ROCHE-by Mr. Taylor-asked :

1. What is the nature of the work being done for the improvement of navigation on the North Thompson river, B.C.?

2. What amount of timber was used in the cribbing and dams erected during 1904 and 1905, and by whom was it supplied?

3. What buildings have been erected in connection with this woik, and at what cost?

4. What amount has been expended up to date upon this work?

5. How many men have been employed upon this work, in what capacity, and for how many days in all?

6 Is it a fact that a number of names appeared "upon the pay-roll of this work of men who were not employed in any capacity on the work?

7. How much has been expended for supplies, other than tools and material, for use on this work?

Mr. FITZPATRICK.

1. Yes. , + . .

2. Yes, as soon as plans are completed ? by public advertisement.

3. Yes.

4. No. A suitable foundation can be had at a depth of from 10 to 12 feet.

5. No.

Hon. ATT AS. HYMAN (Acting Minister of Public Works) :

1. Yes. 2. Yes ; $5,000 in 1903-4, $10,000 in 1904-5 and revote of $10,000 in 1905-6. 3. No. 4. Post Office Department report that they have no such request. 5. Yes, as soon as plans are completed, in the usual manner. PAVEMENT IN PARLIAMENT GROUNDS. Mr. SAM. HUGHES. Mr. Speaker, before the House passes to the Orders of the Day, I desire, with the object of encouraging advertising for tenders and giving all firms in the country an opportunity of having fair competition for any work on which public money is expended, to draw the attention of the House to the pavement which has been laid in front of the parliament buildings some time since the close of last session. The minister, in response to request, has been good enough to furnish me with the information that the area of the pavement laid consists of 4,250 square yards, and that it cost per yard $2.25. Sir WILFRID LAURIER. Order. Does mv lion, friend desire merely to ask a question or to bring up a subject for discussion ? Mr. SAM. HUGHE'S. I intend closing with a motion. With regard to the nature of the manufacture, the memorandum says : After the street has been graded and rolled, the entire surface shall be coated with a heavy coating of Warren's No. 21 Puritan brand hard bituminous cement. On this shall be laid the wearing surface. The wearing surface is composed of crushed stone mixed with bitumen. The stone is screened into six sizes and it is heated to a temperature of about 250 degrees, and each of the sizes are accurately weighed in the proportion Previously determined to give the best results, that is the most dense mixture of mineral aggregate. Then, bitulithic cement is added to thoroughly coat all particle of stone, and to fill all voids, and the whole heated to a temperature of between 200 and 250 degrees. That is the description of the material. The contractor's name is The Warren Bituminous Company, 164 Bay street, Toronto. I have taken the precaution of ascertaining who the chief members of that company are, and I find a gentleman of the name of Mr. T. C. Robinette, a very estimable gentleman, a very able gentleman, a gentleman who bore the standard for his party in Centre Toronto on one occasion, but who failed to take the liurdile on a recent occasion. Another is Mr. W. G. McKendriclc, also well known in Liberal circles in Toronto. Others are Charles Curtis, Harvey J. Page, Wm. Connor. H. .7. King, of Toronto; John Falla-hae, of London, who, I understand, is wen versed in the pedal extremities of a certain well-known animal, and a former hotel Keeper; and the Warren Brothers' Com-iany of Boston. These are the members of r.he firm. Now, my information is that no tenders were called for this work, and that the contract was let without tender. Perhaps it might simplify matters if I Save the House some specific data which has been furnished to me by a gentleman in whom I have every confidence. If there is anything in it which is incorrect, the minister will have an opportunity of rectifying it.- This gentleman says : Tlie pavement in front of the House of Parliament is Warren Bros', patented monopoly tar macadam, bituminous macadam or bitulithic pavement-take your choice as to the This is the pavement, or rather dust heap, laid in front of the House of Parliament last summer by the Warren Co., in which Mr. Robinette of Toronto is largely interested. We all have noticed how this dust has been blown about, to the great inconvenience of passers by. The contract was awarded without tenders being called, the price was between $2.50 and $3.00 per square yard. I may say, in justice to the minister, that his figure is $2.25 a yard. A superior tar macadam pavement and similar to the one laid on Daly Avenue or on Slater St. could have been laid for $1.30, while a Trinidad asphalt pavement with 4 inches solid concrete and 2 inches asphalt could have been laid for about $2.40, and would have been agreeable to walk on instead of the reverse being the case. Sir Wilfrid Laurier spoke of making this city the * Washington of the north.' Now, this is what they had to do in the * Washington of the south,' and which shows the regard they have for bitulithic pavements. Of the 960,000 square vards laid, the record showed but 269,000 remaining on July 1, 1900, and that 631,000 square yards had been re-surfaced with asphalt, and in 1901 $26,000 were spent for re-surfacmg about 12,000 yards. A few years ago the Warrens were laying asphalt pavements, and this is what they had to say at the time of their new patented monopoly : When coal-tar is exposed to the varying conditions of the weather, as it is in pavements, the volatile oils slowly evaporate, leaving a coke which is friable and which rapidly crumbling, less oil is distilled from the tar in its preparation, the pavement when laid is too soft in summer and lacks tne essential quality of firmness. A long-lived coaltar pavement has three phases of condition: (a) When first laid it is soft in hot weather; it then (b) gradually loses the softening oil by exposure to the weather, and for a short period is quite acceptable ; but it soon (c) loses all the oils and becomes friable, as already explained. Coal-tar is sensitive to changes of temperature, and as a pavement, gets hot enough to become soft under our summer sun. It is impracticabi ?o combfne in a tar pavement the qualities of firmness in summer and plasticity .ia '. Later on, the Warren Company, tiring of lair returns on their money, got out a patented specification so as to exclude competition in order that they might get an extra price for their pavement, and on which no one could tender but themselves, and showing about 100 per

