Mr. CHEVRIER:

I believe I could answer the questions which have been asked if I were to read one paragraph from this letter, which brings up to date the position with respect to refrigerator cars. The letter states:

During the period February 10 to 22 inclusive there was an average of twenty-two cars of potatoes shipped from Prince Edward Island and there were forty-five empty refrigerator cars ready for placing. It is pointed out, however, that during this past season up to February 22,- there were 4,673 cars of potatoes shipped from Prince Edward Island and for the previous season up to February 22, the total figure was 4,709 ears, and when it is considered that the estimated crop for this past season is

8,000 cars, whereas it was 10.000 cars the previous year, it would appear that the potato shippers have received fair treatment this year

The Address-Mr. Sinnott

as it is estimated that they have only about 3,500 more ears to ship, whereas last year they had 5,500 cars to ship.

The present situation is that there are 250 refrigerator cars now at Atlantic ports waiting for steamer to clear, and as soon as these are made empty they will be forwarded to Prince Edward Island for loading, which should grant considerable relief, and as meat has started to move on a large scale, a continued supply of refrigerator cars should be available.

Mr. J. S. SINNOTT (Springfield):

Mr. Speaker, I notice that it is fifteen minutes after four, and only now have we been able to get going; I hope therefore you will give me a few minutes.

In the short time which was at my disposal before eleven o'clock on Thursday last I mentioned that all the hydro-electric developments supplying power to Manitoba were located in the constituency of Springfield. The Winnipeg river, which originates at the Lake of the Woods, Ontario, and flows into lake Winnipeg, has thirty-three falls, of which only three are partly developed at the present time. Therefore Manitoba has an abundance of power to be developed in the years to come. There will be no need of shutting off power and causing inconvenience to customers. The manufacturer who wants an abundance of cheap and reliable electric power should come to Manitoba where there is a steady flow of electricity which does not blink as it does in some of the cities down here.

I always feel at home in this building, and I have good reasons. When you look around the walls and the halls of this building what do you see? You see some of the finest building stone to be found in Canada. The stone making up the pillars and the inside walls comes from the constituency of Springfield. It is known as Tyndall stone, and it is obtained from the Garson quarries. These were founded by the father of the present Premier of Manitoba, who did not live to see his son achieve the high honour he now has. These walls, so well constructed, are a monument to Manitoba; they are a monument to the constituency of Springfield which I have the honour to represent. I might mention that the Bank of Canada building is

also constructed of Tyndall stone. This quarry consists of fifty feet of solid rock with very little topsoil to be removed. The deposit is found over approximately two sections or 1,280 acres of land.

I should like to refer also to dairying. If Canada generally had the energetic types of citizen that we have in Springfield, there would be no calls at the present time for oleomargarine. In my constituency are 108 large milk shippers who, along with many hundreds of others, ship cream to the various dairies in Winnipeg and Beausejour. I want to pay a compliment to the Beausejour creamery which operates in the town of Beausejour for its success in having obtained second place in a dominion-wide butter competition. We have some of the best dairymen, bar none, in Canada. We will not stand idly by if a challenge should come from that great nation to the south.

I have mentioned the energetic type of citizen to be found in the constituency of Springfield. There are Anglo-Saxons of course, but there is a large section of French, Ukrainians, Germans, Polish, Finnish, Swedish and many others. It is one of the most cosmopolitan rural constituencies in Canada. There is no minority problem in Springfield. It does not matter where your ancestors came from so long as you can produce the goods. Not only are the citizens of Springfield able; they are also outstanding in appearance. Just take one look at me and you will know that. Looks and health always go hand in hand.

I notice by the Financial Post that the leader of the opposition (Mr. Bracken) has agreed to act as a judge in a nation-wide baby contest. I hereby invite the leader of the opposition to come to the agricultural fair to be held this fall at Beausejour where the babies are bound to be healthy and beautiful. If that is not sufficient inducement to the hon. gentleman, we will not draw the line when it comes to the age of the babies.

