Mr. McLENNAN.

That is not the same work at all. The work to which my hon. friend refers is the old wharf which is" built inside tbe harbour. The work to which this vote refers is a breastwork of brush and stone built across tbe northern entrance to the harbour in order to prevent the harbour filling up with sand, which is washed in by the northerly winds and the seas, thus rendering the harbour next to useless.

Mr. McLENNAN.

There was a wharf at Port Hastings in the Gut of Canso, and there was a wharf at Point Hood in Inverness, built by Nova Scotia before confederation, and these wharfs were taken over by the Dominion government.

Mr. McLENNAN.

It was a large pond-a small lake, in fact-and the original company that owned the mines cut a narrow isthmus that existed between this small lake and the sea and built two piers to protect the entrance to this harbour, and used it in a small way to make small shipments of coal when they were first developing that coal property, but they sold out to the present company, who built their own rail-way to ship from the Strait of Canso, where they now have one of the finest shipping places perhaps in North America ; it is just as good and extensive a shipping place as that of the Dominion Coal Company in Sydney, and they thus have no use whatever for the Broad Cove harbour, as it was formerly called. I say again it Is the public that are interested in opening up this harbour, a considerable business having sprung up around the mines. The public are thus interested in the opening up of this harbour and having it for use, in order that the business interests of the place may be encouraged, particularly that a fair amount of competition may be set up with the company's railway, running-sixty miles, over which almost every article of consumption for that town must be carried.

Mr. McLENNAN.

The Inverness Coal Company agreed with the government to hand them over this harbour in the interests of the public, provided that parliament would make a grant in behalf of that harbour, in order that it would be improved to accommodate the public. There is. now a town of about 3,000 inhabitants that has sprung up around that mine and in the vicinity of that harbour. The present company purchased these works from the original company who used them, but the present company have built a railway for their own purposes, and ships their coal at the Strait of Canso ; they have abandoned this harbour and these works altogether, so that it is the public that is now interested in the repair and fixing up of this harbour for public use.

Mr. MCLENNAN.

I cannot say iu regard to repairs, but I do say that the Dominion government took over all these works, breakwaters and harbours of Dominion importance, and they refunded whatever expenditure had been made on these works by the provincial government.