Mr. Speaker, I beg to move :

That the name of Mr. R. L. Bordon, member for Carleton, Ontario, be added to the Standing Committee on Privileges and Elections, and the Standing Committee on Banking and Commerce.

I may inform my hon. friend (Mr. Borden), whom I welcome back to this House, that in anticipation of his early presence in the House we reserved for him places upon the Committees on Privileges and Elections and Banking and Commerce. These are the only two committees on which he served last year, and I hope they will he satisfactory to him again.

Mr. R. L. BORDEN (Carleton).

They will be entirely satisfactory to me, Mr. Speaker, and I am very much obliged to my right hon. friend (Sir Wilfrid Laurier) for his welcome. I arrived a little later than I

intended, but I believe I am entitled to the sympathy of my right hon. friend (Sir Wilfrid Laurier), because I think he had once an experience of the same kind.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

Oh, yes.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

I beg to move:

That the name of Mr. Fisher be added to the Committee on Private Bills. .

I make this motion after consultation with my hon. friends on the other side.

Mr. R. L. BORDEN.

Perhaps before we proceed to the consideration of this by sections, the hon. gentleman (Mr. Fisher) would give us what is usually given on the motion for the second reading-some explanation of the purport and scope of the Bill, and what evils it is intended to remedy.

Hon. SYDNEY FISHER (Minister of Agriculture).

At the request of my hon. friend the leader of the opposition (Mr. R. L. Borden)-and I would also like to add a word of welcome to the House-I shall be very glad to give an outline of the intention of this Bill. It is a Bill practically to consolidate three actual laws-the Census law, the law of General Statistics and the law of Criminal Statistics. These three laws deal with the same subject. They, however, contain different provisions, and to a certain extent overlap each other ; in some instances, to a slight extent, they conflict with each other in some details.

Mr. FOSTER, These two Acts form all the existing legislation ?

Mr. FISHER.

I know of no other, except one Act in connection with the formation of the province of Manitoba, the Act respecting the subsidies of the province of Manitoba, which requires that a census should be taken of the province of Manitoba each five years, and which is in no way conflicted with by the provisions of the Bill which I now propose to present to parliament. Apart from this, I know of no legislation except the three Acts I have quoted-the Census Act, the General Statistics Act and the Criminal Statistics Act. The Bill which I propose combines and consolidates these three Acts. It also provides machinery for a permanent census office. This is the chief novelty in the Bill. I ask for that on the ground of public utility and the more efficient administration of the department, and for the purpose of securing a better census in the future.

Mr. FOSTER.

How about the expense ?

Mr. FISHER.

I believe it will be more economical too. My reasons for that are these. One of the greatest difficulties always found in the taking of the census is the necessity of organizing a staff, almost on the spur of the moment, of inexperienced people who have never had much of this kind of work before. The difficulties consequent on this hasty manner of operation would be avoided if there were a permanent census office. But, in addition to that, what I consider to be quite as important is the necessity, in the present stage of our development. of obtaining accurate statistics during tfle ten years that intervene between the taking of the censuses. Hitherto we have had no accurate statistics whatever for the whole Dominion except those taken in the census years. The result is that when investigations are made by students or public men, or others, requiring general information with regard to the Dominion, they have either to go back to the census year or get their information from whatever sources they can. At present, these sources are in a certain way official. The trade and navigation returns give information about trade matters, and the other departments do give certain other information ; but there is no compilation of the figures given in the various departmental reports in a form available to the public at large except in the Canadian Year Book. This work is a compilation made from the various departmental reports for the year, but it only deals with what appears in those reports. I think it is in the interest of our country that we should have a more frequent taking of information in regard to our industrial and agricultural interests ; and for that purpose I think it is necessary to have a permanent office which, while it takes a census of the population, and obtains detailed information on all the different subjects which have been contained in our census once in ten years, should also have the duty

of taking information at first hand on a portion of those subjects every year. I do not propose that a whole census should be taken every year ; that would be quite out of the question. I do not propose that on any one subject statistics should be taken every year ; but I do think that between the two censuses, there should be a periodic taking of information along various lines, and including each year a portion of the census information. For instance, certain agricultural statistics might be taken every second year, and certain other agricultural statistics in the alternate years. Certain industrial statistics might also be taken in the same way. Certain mortuary or hygienic statistics might be taken at intervals, whether every second year, every third year, or otherwise, according to the, decision of the department and the facilities of the work. In this way a comparatively small staff would be able to work one year on one set of statistics and in another year on another set of statistics, and would secure for us, between the decennial censuses, in the aggregate, a large mass of important information. I think this is one of the most important objects, if not the most important, in having a permanent office, and in providing by this Act for the appointment of a permanent staff, and for giving them the authority to do in other years what they now have authority to do in the census year, each time the authority is given them designating just what information they shall collect. I may say that a work similar to this is being carried on and has been carried on for some little time in the United States. The United States census office secures a very large amount of information which our census office never has been in the habit of securing. The work in regard to the census is continued from year to year practically until the work for the next census begins. Compilations and tables are prepared from the census work of 1891. the work on which continues practically until the census of 1901 is commenced.