Hon. P. J. VENIOT (Gloucester):

I would draw the attention of the Minister of Railways and Canals to an interview given at Montreal by Mr. Beatty, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. May I be permitted to preface a question I am going to ask by stating that the interview is based upon a report submitted to the house in reply to a question asked by me some time ago concerning the amount of subsidies in land and cash given to the Canadian Pacific and its subsidiaries by the federal government? In this interview Mr. Beatty denies the accuracy of the statement submitted to the house by the Canadian National Railways through the Department of Railways and Canals. I wish to ask the Minister of Railways whether he has taken cognizance of this interview and whether he is in a position to make a statement concerning it?

Hon. R. J. MANION (Minister of Railways and Canals):

Yesterday evening the hon, member for Gloucester drew to my attention the interview of Mr. Beatty and therefore I made some inquiries regarding it. The hon. member submitted to the house five different series of questions, and I think each series contained five or more questions, so that there were altogether some twenty-five or more. Those questions related to specific subjects. As the hon. gentleman has pointed out, one of the series referred to land grants and cash aid to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and matters of that sort. The questions asked did not refer to other matters to which Mr. Beatty referred in the statement made to the press. The information which we obtained, which was partly supplied through the Department of the Interior, as to land grants for example, was from recognized sources and is in accordance with the statistics as given out by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics for many years. For example in regard to the 26,000,000 acres of land to which Mr. Beatty refers, on page 12 of the Statistics of Steam Railways in Canada for the year ended December 31, 1933, exactly the same figures are given as those which we gave to the hon. gentleman, or which were given by the Department of the Interior in the returns furnished. Naturally we did not deal with the entire question of money grants or other grants to the Canadian National for instance, to some of which Mr. Beatty referred. But this blue book as put out for many years gives exactly the same figures as those in the return furnished to the hon. gentleman. There is nothing new in the figures, they are the same as submitted to the royal commis-

sion on railways. I do not wish to deal with the question further than that except to say that the figures given have been of public record for many years, and no exception has been taken to them as far as the land grants or other figures submitted are concerned.

Mr. OLOF HANSON (Skeena):

I have a question to direct to the government based on a telegram received this morning signed by the Vessel Owners Association and the fishermen of Prince Rupert. If any communication has been forwarded to Ottawa opposing the passage of a marketing scheme, they would like to ascertain who the parties are who sent in representations, and also what the possibilities are of the Pacific coast halibut fishermen getting under a scheme before the season opens.

Sir GEORGE PERLEY:

The Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Weir) is not in his seat at the moment; that question will stand for answer at some future session.

Sir GEORGE PERLEY:

Before we start with the clauses that were left over yesterday I wish to say that the copy of the bill which I have is as printed originally. I noticed that once or twice there was some confusion about the number of the sections. I think it arose in the following way. I ask the chairman to look at page 3 of the bill; about the middle of the page he will find the figure 3 in brackets, and "the remainder of this act may be referred to as follows:" That ought to have been a large 3, because that is really section 3, but they have renumbered them in such a way that it looks as if the one marked 4 is really number 3. The 3 in brackets should be a big 3, and if that were followed the sections below would be correctly numbered. I mention this, although it is a matter for the officials of the house to straighten out when the bill is completed.

Unemployment Insurance

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

The Prime Minister (Mr. Bennett) drew attention to that when we had the bill before us at an earlier stage, and I think it was agreed in committee that the numbers . we would discuss would be the numbers as printed in the bill.