Mr. W. C. GOOD (Brant) moved:

That the standing committee on Public Accounts be instxucted that they have power to investigate the methods by which the business profits and income taxes, especially in the case of large concerns, have been assessed and collected.

Hon. J. A. ROBB (Acting Minister of Finance) :

The Minister of Customs (Mr. Bureau), whose department now administers the business profits tax and the income tax, is absent, as also is the Acting Minister of Customs. I am not sure that they have had notice of this motion, and in their absence I would ask my hon. friend to allow the motion to stand as notice.

Mr. GOOD:

A word of explanation might be due the House in this connection. Last year, on the 16th of June, there was a fairly lengthy debate on this question, and at the conclusion of the debate the very same resolution that I am now asking to be passed was adopted by a large majority. Unfortunately, it was fairly close to the end of the session and the Public Accounts committee was

Miners and Steel Workers

called four times in succession without securing a quorum. Last year the first and final report of the Public Accounts committee, which was presented on the 17th of July, read as follows:

Your committee, to which was referred instructions " to investigate the method by -which the business profits and income taxes, especially in the case of large concerns, have been assessed and collected," was summoned on four occasions, in the usual way, to meet for the consideration of the business in question, and on each and every occasion a quorum failed to appear.

All which is respectfully submitted for the information of the House.

All I am asking is that there be a renewal of the instructions given last year to the committee. Nothing was done, and as the authority lapsed with prorogation it is necessary "that a motion be made in the House this session in order to renew the instructions given to the committee last year. The motion is in identically the same words as the motion of last year, and I do not think there can be any objection to it. I submit that the House should authorize the committee to go ahead with the work that was in contemplation last year and which was not proceeded with for the reasons I have mentioned.

Mr. ROBB:

The minister in charge has

some responsibility, and may I again ask my hon. friend to let it stand until the minister or his representative is in his seat?

Mr. GOOD:

Let it stand, then, Mr. Speaker.

Motion stands.

Mr. W. A. BLACK (Halifax):

Mr. Speaker, I would like to call the attention of the government to an article in the Montreal Gazette of this date. It is headed:

Nova Scotia Premier Slams Mackenzie King in Provincial House.

The Prime Minister of Canada was quoted as having said that the responsibility was with the Nova Scotia government, and the Premier of Nova Scotia, according to this despatch, said:

The Prime Minister, if he really said it, doesn't understand the first principles of responsibility. The responsibility is just as much his as it is mine.

Then Premier Armstrong went on to say that legislative action would be taken at the proper time, and with the consent of the whole House.

It would be gratifying to myself, and I am sure to the people of my province, and especially to the workers of the mining district of Cape Breton and of the other coal areas of the province of Nova Scotia, if the Prime Minister would reconsider his attitude.

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order. On the orders

of the day only a question is allowed.

Mr. BLACK (Halifax):

May I ask if the

Prime Minister will reconsider his attitude, and if he would be prepared to grant assistance to the sufferers down there, which would have my support and that of many members around me. .

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order. I am sure the

hon. member does not want to break the rules of the House. He is allowed to put a question on the orders of the day, and must not amplify it.

Mr. BLACK (Halifax):

I am sorry, Sir, if

I was out of order.

Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

As to the despatch to

which my hon. friend refers, I would say, first of all, I am not responsible, and I imagine

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Premier Armstrong is not responsible, for a despatch that appears in the Gazette. I would like to assure myself of the source of the despatch, and then in addition, reading the language of it, I would want to know before commenting upon it, what communication was read by Premier Armstrong before he used the words he is reported to have used. I have a copy of the despatch here, and my hon. friend probably noticed that Premier Armstrong said, "The Prime Minister, if he is correctly reported-" Well, I do not know what reports have been going from Ottawa to Halifax and appearing in the Halifax Herald and other papers, but I should feel that Premier Armstrong would be quite justified in using language such as he did there, with respect to some of the reports at least that I have seen of things that I was supposed to have said and have never said.

Mr. MEIGHEN:

Mr. Speaker-