Mr. GOBEIL:

I certainly had no intention of taking part in this debate and I shall detain the committee only a very few minutes. I cannot let pass the contention of the hon. member for Sherbrooke that this government has done nothing for the eastern townships. He has very carefully refrained from suggesting any public works that could be carried out in Sherbrooke. Last year, after the public works program was parsed by this house, I

met several business men from Sherbrooke who were complaining and I put this question to them: What public building do you expect the government could erect in Sherbrooke? They could not name any, because there was not any. There is not a single dollar for my constituency of Compton, and I do not object. The only thing I could have the government build would be a post office, and unfortunately for myself the revenue of the post offices in my constituency which have not already public buildings is not sufficient to justify the building of a post office. This government is not throwing away money, it is trying to spend money where it can be spent usefully. The hon. member for Sherbrooke says that the government has done nothing for Sherbrooke. I say that this government has helped the city of Sherbrooke perhaps more than any other city in this dominion. My hon. friend admitted it himself when he made a report to the board of trade last fall and in his speech used these words, which I have already quoted in this house:

The situation is sensibly improving in our city. The 'business activity is increasing. The commerce is more stable, and unemployment diminished. This is the encouraging declaration of Charles B. Howard, member for Sherbrooke at Ottawa, contained in a message to members of that chamber last .night in submitting his report on the activities of the industrial committee, of which he is a member.

Further on he said:

In a comforting report made to the chamber of commerce, Mr. C. B. Howard reveals that our silk industries are running at full time at one hundred per cent capacity, and are closely followed by the Paton manufacturing company and all the iron and steel manufacturers.

Now I think this activity in the city of Sherbrooke is due chiefly to the tariff policy of this government, and the support whieh that policy has given to industries. I understand the hon. member for Sherbrooke is a heavy shareholder in the silk mills, and I have no doubt he gets a very nice profit from the shares he holds in these companies that are running at one hundred per cent capacity due to the protection afforded by this government.

Mr. SAMUEL GOBEIL (Compton):

I would like to direct a question, to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Weir). He is not in his seat at present, but he will be able to read the question in Hansard. I am interested in the question which was asked by the hon. member for Laprairie-Napierville (Mr. Dupuis) of the Minister of Agriculture a few days ago and which he referred to again yesterday. I understood the minister to say that he would place on Hansard the information he gave the hon. member by letter. Personally I am very much interested in, this; I have received several inquiries as to why Canada imports butter from the United Kingdom. I would ask the Minister of Agriculture if he would take this as notice of question and state why these importations have been made, and what amount of buitter has been imported from the United Kingdom and other countries during the past year, also for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1930; and what the exports were during the same periods.

QUEBEC HARBOUR COMMISSION On the orders of the day:

Mr. PIERRE F. CASGRAIN (Charlevoix-Saguenay) (Translation): Mr. Speaker, may I ask the hon. Minister of Marine (Mr. Duranleau) if it will be possible for him to bring down soon the return in answer to some questions I addressed to him on February 13? At page 780 of Hansard, the hon. minister stated:

Supply-Justice-Mounted Police

Mr. DuranLeau: I think this question should stand as an order for return and I shall table the information received from the harbour commission.

The questions asked referred to the Quebec Harbour Commission. To my knowledge, those papers have not been brought down.

Mr. GOBEIL:

The question is: Was your statement correct? You know it was not.

Mr. GOBEIL:

I hear some hon. gentlemen saying "Hear, hear."

Mr. SAMUEL GOBEIL (Compton):

At

the outset of my remarks may I extend to the hon. Minister of Finance (Mr. Rhodes) my congratulations upon the very able manner in which he presented the budget for this fiscal year. It is not a political budget, not a budget to mislead the people of this country but the budget of a business man setting forth the facts as they are, and one which the future will justify.

Until I heard the speeches of hon. gentlemen opposite, especially that of the hon. member for Shelburne-Yarmouth (Mr. Ralston) and the hon. member for Medicine Hat (Mr. Ger-shaw) I was undecided whether or not I should participate in this debate. But as they have repeated the assertion that this government and the Conservative party have strangled the external trade of our country and, as they are constantly doing, have claimed that this party is a party of high tariffs, and as I come from a constituency bordering on the United States I felt that I could not let this occasion pass without stating once more the actual facts in regard to the tariff. Before going into that, however, I should like to say a few words concerning the speech made by the hon. member for Medicine Hat. At the beginning of his speech he said:

I am of the opinion that the people of this country want a general election at the earliest possible moment.