Sir HENRY DRAYTON:

I think the real reason is that there was one less clerk-stenographer.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

Has not the minister

in his office quite a considerable number of employees who are really paid by other departments?

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

I am not

aware of any. No, I think not. I know it was the practice formerly but not at present.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

My information is that

what was the practice formerly has been multiplied many fold.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

No. I assure

the right hon. member he is mistaken. I have

in my office a secretary whom I am paying out of my own pocket, apart altogether from the amount parliament provides, because I have not been able to get along with the staff provided.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

I have a very vivid recollection of the Prime Minister taking the stand a short time ago that the House should not be passing estimates after eleven o'clock at night, and here is an item of $5,000 introduced to provide for a new official to be appointed outside the Civil Service Commission.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

It is not a new item. It has been there a couple of years.

189}

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

The appointment

is to be made regardless of the Civil Service Commission. There are several other items which have been mentioned to-night. One item is for $2,200 and some odd for repairs to an automobile, and I doubt whether it is wise to pass that item without a little further information regarding it. It is almost half past one in the morning.

Mr. VIEN:

If my hon. friend had not

spoken it would not have been so late.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

It would be much

later and it would suit my hon. friend if it was later and these things were passing without any discussion. There was plenty of opportunity to bring them down in daylight when members were present to pay some attention to them; but after two-thirds or three-quarters of the members have gone home and to bed, I do not think there is any justification for passing estimates of this kind at this time of the morning. I decidedly object to going on with these estimates at this hour.

Mr. BELAND:

In this connection may I

point out to my hon. friend that my experience in 1919, 1920, 1921, and since this government has been in power, no discussion has taken place on these items? There is no reason, of course, why it should not take place.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

I am sorry to break a rule that has been in effect so long, but I do not see any object in the Prime Minister's estimates being brought on at one o'clock in the morning.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

The estimates were brought on at three o'clock in the afternoon, but we have spent the day in discussing one particular matter.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

I am not responsible for that and I doubt whether the Prime Minister can say the same. Would the Prime Minister give us some information regarding the repairs amounting to about $2,200 on the automobile?

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

To tell my

hon. friend the truth, I do not know what repairs have been made. I have not been keeping track of them. I assumed that the Undersecretary of State for External Affairs would not permit anything to be done that was not regular and proper, and this is entirely in his hands, not in mine.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

To make repairs

amounting to $2,200 to an automobile in view of the number of automobiles that have been

Indian Act Amendment

required this year requires more explanation than that. The Prime Minister's secretary may be absolutely reliable-

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

It is the

deputy minister.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

-but $2,200 worth of repairs requires some further explanation than that given by the Prime Minister.