a few of the remarks which were made by my hon. friend (Mr. Bell) with regard to this scheme, it was mighty difficult to find out just where he stood in the matter. He was certain as to all expenditures west-all these gentlemen yonder are satisfied about that; there is no difficulty in their minds about spending millions and tens of millions of dollars all along through the west, through British Columbia, through the wilds of Lake Superior, and even down to North Bay. But then their consciences begin to prick them. They will, some of them, permit expenditure ns far as Montreal, and a few of them will go to Quebec, but not a living soul of them will permit one dollar to be expended beyond Quebec. The hon. gentleman (Mr. Bell) spoke very strongly in favour of the project of the leader of the opposition, until it came down to Quebec. Then he commenced to hedge, but he gave us from his brief facts and arguments which if correct would make it appear that it is absolutely Impossible to construct a road from Quebec to Moncton. That is his argument; that was his array of facts.

Mr. BELL.

He did not say so.

Mr. WADE.

Well, if he did not say so, then my ears misunderstood him entirely.

Mr. BELL.

He said the very opposite.

Mr. WADE.

He pointed out the difficulties of grades, and said that no such road could be built to Moncton because of these grades and these curves, and because of other reasons that I will refer to later. He then quoted or rather misquoted from the report of Sir Sandford Fleming, a report which does not touch this road at all, which was a report upon the building of a road from River du Loup to Truro; and we are not going to River du Loup, and we have been saying that you cannot go to River du Loup. But, Sir, when the hon. gentleman was asked a plain question; when it was put to him fairly and squarely; do you approve of building from Quebec to Moncton; did he answer ? Did this valiant loyal

gentleman make Ms answer to that question in the interest of the maritime provinces 7

Mr. BELL.

Yes he did.

Mr. WADE.

What was his answer.

Mr. BELL.

His answer was