Mr. CHARLES PARMELEE moved :

That the third report of the Joint Standing Committee on the Printing of Parliament be concurred in with the exception of the words * that from and after the present fiscal year the said superintendent, the first and second assistant superintendent and the clerk of distribution of printed documents of parliament, receive their respective annual increments, as provided by the Civil Service Act,' and with the following proviso added, viz.:-'Provided that the said junior second-class clerk shall continue to discharge the duties aB hitherto performed by him.' *-

Mr. SPROULE.

Wo ought to have some explanation of that because I do not know what it means.

Mr. SPEAKER.

Will the bon. gentleman explain the motion ?

Mr. PARMELEE.

The amendments are intended to remove any ambiguity or doubt there may have been in the original report. While we did not change the status of the officers of the distribution office we adopted rather more euphonious names for them and we decided to civil them superintendent, first assistant superintendent and second assistant superintendent of distribution of printed documents of parliament. These officers are not directly under the Civil Service Act, but we decided to so increase their salaries os to place them on a parity with officers of the same rank in the various departments of the government while "the amendment I have moved is intended to remove any doubt on that score ; that is we do not place them actually under the Civil Service Act, but leave them as they now are under the control of the committee as officers directly responsible to the^ House. There was a messenger who performed many other services largely of a clerical character and we decided to make him a junior second-class clerk but with the understanding that he should go on performing the same duties that he is now [DOT]discharging. While that was the intention of the committee the report did not state it in so many words and I deemed it prosper to remove any doubt about it in the future by providing that this officer should go on and perform the same duties he is performing now, because, perhaps in two or three years, he might say : I am not a messenger, I am a junior second-class clerk, I do not propose to do messenger work and you must appoint another messenger. I think the amendment I have moved is in the direction of making the intention of the committee absolutely cleax-, keeping our control over the officers of the House and leaving us in such a position that we can deal with them according to their merits as necessity arises.

Mr. LaRIVIERE. As a member of the subcommittee that took the matter into consideration I may say that I am personally perfectly satisfied with the stexx that has been taken by the committee. It is a step in the right direction.

Mr. SPEAKER.

I have the honour to present to the House the report of the Commissioners of Internal Economy which the clerk will now read :

The commissioners of internal economy of the House of Commons, beg leave to present the following report :-

The commissioners recommend the concurrence by the House in the following resolution

adopted by the internal economy commissioners on the 28th April, 1904 : -

Resolved, that the commissioners recommend to the House : that the allowance made since the year 1889 to the clerk of the debates com-, mittee of the House of Commons (Mr. Panet), viz.:-$200 per annum by virtue of a recommendation of the said committee adopted by the House, June 22nd, 1889, be discontinued, and that the said sum of $200 be added directly to the salary of the said clerk (Mr. Panet) and be paid pursuant to estimates in the same manner as all other salaries to the officers of the House of Commons : provided, however, that the said clerk shall receive no other salary or remuneration for acting as such clerk or for the performance of any other duty that may be assigned to him.

(Sgd.) N. A. BELCOURT.

' Chairman.

Hon. W. S. FIELDING (Minister of Finance) moved :

That the report of the commissioners on internal economy be concurred in.

He said : The object of this report is to follow out the sound principle that officers shall be paid from one source only and not from several sources, as it leads to confusion. This makes no change in this gentleman's compensation.

Mr. SPROULE.

Is the payment he has been receiving up to the present only given from year to year with no implied right in the future to get the same, because, if so. tliis makes permanent what was only temporary ?

Mr. FIELDING.

I do not know what the original design was, but it appears that this was a permanent payment every year and it is no longer a debatable question.

Hon. CLIFFORD SIFTON (Minister of the Interior) moved :

Resolved, that the regulations made by the Governor in Council under the authority of section 47 of the Dominion Lands Act, applicable or relating to the Yukon Territory, and set forth in the Orders in Council, of which the dates are, respectively, as follows, and of which copies have been laid before this House, are approved by this House, in accordance with the provisions of section 5 of chapter 34 of the statutes of 1902 :-

Order dated the 6th July, 1903, P.C. No. 1099 ; Order dated the 13th August, 1903, P.C. No. 1309 ; Order dated the 8th September, 1903, P.C. No. 983 ; Order dated the 17th November, 1903, P-C. No. 1909 ; Order dated the 26th November, 1903, P.C. No. 1952 ; Order dated the 28th November. 1903. P.C. No. 1953 ; Order dated the 28th November, 1903, P.C. No. 1954 : Order dated the 7th December, 1903, P.C. No. 1311 ; Order dated the 21st December, 1903, P.C. No. 2101 : Order dated the 30th January, 1904, P.C. No. 171 ; Order dated the 2nd February, 1904, P.C. No. 192.

Hr. HAGGART.

The usual form is to give notice that the resolution will be moved to-morrow.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

Last year this same procedure was taken. This is in obedience to the regulation of the statute which requires that all Orders in Council in connection with the Yukon shall be placed on the table of the House.

Mr. HAGGART.

Has that been done ?

Mr. SIFTON.

They have been here for several weeks.

Mr. HAGGART.

What are they about ?

Mr. SIFTON.

The amendment to the Act of two years ago, requires that all amendments of any kind whatsoever passed by Order in Council relating to the mining regulations of the Yukon, should be in force only until the next session of parliament and should be laid upon the table of the House ; and approved of by resolution of both Houses, or otherwise they would cease to have effect at the end of the session. In pursuance of this, these orders were laid on the table of the House some weeks ago accompanied by a copy of the resolution which appears on the order paper. The Order in Council relate largely to matters of detail. The first is dated the 6th of July, 1903. The change which was made was simply to insert the words ' the rear boundary of ' in the third paragraph, section 12 of the regulations governing placer mining. That was done to remove ambiguity and tiie change was made on the recommendation of the Gold Commissioner. When the consolidated regulations prescribed the method in which a claim should be described, the persons who had claims taken under the former regulations were afraid that a strict construction of the new regulations might deprive them of a portion of their claims, and of course it was not the intention to interfere with vested rights. The next Order in Council dated the 13th of August, 1903, authorized the department to grant to Mr. Robert Henderson an entry for total frontage of 2,000 feet of available placer mining ground in the Yukon. Mr. Henderson was the original discoverer of gold in the Klondike. He was unfortunate in, losing the claims which he originally attempted to stake. There was a strong public feeling in the Yukon that some compensation should be given him and an application was made by Mr. Henderson, which was recommended by Mr. William Ogilvy, who was then commissioner, and supported by a petition from the merchants, bankers, and others, in the Yukon. An Or der in Council was passed giving this privilege to Hr. Henderson, which he has not availed himself of, apparently not having found any claim which he thinks it would pay to take up.