Mr. W. D. EULER (North Waterloo) :

beg to present the third report of the select standing committee on National Railways and Shipping as follows:

Your committee have considered item 137 of the Estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1925, viz., loans to Canadian National Railway Company, $56,000,000, and have approved of the said item.

Your committee recommend that 500 copies of the proceedings and evidence taken should be printed, and that rule 74 should be suspended in connection therewith.

I beg to move that this report be concurred in. I might say that, as regards printing, it was stated merely that 500 copies should be printed and, through an oversight, it was not stated how many should be in English and how many in French. I might suggest that 350 of those be in English and 150 in French.

Right Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN (Leader of the Opposition):

The main part of the

report is the recommendation of a large sum of money as a proper vote for the National Railways. I would think the report should have been presented in two parts, this one left apart from the rest. Surely it is not the intention of the House, on the mere report of a committee, to put itself on record as approving a vote of many millions of dollars.

Select Standing Committees

Mr. EULER:

In the reference to the committee it is destinctly stated that nothing done shall interfere with the right of the House tc a full debate on the estimate.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

That is very good. But if the House adopts the report, the House is on record. There is no use in our going on record two ways. I think that part of the report should not be subject to adoption at all.

Mr. GRAHAM:

There is that difficulty in it. I am inclined to think that the portion of the report in regard to the vote might be adopted, if it is necessary to adopt it, after the committee of the whole passes on the item. It is awkward to bring in a report and not adopt it.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

There is no need of

adopting it. We have it before us when we come into committee of the whole.

Mr. EULER:

Would it be acceptable if

the first part of the report was struck out? We would like to have authority to print.

Sir HENRY DRAYTON:

That is as regards printing-yes, that is all right.

Motion as amended agreed to.

Mr. G. H. BOTVIN (Shefford):

I beg to

present the first report of the select standing committee to supervise the official report of Debates as follows:

Your committee have had referred to them for consideration a communication from the King's Printer, submitting the proposed scale of rates hereto appended to be charged for the printing of special editions of speeches of members in the House of Commons.

Your committee have also considered a report from the Printing bureau showing a net loss to the government in the printing of said special editions of speeches at present rates.

Your committee, realizing in view of the increased cost of paper, the necessity of making a slight increase in the rates for the printing of said speeches, recommend that the rates set forth in the scale hereto annexed be approved, said rates to take effect at the opening of the next session of parliament and remain in force until otherwise ordered by the House. (The scale of rates referred to will be found in the Votes and Proceedings of this date.)

Your committee have had under consideration certain irregularities in the distribution of the unrevised edition of the debates to the members of the House of Commons owing to the absence of any fixed rule adopted by your committee and approved by the House.

Your committee recommend that beginning with the opening of the next session of parliament and until otherwise ordered by the House, each member of the House of Commons be supplied without charge with ten copies of the unrevised edition of the debates, four of said copies to be delivered, as at present, and six of said copies and no more to be mailed by the King's Printer to any six persons, companies, corporations or institutions within Canada, whose

[Mr. Meighen.)

names and addresses shall be supplied by such member to the Clerk of the Debates committee.

Your committee have had under consideration certain recommendations providing for a wider and more general distribution of the unrevised editions of Debates at the actual cost of the extra printing, paper, binding and mailing, which has been ascertained to be approximately three dollars per session.

Your committee recommend that the required steps be taken by the proper officers to inform the general public that the said unrevised edition of the debates is available to subscribers, and will be mailed to them daily, upon application to the King's Printer, at the said rate of three dollars per session.

Your committee took up for consideration and report certain matters concerning Hansard which were recently discussed in the House of Commons without formal reference to your committee, but doubt was expressed concerning the powers of your committee to deal with and report upon said matters.

Your committee, therefore, recommend that they be given power to consider the following questions and report their opinion thereon to the House, viz *

1. Whether Hansard should be a record of debates only, containing such items of the proceedings of the House as may be necessary to make the report of the debates intelligible, or whether it should contain all of the proceedings of the House and of the Committee of the Whole House as well as the record of debates.

2. Whether it is desirable, in the interests of economy of time, labour and expense, that the report of the debates in Hansard should be limited to such speeches as may be delivered when Mr. Speaker is in the Chair, with or without a brief report of proceedings in committee.

Whether it is desirable to make Hansard an official record of all the proceedings of the House of Commons, as well as a record of the debates.

The whole respectfully submitted.

Geo. H. Boivin,

Chairman.

Mr. SPEAKER:

As far as I remember

this report has reference to the Baker Memorial ceremonial which took place in the early part of the session, and recommended the printing of the speeches.

Mr. WILLIAM DUFF (Lunenburg):

I beg to present the third report of the select standing committee on Marine and Fisheries as follows:

Your committee recommend that for the season of 1925 a further reduction of 15 per cent be made on all commercial fishing licenses issued to other than white fisheripen and Indians in British Columbia, and also that, owing to the lateness of the season, and the very small catch of lobsters, around the coast of Prince Edward Island and the northern part of Nova Scotia some extension be made to the season this year.

I move that this report be adopted.

Postal Employees

Mr. MEIGHEN:

I am not an expert in

these matters, but I notice that the report contains a recommendation for the extension of the lobster season, and I know that that is very important.

Mr. DUFF:

It has been extended.