The MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE.
There were no such instructions. The instructions were that if they were absent more than twelve months they should be held to be away permanently and should not be put on, but, as a matter of fact, they were put on in 1891 in numerous instances. In the census of 1901 the instructions were
that they should not be put on, and we have no proof or suspicion that any were included who were away more than twelve months.
Hon. gentlemen opposite have taken two positions on this question. First, they claim that the census of 1S91 was correctly taken and then they imply that the census of 1901 was not. The accusation is made that in the province of Quebec, in the census of 1901, the enumeration was excessive, that some people were counted who should not have been, and that in Ontario fewer people were counted than should have been on the schedules. I venture to say that I can prove that in the province of Quebec in 1901 no more people were enumerated than should have been, but that in the census of 1891 names were put on to an enormous extent that should not have been enumerated at all. If, therefore, there is any accusation of favouritism committed by either government in unduly swelling the population of the province of Quebec, that accusation comes with ill grace from Jion. gentlemen opposite, because it was really the late' government which was guilty. Let me cite a few instances just to show how the administration of these hon. gentlemen opposite proceeded in taking the census in 1891. Let me first say that in the investigation which I caused to be made, we found a ready means of obtaining information in the province of Quebec, where there is a large Catholic population. And I took care to have the investigation made in those counties in which the population is practically and .entirely Catholic, and not where there is a large mixed population. My hon. friend from South Lanark (Mr. Haggart) spoke of the counties of Drummond and Arthabaska, in which there is a mixed Catholic and Protestant population, and he argued that the reason of the disparity was that in the parochial census the Protestants were not included, but in the counties where I have had an investigation, the details of which my hon. friend the Minister of Trade and Commerce laid on the Table the other day, the county of Drummond and Arthabaska does not appear because we limited our inquiry to those counties where there is a homogeneous Catholic population and where, therefore, the census bulletins should give results similar to the parochial censuses.