In addition to abundant hydro electricity in Manitoba we have an unlimited1 supply of the best water in the world which originates in the constituency of Springfield east of Winnipeg. By way of diversification, we also have a number of lumber mills and a large paper mill at Pine Falls. At the present time this mill employs about 2,000 men, some of them operating the mill while others are cutting and delivering pulpwood to the mill. At this point I would remind the Postmaster General (Mr. Bertrand) that I have asked him continually for a new post office at Pine Falls. I am sorry he is not in his seat at the moment. At the present time the people of this thriving community have to wait hours for their mail

The Address-Mr. Sinnott

to be sorted because of the congested quarters in which the post office operates. It is housed in a little building twelve by sixteen, making it most inconvenient for the people of Pine Falls and almost impossible for the postmaster and his assistants, who have to handle as many as thirty-three bags of mail in a day.

I am again asking the Postmaster General to realize that it is his responsibility to have this post office built at as early a date as possible, and that Tyndall stone be used. We have plenty of stone, plenty of men available to quarry it and plenty of stone-masons to construct the building-all in Springfield. At the present time the revenue from the post office is within a few dollars of $10,000 per year and I would urge again that the Postmaster General and his department proceed with this work at the earliest possible moment.

As I mentioned before, we have mines which are just in their infancy. We also have some well established gold mines at Wadhope and Bissett. Bissett is one of the larger mines employing many hundreds at the present time in the northeastern part of the constituency. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister of Finance (Mr. Abbott) for the assistance recently offered by the government to new producers.

We have also a large clay brick industry in the town of Whitemouth.

The eastern end of my constituency, where there are many hundreds of lakes teeming with fish, is a boon to the tourist industry, and is a great drawing card to the many thousands of tourists who come to Canada every year. But at the present time our visiting neighbours to the south experience much difficulty because of the roundabout road which they have to travel. I am asking the Minister of Mines and Resources (Mr. Glen) to develop tourist roads for the tourist trade, and that considerable thought be given to the development of the vast territory in northeastern Springfield. A tremendous tourist trade can be developed there, and I would advocate the contribution by the dominion government of an all-weather road from a point on No. 1 highway at Whitemouth, Manitoba, directly south through the towns of Elma, Medika, Hadashville, and through the Sandy Lands forest connecting at a point on the United States boundary called Piney, where there is an all-weather road. This would enable the people of Minnesota to have a direct route to Canada and at the same time would provide the people of this part of the constituency with a road which they have been wanting and awaiting for so long. I have also brought this matter up from time to time with the minister of public works in Manitoba.

In the southwestern portion of Springfield constituency many farmers have contributed their efforts to the new beet growing industry which is playing a large part in solving our sugar difficulties. I hope that the government will deal fairly with these beet growers, who have had a relatively hard time in past years owing to insect ravages and a continual shortage of help.

Along the Red River are some of the finest market gardens in Canada. In the spring and summer one can see these hardy gardeners out in the fields as early as four o'clock in the morning and until long after dark at night. They originate mostly from the central Ukraine in Europe. They make excellent gardeners, not being concerned in the least about a forty-hour week.

The hon. member for Fraser Valley (Mr. Cruickshank) made a remark the other day about growing vegetables in British Columbia. While they may be able to grow good vegetables there, they have nothing on us in the constituency of Springfield.

We have another industry of which there are relatively few in Canada, and that is the big moss plant located four miles west of Whitemouth. This particular moss deposit is approximately sixteen feet in depth and covers about four sections of land. The plant employs many men on a year-round basis, the moss being put to many uses, such as insulation, litter for chickens, and many other things. The type of machinery used in this plant is quite odd. As the ground is so soft it is necessary to operate different machinery from the ordinary. A small type caterpillar is used, with very large crawler tracks which enables it to travel over the soft ground marking the blocks, which are later thrown out by hand and left in large piles for a number of weeks to dry. They are then taken to the drier plant, afterwards going through a shredder, thence to the baler, and loaded into cars, approximately 360 bales to a car. A large portion of this moss goes to Louisiana in the United States. At the present time this peat moss is too expensive for use as fuel.

The total commercial marketings of grain for crop district No. 4 which I represent were: wheat, in the year 1944, 1,268,342 bushels; oats, in the year 1946, 1,776,563 bushels; barley, in the year 1946, 1,563,512 bushels. These figures are of local marketings to elevators. There was also about a million bushels delivered direct to Winnipeg by truck. There were also marketed 8,352 cattle, 4,186 calves, and 332,761 hogs, all in the year 1946.

