Right Hon. R. L. BORDEN (Prime Minister) laid on the table of the House the report of the delegates appointed by the Government of Canada to attend the International Purity Congress held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 7-12, 1913. He said: There does not appear to have been any formal published official report of the congress as a whole, but what is understood to be a report of the proceedings has been published in successive numbers of a magazine in the United States. These have been bound and are placed upon the table of the House for the information of the members.

Hon. W. J. ROCHE (Minister of the Interior) moved for leave to introduce Bill No. 200, to amend the Yukon Placer Mining Act. He said: Several amendments have been prepared to the Yukon Placer Mining Act, but owing to the advanced stage of the session it has been deemed advisable to drop them all save one, the purpose of which is more particularly to facilitate the carrying out of the intention of the existing Act. The existing Act provides that any number of claims owned by one individual company or group of individuals included in a registered partnership may be grouped for

operation, but subsection 2 of the section of the Act which so provides, grants the grouping privilege to large holders of placer mining property companies and registered partnerships, which cannot be taken advantage of by groups of individual miners operating together, and the amendment is for the purpose of extending the scope of the Act so as to provide that the grouping privilege shall extend to groups of individual operators as well as to companies and registered partnerships. Motion agreed to, and Bill read the first time.

Bill No. 197, for the relief of Robert Markle Richardson.-Mr. T. J. Stewart. Bill No. 198, for the relief of George Andrew Crooks.-Mr. Schaffner. Bill No. 199, for the relief of Florence Merritt.-Mr. Boys.

On the Orders of the Day being called: Hon.W. T. WHITE (Minister of Finance): The hon. member for Rouville (Mr. Lemieux) asked me to obtain for him certain information with regard to La Banque du Peuple, La Banque Ville Marie, and La Banque St. Jean. I find that La Banque du Peuple suspended payment in 1895. No liquidator was ever appointed. By special legislation, chapter 75 of the Acts of 1897, and chapter 123 of the Acts of 1899, the affairs of the bank were wound up by the directors. The Act of 1899 confirmed a composition at the rate of forty-five cents on the dollar with the creditors, and this composition was paid. There is no available information as to the number of depositors. With respect to La Banque de St. Jean, I find that the amount due ordinary depositors at the time of the suspension, 1908, was $301,000. The liquidator advises that the probable dividend will be between twenty and thirty per cent of this amount. He further advises that the approximate number of depositors was 3,000. With respect to La Banque Ville Marie, I find that the deposits at the time of failure, 1899, are reported to have been $1,504,665. Seventeen and one-half per cent was received by the depositors. The liquidation was closed and the liquidator is dead. There is no information available as to the number of depositors. I am unable to obtain any further information for my hon. friend. [Mr. Roche 1

Mr. WM. CHISHOLM: On the 16th of March an Order of the House was passed For a copy of all recommendations, protests, petitions and representation received by the Government or any department or minister thereof, regarding the appointment of the present collector of customs at Antigonish and of air the letters, telegrams and correspondence relating thereto. Yesterday what purported to be a return in answer to this order was placed on the table of the House from the Department of Customs. That return consists only of a letter dated 22nd October, m3, signed by John McDougald, commissioner of customs, addressed to Wm. Chisholm, Antigonish, N.S., informing him that the Minister of .Customs has been pleased to authorize his appointment as acting collector of customs at Antigonish, N.S., ,at a salary of $1,100 per annum. I desire to say that I never received such an appointment or such a letter, nor have I any expectation of receiving an .appointment. This return is certainly not a compliance with the order of the House. I happen to know that there are on file in the Department of Customs petitions and representations respecting the appointment that was made. There is a representation from the president of the Conservative Association, and I happen to know what it contains. The order is so worded as to call for the production of any correspondence or documents from any department of the Government, and, as I happen to know that this letter of the president of the Conservative Association was written as an official document from that association and not as a private or confidential letter, it should be produced.

On motion of Hon. George E. Foster (Minister of Trade and Commerce) Bill No. 170, to amend the Canada Grain Act, was read the third time and passed.