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

Mr. Speaker, it is seldom we advance very far in any parliament before we are reminded that, one by one, our ranks are certain to be thinned by the hand of death. Mr. D'Arcy Britton Plunkett, representative for Victoria, is the first member of the new parliament to have been taken from our midst. His death occurred only yesterday after an exceedingly brief illness, so brief in fact that many hon. members of the house were not aware of his indisposition until they read that he had passed away.

Mr. Plunkett was in his sixty-fifth year, and was unmarried. The circumstance that his death should have occurred in this city while he was attending to his parliamentary duties, that for this reason he should have been away from the many friends and associations of the constituency he represented, and that because of the seriousness of his illness it was impossible for any of his fellow members and associates in this city to have much in the way of contact with him in his last days, adds not a little to the feeling of sadness which we all experience at this time.

Mr. Plunkett entered parliament in a byelection in December, 1928. He was reelected at the general elections of 1930 and 1935. I shall leave it to my right hon. friend the leader of the opposition (Mr. Bennett) to speak of his public services. To my right hon. friend Mr. Plunkett was not only a very loyal supporter but a very true personal friend. I hasten at once to express to him on behalf of the government and of all hon. members on this side, and also to hon. members of his party our feelings of very sincere sympathy with them in the loss they and

their party have sustained. May I say that the sense of personal loss which they experience will I am sure be shared in large measure by all who sat in previous parliaments with Mr. Plunkett, and also by others whose privilege it was to come to know him since the opening of the present parliament.

I should like on behalf of all hon. members to add a brief expression of sympathy with Mr. Plunkett's brothers and his nephews, who I understand, are his only immediate surviving relations and also a word of sympathy with the city of Victoria, which has lost its representative in this parliament.

Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker, the generous terms in which the right hon. the Prime Minister (Mr. Mackenzie King) has spoken will not soon be forgotten by those of us who knew Mr. Plunkett as friend and colleague. I should like on my own behalf as well as on behalf of those with whom I am associated to express to the right hon. gentleman, not as leader of a party but as leader of this house, our very sincere and grateful appreciation of his kind words on this occasion. '

We are once more reminded that death is ever with us. The sickle of the grim reaper has appeared very early in the life of this new parliament. Out of two hundred and forty-five members one has been taken from us, although it is now but May and we first met in February.

Mr. Plunkett came into the House of Commons in a by election in 1928. He was reelected in 1930, and in 1935 he was again reelected after a very strenuous contest. If one were to ask what qualities ensured his election in the city of Victoria I would say that essentially the first was that he was a man of integrity and of the highest character. He was not a man who wore his heart upon his sleeve, and many who did not know him little appreciated the kindly heart that beat under a somewhat, shall I say, rugged exterior. But those of us who came to know him realized not only that he was a man of character and integrity and of great simplicity and directness in speech and action, but that he was possessed of a sense of loyalty that nothing could destroy. He was proud of his city and proud to be the member for Victoria-prouder than most men who represent constituencies, because he had been absent in the great war for a very considerable time, and came back only to find confusion in his own business. When he was elected he felt it was indeed the proudest moment of his life. His pride in Victoria he expressed in many ways.

The Late D'Arcy B. Plunkett

As a public man he took but little part in the debates of the house, but he was most regular in his attendance both in the chamber and in committee, and made himself singularly well informed with respect to all matters which engaged the attention of pariiament. Over and above all that he was a man of great industry, although that fact may not have been apparent to those who sat in the chamber with him. He attended to his correspondence in a manner which I believe commended him to his constituents; he was always busy looking after the interests of his friends and constituents, whether they were his political supporters or otherwise.

He was a great Canadian in the sense that he believed in his country, its destiny and its future. Although he represented the city of Victoria, in the far west, he never forgot that in Ontario he had first seen the light. Obviously his loss to all of us is great, but even greater to those of us who knew him better than to others who knew him only casually. While in the first loss of a member of this parliament the house as a whole has suffered a bereavement that is not easily understood, we, small in numbers, who sit to your left, Mr. Speaker, have lost a well beloved comrade and colleague and one who by his loyalty and devotion to those with whom he was associated and to his party had greatly endeared himself to all of us.

I never think of the passing of one who is active in public life and who has to endure all that public men must endure,-the vicissitudes of life, the vicissitudes of position, criticism, sometimes unreasoning, and commendation sometimes equally unreasoning -without recalling those beautiful words of Shelley. I believe upon this occasion I might well repeat them as indicating what must be the position of those who, in the midst of their public duties, are struck down and go to their reward:

He hath outsoared the shadow of the night;

Envy and calumny and hate and pain.

And that unrest which men miscall delight,

Can touch him not, and torture not again;

From the contagion of the world's slow stain.

He is secure, and now can never mourn

A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain.

Mr. J. S. WOODSWORTH (Winnipeg North Centre):

Mr. Speaker, may I simply

say that we in this corner of the house join with other hon. members in expressing our regret at the passing of our late colleague.

Miss MACPHAIL:

What was the total sum of money spent in the last three years on Royal Canadian Mounted Police barracks, officers' residences and furnishing of same?

Mr. LAPOINTE (Quebec East):

1. Yes.

2. No.

3. Proceedings have been undertaken on behalf of all of the stockholders of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada, seeking an adjudication by the Canadian courts of the rights of the stockholders. The government does not consider it advisable to submit the petition to a committee of the house.

1. What are the names of the small loan companies incorporated by federal authority, the past ten years, whose head office is located in the city of Toronto?

2. Have any complaints been received in reference to the high rates charged by these money lenders on small loans?

3. Who are the directors of these companies ?

4. What rates are they allowed to charge by

law ?

5. Will any steps be taken by the government to cancel the charters of money lending companies charging exorbitant rates of interest, or to further regulate such matters?

1. Central Finance Corporation; Personal Finance Corporation and The Small Loan Company of Canada.

2. Yes.

3. Central Finance Corporation, directors:

B. E. Henderson, F. B. Hubachek, A. P. Reid, D. D. Macleod, and W. H. Despard. Incorporated June 11, 1928.

Personal Finance Corporation, provisional directors as at date of incorporation July 3, 1934 (not yet organized): Albert Burton Rose, Morris Jacob Weiss, and Sidney Druck-man.

The Small Loan Company of Canada, provisional directors as at date of incorporation July 3, 1934 (not yet organized): R. J. Cutten, E. L. Chudleigh, A. D. H. Cutten,

C. L. Dunbar, and A. C. Dunbar.

4. (a) Under the acts of incorporation of the companies: interest, 7 per cent per annum in advance; expense charge, 2 per cent of the amount of the loan; chattel mortgage fee, actual disbursements not exceeding $10. (b) Under the act, chapter 56 of the statutes of 1934, the foregoing charges must not exceed 2i per cent per month of the monthly balance owing by the borrower.

5. The government has no power to cancel the acts of incorporation of companies restricting their charges to those mentioned in No. 4.

1. What loss does the Post Office Department sustain per annum in carrying newspapers and other similar periodicals at a cut rate for this class of mail?

2. What is the difference between the actual cost to the department, per annum, and that received for transmitting second and third class mail accordingly?