Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

Explain.

Mr. ROCHE:

This Bill is purely technical in its character. Where patents have been issued for lands situated within a

forest reserve and where an incorrect description has been given of the individual, his occupation, or even of the lands themselves, the Minister of the Interior is authorized to cancel the letters patent and issue letters patent with the necesary corrections or alterations. Under the Dominion Lands Act as at present he has that authority in respect of lands outside the forest reserves, but there is a doubt as to whether the Dominion Lands Act applies to lands within the forest reserves. This is intended to clear up that doubt and to confer upon the Minister of the Interior the same power within the reserves that he has without.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

By your leave, Mr. Speaker, I want to correct-I think I should-a press despatch which has appeared in several newspapers to the effect that His Royal Highness the iGovernor General sent for me to advise me as to the course that I should follow with regard to a certain investigation now before the House. As His Royal Highness in my estimation is a model constitutional representative of the 'Sovereign, perhaps it is needless for me to -make any statement in connection with the matter. As these things are printed, however, it is better that I should say that there is not any foundation for such a rumour.

(CANADA SHIPPING ACT, AMENDMENT BIEL.

On motion of Sir Robert Borden, the House proceeded to the consideration of Public Bills and Orders.

Hon. J. D. IIAZEN (Minister of Marine and Fisheries) moved:

That order 24 for the House again in committee on Bill No. 21, to amend the Canada Shipping Act (Mr. Sinclair) be now discharged, and that said Bill be referred to the Select Standing Committee on Marine and Fisheries.

He said: This is done, I may say, after consultation with the hon., member for Guysborough (Mr. Sinclair).

Sir THOMAS WHITE (Minister of Finance) :

Mr. Speaker, before resuming my

argument at the point at which I moved the adjournment of the debate on Tuesday night last, I desire to refer to a previous portion of the speech of the hon. member for Richmond (Mr. G. W. Kyte) and to certain allegations made by him and by the hon. member for Carleton, N.B. (Mr. F. B. Carvell), respecting contracts let by the Shell Committee, in which it was argued that discrimination had been exercised for political considerations against the Dominion Iron and Steel Company. As I have stated, the Government is not in any way responsible for the contracts let by the Shell Committee. The Government of Canada has had no authority over the Shell Committee in the letting of its contracts; but the statements made by the hon. member for Richmond and by the hon. member for Carleton with respect to the matter with which I now purpose dealing appear to me to be so much beside the facts that I deem it my duty not to leave the record in its present condition.

The hon. member for Carleton, speaking on March 7, and alleging discrimination for political reasons against the Dominion Iron and Steel Company, called attention to the fact that the Shell Committee, while awarding large contracts to the Nova Scotia Steel Company, had passed over the Dominion Iron and Steel Company. His words were as follows:

The Dominion Iron and Steel Company, probably the greatest manufacturing establishment in the whole Dominion, who were anxious for the business, who were willing to devote their whole organization, machinery, plant and business facilities to the manufacture of shells, and who pleaded and begged in vain for an order.

He alleges that the fact that Mr. Frederick Nicholls was connected with the Dominion Iron and Steel Company had something to do with the fact that the Dominion Iron and Steel Company got no work from the Shell Committee. He says:

They never got a chance to do business, never got a look in until October or November, 1915.

The hon. member for Richmond, coming, as I have stated, to the rescue of the hon.

member for Carleton afteT his argument had been met by the hon. Solicitor General, used the following language:

The Dominion Iron and Steel Company is located in my new constituency which was bestowed upon me by the Government in the late distribution of seats.

He says further:

I knew that the Dominion Iron and Steel Company had no contracts for shells, and when I heard the Solicitor General speak with all the authority which such a statement should possess coming from him as a member of this Government, and with all the access he had to the sources of correct information, I was, to say the least astonished. I knew that for five or six months during 1915 the officials of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company travelled from Toronto to Ottawa, from Ottawa to Toronto, and from Toronto to Sydney, to get a contract to make shells, but they never got a contract for a single shell.

And then further on, at page 2368 of Hansard, he used the following language:

There is another circumstance in connection with that which perhaps hon. gentlemen do not realize, but which they will realize when I call their attention to it. Here was a contract given by the Shell Committee, not for shells, but for steel for shells. The Shell Committee bought that steel at Sydney, and instead of having it manufactured into shells there, as the Dominion Iron and Steel Company wanted them to do, they distributed it among shell factories all over Canada as far west as Vancouver, and paid freight on all these shipments; and then when the steel ingots were made into shells, the Shell Committee paid the freight on all these shells from Vancouver and the- other factories to the point of shipment.

My hon. friend was referring to the steel bought from the Dominion Iron and Steel Company by the Shell Committee, as he stated, on the 15th of May and the 2nd of April. I hold in my hand the report of the last annual meeting of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company, which was held at Montreal on Thursday, the 24th day of June,. 1915; and I desire to call the attention of the House to the statement therein of the president of Dominion Iron and Steel Company, Mr. J. H. Plummer. He is speaking of the export business of the company, and this is his language:

Akin to this export 'business, and due to the same primary cause, is the business we are doing in the manufacture of shell steel. Many of you, no doubt, think we should long ago have been making shells, but that is out of our line. We can make excellent shell steel, and we have large orders for this, but its conversion into the finished shells is work for machine shops, of which there are plenty in the country. -

Mr. KYTE:

What is the date of that?