I wish at this time to express my sincere thanks to the government and to the Minister

The Address-Mr. Sinnott

of Trade and Commerce, (Mr. Howe) for bringing down a bill to amend the Canadian Wheat Board Act, as I advocated on page 293 of Hansard of December 15, and extending the act to cover oats and barley.

I have listened attentively, Mr. Speaker, from time to time to the hon. member for Muskoka-Ontario (Mr. Maedonnell) who I always thought was very conscientious in his thinking. 1 am sorry he is not in the house at the moment for I never like to tackle a man when he is not here. But his statement in Hansard of February 18 and 19 in which he advocated higher interest rates, does not seem to be the general consensus of opinion. I always thought that the hon. gentleman, in his pleading for the poor man was conscientious in his views, but it is easy to see just whom he represents in advocating higher rates of interest.

Does the hon. gentleman say that the policy of the industrial bank was wrong?

Does he say that the loans to corporations and individuals amounting to $13,000,000 was wrong at low rates of interest?

Does he think that the moneys lent to the provincial governments, cities, towns, and school districts, amounting to $78,000,000 was wrong at low interest rates?

Would he say that the $104-9 million lent by the chartered banks for stocks and debentures was not high enough? Would the hon. gentleman say that -the current commercial loans of $1,921 million are not drawing enough interest? Would he say that the loans made to thousands of returned veterans to establish their homes or start in business was wrong?

Would he say that the $31,500,000 lent to farmers under the Farm Improvement Loans Act was wrong because it was issued at a low rate of interest?

It is wrong, in my opinion, Mr. Speaker, for anyone to advocate high rates of interest when be will not take the risk and responsibility of investing his money himself. One never forgets the days of 1930-35-I do not- when interest rates were high and commodity prices were low. People who had borrowed money at high rates of interest were expected to pay their full pound of flesh regardless of whether the commodities they were producing were sufficiently priced or not, and this led many to bankruptcies and foreclosures.

I claim, Mr. Speaker, that high interest is the cancer of civilization, and until a remedy is found to take its place the strong and the wealthy are always bound to swallow the weak.

I maintain that the policy of the government has been sound in regard to giving to

the several thousands of veterans who have returned an opportunity to establish themselves. If any other policy had been followed, it certainly would not have been to the benefit of the men and women who served in the armed forces and risked life and limb in order to save democracy.

Mr. McMASTER:

I should like to ask the

last speaker a question.

Too late.

Mr. McMASTER:

Who made that statement?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr. Golding):

Order. Unless the hon. member who had the floor consents to answer the question the hon. member cannot ask it.

Write to him.

Mr. ROSS (Souris):

He might not understand it.

Mr. McMASTER:

I should like to know if the last speaker knows to whom the industrial bank makes its loans and what interest it charges.

Louder.

Mr. G. K. FRASER (Peterborough West):

Mr. Speaker, I shall give the hon. member for Springfield (Mr. Sinnott) an opportunity to answer the question if he wishes to or can do so. The hon. member did a lot of boasting about his riding. I wish to say here and now that it is not necessary for me to boast about the riding that I have the honour and privilege to represent, because the thousands and thpusands of United States tourists who visit the Peterborough riding and: district each year do the boasting for Peterborough. They have been coming back year after year for over sixty years.

You must have a good administration.

Mr. FRASER:

We have an excellent

administration in Peterborough; the hon. member is absolutely right, and I am glad he agrees with me.

I agree with the hon. member for Springfield in one thing. When he started his speech on Thursday night, I believe it was, he spoke about a Trans-Canada highway and said he believed that one should be built. That subject has been brought up by other hon. members. Every hon. member should press upon this government the necessity of making plans at once for a Trans-Canada highway from Halifax to Vancouver. This country is losing millions of dollars each year owing to the fact that we have not a

The Address-Mr. Fraser

Trans-Canada highway. If a person wishes to drive from Halifax to Vancouver on hard surfaced, all-weather highways he must travel part of the way through the United States.

Mr. GIBSON (Comox-Alberni):

We cannot get enough money to come down here, either.

Mr. FRASER:

The hon. member is perfectly right.

For once.

Mr. FRASER:

He is right a number of times, but when it comes to a vote, instead of being independent, he votes with the Liberal party.