Mr. COOTE:

Well, it perhaps would be in this country, but for the Australian farmer that three shillings is equivalent, in his own currency and dealing with his own internal situation, to seventy-two cents.

Mr. COOTE:

But when it comes to paying debts and interest, it is equivalent to seventy-two cents.

Mr. COOTE:

Just a word in regard to the first subsection of section 8, the power of the board to fix a minimum .price. I say on1 behalf of the producers that I think the great majority of them have sold their wheat below cost of production for four years. I hope when this board in consultation with the government comes to set .this price they will bear that in mind, as well as the price that our competitors in the Argentine and Australia are receiving. In that connection I would point out that in the June 1 issue of the Commercial Intelligence Journal there is a dispatch from our trade commissioner in Australia in which he deals wilth the question of wheat there, and he says that the price to the grower at country sidings is approximately three shillings per bushel. Hon. members will realize that that is a price above that which our producers have been getting even with the support that has been given to the market.

Mr. G. G. COOTE (Macleod):

Mr. G. G. COOTE (Macleod):

If I may

have the unanimous consent of the house I should like to make a statement regarding two bills wdiich are on the order paper in my name, Nos. 13 and 14. Hon. members will remember that when Bill No. 13 was before the house the first time the Prime Minister (Mr. Bennett) said he had received assurance from the Canadian Life Insurance Officers' Association, which includes Canadian, British and foreign companies, registered with the federal insurance department, that if these bills were not proceeded with they

would see that no rate of interest in excess of six per cent per annum was charged on any policy loan after the first of January, 1936, this to include automatic premium loans and all charges of every kind in connection with such loans or other loans. I asked the Minister of Finance (Mr. Rhodes) since that time to confirm that by letter, and I have a letter from the Minister of Finance dated June 28, in which he says:

I have pleasure in writing to advise you that the department of insurance and the government will be at pains to see that the undertaking given iby the Hon. N. W. Rowell, K.C., counsel for the Canadian Life Insurance Officers' Association, as to the rate of interest that will be charged after January 1, 1936, will be carried out in strict conformity with the undertaking, the terms of which you have before you in the copy of Mr. Rowell's letter, dated the 24th of June, addressed to Mr. Finlayson, the superintendent of insurance.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I do not wish to proceed further with these two bills at this time.