Mr. FOSTER.

Before the Orders of the Day are called, I would like to ask the hon. the Minister of the Interior to be kind enough to bring down the instructions sent to Judge Myers, for the holding of an investigation into the half-breed scrip business.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

The Order in Council containing the instructions will be brought down at once.

Mr. SPROULE.

We have had a good deal of trouble this session with regard to getting out speeches at the Printing Bureau. Not only is there considerable delay, but in many cases it seems impossible to get the speeches printed at all. Nor are the orders given executed in their turn. Frequently, so we are informed those given later are given precedence over those given

Mr. OLIVER.

early, and on this side of the House the impression prevails that hon. members on the government side are given the advantage in this respect. A good while ago an order was sent to the Bureau to publish a speech of mine on the Autonomy Bill, accompanied by a request to state what it would cost. The reply came stating the cost and shortly after I understood the order was given. After waiting for a considerable time for the speech I had inquiry made again, but could not find out whether the order had been received or not. However, it was arranged that the speech should be published according to the prices fixed by the Bureau. After waiting some weeks they sent a speech which was not at all the one ordered, but a mere side speech, not directly on the question at all, and the publication of which would not cost one-quarter that of the other. At the time the order was sent the type was not distributed, but it has since been distributed, and to publish this speech now would require the whole thing to be set up again, and it probably could not be got out before the session is over. I think it is high time that the attention of parliament was drawn to these things. Somebody must be in fault ; somebody must be responsible for this careless and unbusinesslike management.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

WTith whom did my hon. friend correspond ?

Mr. SPROULE.

With the chief whip's clerk directly to the King's Printer.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

I am very much surprised at this charge, because I know Mr. Dawson to be a most careful, painstaking officer.

Mr. SPROULE.

I do not think it was the King's Printer himself, but some others under him. All I can say is that, after waiting for weeks, a speech was sent which was not at all the one ordered.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

I know Mr. Dawson to be a very painstaking and careful officer, and if his attention be called to the matter he must have some good explanation. Something should be done to prevent a recurrence of such errors.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

I beg to move that the schedules which were laid on the table some time ago, and which are printed and to be found on page 7 of the last printed Bill, be now adopted. I do not know whether my hon. friends opposite want a

7725 JU-tfE 20, 1905 7726

discussion on the general arrangement of the schedule or to take them up one by one.

Mr. W. F. MACLEAN.

The rumour is general that the government proposed to submit this to a commission of judges.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

There are so many rumours to which my hon. friend, with his newspaper and otherwise, gives credit, that I take them all with a grain of salt, and that is the safest course to follow. My attention was called to this question by mv hon. friend the leader of the opposition, who asked whether it would not be advisable to leave the preparation of the schedules to the judges. I expressed no opinion then, but thought that it would be far .preferable that we should have them presented to the House. I think they will be found, on the whole, eminently satisfactory and that there will be no necessity to refer them to the judges. Some exception may be taken here and there, but if there be differences of opinion, I am confident they will not be such that they cannot be reconciled in this very chamber. The schedules have been gone into with very great care, and, as far as I can see, taking the geographical condition and population and the condition of things generally, they could not be much improved, if at all.

Mr. FOSTER.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

There were many things to be considered in the preparation of the schedule for the distribution of seats. First of all, we had to consider the existing conditions. There is a legislature to-day in the Territories which are to be covered by those two provinces, and there are thirty-five constituencies in the two provinces-twenty in Saskatchewan and fifteen in Alberta.

Mr. FOSTER.

Perhaps the First Minister will confine himself now to the province of Alberta.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER.

Yes. We give twenty-five constituencies to each of the two provinces. Therefore it was obvious from the first that we had to provide for ten more constituencies in Alberta. The next guiding principle was the population, the object being to equalize as much as possible the existing population among these twenty-five constituencies. However, it is not possible, in a new country like this, to consider the question of population alone. Geographical conditions also have to be considered. To iilus-| trate, population is more thickly settled along the lines of railway than it is in the outlying districts to the north and perhaps also to the south. Therefore it was not possible to apply the same degree of geographical extension in all the constituencies. Some had to be large and some small. But the prime object was as far as possible to give equality of numbers in the different electoral districts.