Mr. EARLE asked :

Is it the intention of the government to increase the capacity of the salmon hatcheries in British Columbia, and to establish others on the larger streams of the province ?

The department contemplates the extension of fish-breeding operations in the Dominion, but it has not yet been decided as to what particular localities will this year be chosen for new hatcheries.

1. Did the government, through the Department of Customs, receive from J. G. Scrim-geour, of Cardigan, King's county, Prince Edward Island, fees or rent for his bonded warehouse up to the 31st day of December, 1903 ?

2. Is the said bonded warehouse still open to receive goods as formerly ? If not, what action has been taken by the Department of Customs with respect to the said bonded warehouse, and why ?

3. Have any petitions been received from residents of King's county with respect to said bonded warehouse ? If so, will the Minister of Customs lay the same upon the Table of this House, together with all correspondence received by the department in connection therewith ?

4. How many bonded warehouses are now in existence in said county of King's, and who are the persons privileged to have or keep such warehouses ?

5. Is it the intention of the Minister of Customs to close any of the warehouses last referred to, and which of them ?

4. There is one bonded warehouse of class 2 at Souris, King's county, granted to It. F. McDonald.

5. The Question of closing R. F. McDonald's warehouse at Souris lias not been nn-derconsideration.

1. Has the government received from the secretary of the Morden Board of Trade the following resolution :-

' That whereas freight rates on wheat from Morden to Port Arthur are 4 cents per hundred greater than from Roland, Rosebank to Port Arthur ; and whereas the farmers living north of Morden are drawing their grain to points on the Northern Canadian Railway, which grain should naturally be shipped from Morden ; and whereas it is well known that these conditions prevail at many other points in the province ; we, the Morden Board of Trade, view with alarm these circumstances, which must necessarily result against Morden and many other points. And we would respectfully request D. A. Stewart, Esq., M.P., to bring this matter to the knowledge of the House of Commons, and secure a release from this intolerable situation.

There were one or two sections allowed to stand for the purpose of enabling amendments to be drawn, but before we proceed to deal with these amendments I wish to add another section to the Bill. This section will

have reference to the importation of materials and the payment of duties thereon. It is for the purpose of making abundantly clear the point which, as I have already said, is in my opinion quite clear in the contract now. However, in view of the very strong opinion expressed by my hon. friend the leader of the opposition, I thought it well to make the point so clear that no one could have any possible doubt about it.

The clause I intend to move reads as follows :

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to entitle any person to exemption from the payment of customs duties on any goods imported into Canada, and it is hereby declared that the expression ' direct importations of material or supplies by the government,' in clause 17 of said agreement has reference only to such importations by the government for the purposes of betterments of the said eastern division for which money is expended by the government upon capital account under clause 16 of the said agreement. Material or supplies otherwise required for or entering into the construction or betterment of the said railway were not Intended to be and shall not be exempt from the customs duties .ordinarily payable upon imported material or supplies of the same class, and the customs duties thereon when the same are imported shall be included in estimating the cost of construction or the capital of construction account under the said agreement.

Mr. BORDEN (Halifax).

I suppose that it would perhaps be better to allow this clause to stand for a little until my hon friend from West Toronto (Mr. Osier) and other gentlemen on this side of the House shall have an opportunity of considering the amendment

Quite right.

Mr. BORDEN (Halifax).

It is designed, I understand, to meet the objection raised by my hon. friend from Toronto, and also discussed by some others on this side of the House.

Section allowed to stand.

On section 16-tenders for construction,

Mr. BORDEN (Halifax).

Why did this section stand ?

I put that

question to myself this morning, and I have not been able to find a reason for holdiug this section over. I may say that it is a section adopted from the Intercolonial Railway Act, and it is also to be found in the Act respecting the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway.

Mr. BORDEN (Halifax).

I do not at this moment see any reason why it should stand ; but I would like to say that we have an amendment to propose, which would perhaps be more appropriate to section 8 than to section 16. As a matter of fact, I rather overlooked the matter when section S went through last night. Perhaps Hon. Mr. FITZPATRICK.

under these circumstances, there would be no objection to returning to section 8.

If that is the only objection, we might perhaps let section 16 go through and go back to section 8.