1 want to show how I have treated that company and I think that the House will admit that I have treated them fairly. I informed the representatives of the ' Star ' yesterday that as fast as they could get any of these bags liberated and if they told me that they would not misuse them the courtesy would be restored to them. I said that I would speak to Mr. Speaker and see if he could assist them in that movement. Mr. Speaker was good enough to receive them and I understand that he assisted them to carry out the arrangement. Last night the manager of the ' Star ' told me that about 100 bags had been emptied and would be returned to the department this morning. I then told him that I would give him an order and I did write a telegram last night and delivered it to the representative of the ' Star ' giving instructions to the post office authorities in Montreal at once to give to the ' Star ' 100 sacks if they had them available and if it did not inconvenience other publishers.

Oh.

Yes, if it did not inconvenience other publishers because inconvenience has been occasioned by the Montreal ' Star ' and other publishers have no right to be inconvenienced. I notified the representatives of the ' Star ' this morning that as fast as we got any of the sacks back we would continue to enlarge the issue until we get back to the normal state of affairs when we would have no more trouble with the matter. I think they will not complain that the department has treated them unfairly. On the contrary 1 have reason to think that they do not attach any special blame to the Post Office Department. I think they know where the real responsibility rests.

Mr. CLARKE.

Where is that ?

They know where it rests.

Mr. COCHRANE.

It rests with the hon. Postmaster General.

No, it does not rest with the Postmaster General and it does not attach to any of his officers. The congestion continues to-day and it cannot be relieved at once unless parliament is prepared to subsidize special trains for the particular purpose of carrying this mail matter at an enormous expense to the country. If it did it would be enlarging the service to an extent never before contemplated. The assistant city postmaster who has been for many years in that office and who has practically charge of it tells me that in his long experience he has never witnessed such a state of affairs as that which has taken place to-day. Yesterday I received a letter from a leading manufacturer in a town not far from this city who told me that it was his practice in the course of his business at certain times in the year to hand into the post office large quantities of circulars advertising his business to be transmitted through the mails and that when on Friday last he visited the post office in connection with this issue lie was informed by the postmaster in that large town that there had come into the post office under the frank of a member of this House such an immense quantity of this literature and other literature, mentioning the character of it, being in the form of hand sheets issued by the Manufacturers Association, I think he said, that it would take him two or three days to clear off this avalanche of postal matter which had been thrown in upon him and that until it was cleared out he could not receive the mail matter that this business man was offering to him. This is but one illustration of the extent to which this has gone and therefore perhaps it is not unreasonable to come to the conclusion that no Post Office Department could very reasonably be expected to be called upon unexpectedly to perform such an extraordinary, and I may say, useless and expensive service as that which the Post Office Department is now being asked to perform.

Mr. GEO.

TAYLOR {Leeds and Grenville). Mr. Speaker, I regret that when my hon. friend the hon. leader of the opposition (Mr. Borden, Halifax) rose in his place this morning for the purpose of drawing the attention of the government to some grievances that not only he himself, but-

If my bon. friend (Mr. Taylor) will allow me, there is one point that the hon. member for Pictou (Mr. Bell) referred to that I intended to speak upon. He discussed the franking privilege. The franking privilege does not come into this discussion at all. Every one has rights under the statute. There is no attempt or desire to curtail any one's rights in that regard. This is simply a question

of administration, and while the hon. gentleman may argue it from the standpoint of the franking privilege that is not the issue here. The franking privilege remains as long as the statute remains as it is and any lion, gentleman is perfectly within his right in availing himself of the benefits of the statute. The department does not in the faintest degree desire to do anything to interfere with anybody's rights in that regard. It may be a question whether you are exercising that right within such reasonable limits as to make it possible to practically enjoy it.

Mr. COCHRANE.

Who is to be the judge in that matter ?

You.

Mr. COCHRANE.

I have as good a right to be the judge as the hon. Postmaster General. I want to tell hon. gentlemen who are so ready to use their mouths without any sense

Mr. TAYLOR.

I was remarking when interrupted by the hon. Postmaster General and Minister of Labour that 1 regretted very much, that, when my hon. friend the leader of the opposition rose in his place for the purpose of drawing the attention of the government to a grievance that he, himself, was subjected to and not only himself but many of his supporters, the right hon. leader of the government (Rt. Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier) should have answered him in the way he did. It is to be regretted that the Prime Minister, instead of promising to remove these grievances, should have attacked the Montreal ' Star,' declaring that it had abused its privilege by sending mail matter to the whip of the opposition. But the right hon. gentleman did not say that the Montreal ' Herald,' which is largely subsidized by his government, has done the same thing. The ' Herald ' printed hundreds of thousands of copies of the Prime Minister's speech on the transcontinental railway, and sent them up here in mail bags-

No.

Mr. TAYLOR.

I say yes, and I know it. The supplements of the Montreal ' Herald ' were franked all over the country by the supporters of the government, just in the same way as this was done by us. Why were we not told about this ?

Mr. CLARKE.

He was not frank enough to say that.

Mr. TAYLOR.

No.

Carried.

Mr. TAYLOR.

I ask you, Mr. Speaker, to see that I am protected in my rights. The Prime Minister did not refer to the matter brought to his attention by the leader of the opposition, which was, that you, Mr. Speaker, acting. I presume, on instructions from the Postmaster General-

Order,

Mr. TAY'LOR-had refused to receive into this House