cent profit. Instead of inventing a pavement, they merely invented a phraseology, using such long phases as j

Warren's No. 1 Bituminous Semi-Liquid Com position, Puritan Brand.

Warren's Quick Drying Bituminous Plush Coat Composition.

Warren's No. 24 Puritan Brand Hard Macadam Bituminous Cement, and the like, are merely rhetorical disguises for coal-tar, thick or thin as required.

In a suit against the Warren Company by a ratepayer, Fred. J. Warren's testimony under oath in the case was as follows :

The Court-The question was' whether you manufactured the coal-tar products, or manufactured your brands from the coal-tar products. That is the way I understood the question, and I do not understand your answer Mr. Warren [DOT] I didn't understand the question. We manufacture products from coal-tar We do not make coal-tar. We buy the coal-tar on the market.

Q.-And manufacture your brands from coaltar ?

A.-Yes, Sir.

Q.-Do you get coal-tar from them (Barrett Brothers) ?

A.-

Q- Are the Puritan brands all made of coal tar ?

A.-Yes, Sir ; it is a registered trade-mark Q.-What proportion of coal-tar must there be m one of your Puritan brands for it to be Puritan ?

A.-What number ?

Q.-Well, take the three numbers. Say we take first No. 1. '

A.-.It is all coal-tar material.

Q.-Nothing else ever is in it ?

A.-.No, Sir.

Q

How is the No. 19 ?

A.-All coal-tar material ?

Q - No asphaltum in it ?

A.-No, Sir.

Q

And no other material in it 7 A.-No, Sir.

Q

How is it, with No. 24 ?

A.-All coal-tar material.

Q.-No other material in it ?

A.-No, Sir.

These are the statements concerning' the preparation of this Warren patent process coal-tar business which has been laid in front of these buildings. I have a further statement concerning this Wellington street pavement from the bridge to Bank street, which is either under contract or about to be placed under contract, because the advertisement calling for tenders says they must be in by the 29th April last. The contracts therefore may have been let, and the specifications called for either a Warren pavement or an asphalt pavement of Trinidad asphalt. I hope that the inquiries I made in the Public Works Department about the time these contracts were being closed caused the department to hesitate

tacHnUk? th?lr career of giving the con-tiact to this foreign company, whose a^enev

" " led by my genial and capable

friend Mi. T. C. Robinette. Here is a statement concerning it furnished me in con-Mr. SAM. HUGHES.

nection with the Wellington street pavement :

Last autumn the Department of Public Works called for tenders for a bitulithic macadam pavement from Bank street to the post office-

The upper story of the post office, I may say, is likely to cost nearly as much as the whole Langevin block. The Lindsay building across the bridge is not in it. That has been constructed for less than the cost of the one story we are placing on the post office; and that one story is likely to cost almost as much as the whole Langevin block about which our friends made such a disturbance some years ago.

-but somehow they omitted to specify the Warren Company's patented monopoly for coaltar, thus enabling their competitors to tender. The contract was never let, for when the tenders were opened, the Warren Company's tender was found to be about 75 per cent higher than the lowest, so it was quite out of the question to give the contract to Mr. Robinette of Toronto who is largely interested in the Canadian branch of the American firm of the Warren Brothers of Boston. Now tenders were called for as per attached advertisement, and on April 29th (Saturday last) tenders were again received by the Department of Public Works, but this time they called for prices for Robinette's Patent Warren pavement (similar to that laid last autumn opposite the Houses of parliament), also for prices on Trinidad asphalt pavement. On the former only the Warren Company could bid, but on the asphalt pavement it was quite the reverse, being open to wide competition. The question is, will the government perpetrate on the city of Ottawa the injustice of laying a dusty, gritty, and unsatisfactory pavement on Wellington street, and for which the country will have to pay almost as much as they would for a first-class asphalt pavement ?

