Hon. ERNEST LAPOINTE (Minister of Justice, for Mr. Mackenzie King) moved:

That the report of the Secretary of State for External Affairs for the year ended December 31, 1935, be referred to the standing committee on industrial and international relations.

Explain.

Mr. POULIOT:

Mr. Speaker, it is very easy to explain the purpose of this bill. It

Questions

is to put the axe of parliamentary control to a dry branch of the dead tree of so-called social legislation.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

PRIVILEGE-MR. POULIOT .

Mr. JEAN-FRANQOIS POULIOT (Temis-couata): Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of privilege. What I have to say will contain nothing of blame towards your honour; I wish only to direct your attention to the following facts. Early in February I sent a first draft of the bill on the bureau of translations to the clerk of this house, and af-ter I saw the news in one of the local newspapers that the government was opposed to the bill as it was first drafted, the bill was redrafted. Therefore the English and French copies of the bill sent to your honour on Thursday of last week were entirely different from the first draft that was sent to the clerk of the house. What surprised me, therefore, was that your honour's decision was not based on the copies that were forwarded to you but on the altogether different copy that was sent to the clerk a long time before. I would therefore ask your honour kindly to reconsider this matter and render your decision upon the copies of the bill that were sent to you.

Mr. SPEAKER:

I shall look into the matter just drawn to the attention of the house by the hon. member.

Mr. FAIR:

How many cents of each dollar spent on direct relief in 1935 were used up in overhead?

Mr. ROGERS:

It should be pointed out that the cost of administration of relief, in so far as the detailed distribution is concerned, is borne by municipal and provincial authorities and their cost of distribution is not a matter of record with the Department of Labour.

It would doubtless be difficult for the provinces and municipalities to make a statement as to their actual cost of administration since most municipal and provincial departments dealing with direct relief, also deal with other matters of an allied nature, which, however, do not come within the category of relief.

In so far as the federal Department of Labour is concerned, the amount paid out to provinces, municipalities, and other departments of the government, etc., under the Unemployment Relief Act, 1930, the Unemployment and Farm Relief Act, 1931, The Relief Act, 1932, The Relief Act, 1933, The Relief Act, 1934, and The Relief Act, 1935, to January 31, 1936, was 3193,448,739 and the cost of administration to the Department of Labour including salaries, printing and stationery, telegraphs and telephone, travelling expenses, and, in fact, all expenses of administration was $480,112 or slightly less than one-quarter of one per cent.

The amount of the dominion contribution for direct relief including the grants-in-aid was $105,738,928, but as the same staff handles all classes of accounts it is not possible to give the actual cost of direct relief administration by the Department of Labour, the percentage given above, viz. slightly less than one-quarter of one per cent, would however be approximately correct.

farmers' creditors arrangement act-

1. What payments were made for expenses of the Farmers' Creditors Arrangement Act for the year 1935, in the province of New Brunswick?

2. How many cases under the act have been completely settled in New Brunswick?

Mr. DUNNING:

,;

1. $27,658.03.

2. To February 1, 1936: 158 cases settled by board of review; 150 cases settled by official receivers as a result of formal proposals; and 83 cases settled by official receivers without formal proposals.

1. On what date was Mr. Ubald V6zina, of Beauport, engaged as plumber for the Marine department at Quebec?

2. On what date was he dismissed?

3. What were the reasons for such dismissal?

Mr. HOWE:

.

1. October 10, 1930.

2. February 13, 1936.

3. Political partisanship.