I have inquired at the Public Works Department but can find no record that this work in front of the building was let after public tenders had been called for. There may have been, of course, a formal tender just as there was in the case of the wire fence. Possibly the firm was communicated with and told to put in a tender for this pavement. However, I do not know what the previous negotiations were, but at ail events the pavement was laid ; and I have it on good authority that it could have been put down for $1.30 per square yard. It is an ordinary road with a little coating of tar, with broken stone thrown in, and coal tar and asphalt put on top. A bitulithic pavement, as far as the cost of preparation is concerned, does not cost nearly so much as an ordinary asphalt pavement : Concrete pavement of six inches depth of solid material besides the sand and gravel beneath, is a much more expensive perparation and, as those of us who have to do with asphalt pavement know, it can be laid for $2.25 to $2.50 per square yard. We know also that a granolithic pavement can be laid at much less per square yard. Here are the specifi-

cations furnished by the department. I am speaking now of the specifications for the Wellington street pavement, the tenders for which had to be in on the 29th, of last month. One of the specifications calls for Trinidad asphalt pavement, and that is open to any number of competitors, so I have nothing to say about that. Bat the next specification is for bitulithic, and you would naturally say that any one could tender for that. But, on reading the specification, you find, on page 3, third paragraph from the top, the following :

The entire surface shall then be coated with a heavy coating of Warren's No. 24 Puritan Brand Hard Bituminous Cement, for the purpose of finally binding the foundations together and making it readily unite with the bituminous concrete surface.

A beautiful sentence.

Mr. BENNETT.

Whose is it ?[DOT]

Mr. SAM. HUGHES.

I do not know whose drafting it is. I presume this was sent to the Department of Justice. In the fifth paragraph is a description of the heating process, and the last sentence is as follows :

Prom the weight-box each batch of mineral aggregate composed of differing sizes accurately weighed as above shall pass into a ' twin pug ' or other approved form of mixer. In this mixer shall be added a sufficient quantity of Warren's Puritan Brand.

And the seventh paragraph is as follows :

After rolling the wearing surface, there shall he spread over it a thin coating of-

Whitewash.

Mr. SAM. HUGHES.

No, not whitewash but

-Warren's Quick-drying Bituminous Plush Coat Composition, the purpose of this coating being to completely fill any unevenness or honey-comb which may appear in the surface of the mixture.

These are the specifications. I have given the names of the company. And, in this case, as in the case of Port Arthur and Fort William dredging tenders, I would ask why should the country be put to the cost of advertising these fake calls for tenders ? Why go to the expense of printing that specification ? Why not openly and honestly say,

* Robinette, go on and do that job ? ' It looks like an attempt to reach the end by roundabout means. I do not charge that against the acting minister, because he is a guileless gentleman, as we all know. It may be that he has been got over by some of his deputies. But it seems clear that this is a mere pretense of calling for tenders for the laying of a bitulithic pavement when, as a matter of fact, the specifications are such that no concern except the one of which Mr. Robinette is tbe head can do the work, and the work is given at an exorbitant price. The contract was for $2.50 per yard, although as I

have shown, a concrete pavement could have been laid at $2,40 per yard, and even less in the case of a large quantity. Certainly, under the specifications I have read, there is no possibility of this bitulithic pavement contract going to any concern except the one of which Mr. Robinette is the head.

Hon. CHARLES S. HYMAN (Acting Minister of Public Works).

The hon. member for Victoria and Haliburton (Mr. Sam. Hughes) has made certain charges based wholly upon statements made by those who have a desire to lay a pavement of a different kind from that which has been chosen. I am sorry he is not more accurate in his facts-for I think that before I have finished it will be seen that he is entirely astray in regard to almost every statement of fact he has made outside of those he has read from the specifications before him. It is true that a small area of pavement immediately in front of the parliament buildings was laid down, under arrangement made with the late Minister of Public Works, by the AA'ar-ren Company. I am informed by the department that the reason was that it was the intention of the government, from time to time to extend this pavement, and good reports of -this kind of pavement had been received from different cities where it has been used and it was desirable to try the pavement and see whether it would be suitable for trhe much larger area which it will be necessary to pave in the future.

Mr. SPROULE.

How many square yards were laid ?

Mr. HYMAN.

The total area laid is 4,250 square yards, I think the original contract was for a smaller area than that, but it was afterwards decided to increase the area to be paved.