Mr. FRASER.

There are two hon. gentlemen standing up at the same time.

Mr. D. C. FRASER (Guysborough).

I am glad the hon. Solicitor General made that statement before I spoke, because the hon. member for East Hastings (Mr. Northrup) will now see that there is no need for a new dictionary. If for two years there was advertisement in the public press, and if, in the third year, knowing just the parties who took advantage of the opportunity offered. circulars were sent out to them under the direction of a well-known Conservative at the head of the business, a gentleman appointed by hon. gentlemen opposite, I think the government have done everything they ought to be called upon to do. There is one thing that the hon. member who has made this resolution should do. In fairness he should stand up now and offer to do it. He should offer that if the farmers do not take all the binder twine manufactured at Kingston he will purchase the bal-

ance. He wants the government to carry on this business. He should desire the government not to lose in doing so. If, in response to the government's advertisements all the parties who might have done so, did not send in tenders for the product of the factory at Kingston, it may have been for one of two reasons.

Mr. FRASER.

I do not deny that. But with the exposure made by the Solicitor General, and the challenges made to hon. gentlemen opposite to call for a committee and examine witnesses under oath, I do not think we will have as much trouble in the future in relation to this question. For myself, I think the government should never have entered into the business. We have paid twice as much for the machinery as it ought to cost. I do not believe it is the business of the government to enter into the manufacture of binder twine at Kingston, any more than it would he to enter into any other manufacturing business. There is plenty of other work the 19}

convicts could do. I think, now that the duty is off binder twine, that the case is quite clear. What would any business man do to-day ? Let the government, now that the duty has been taken off, put up at competition the manufactured product, and every bit of raw material that they have on hand, together with this machinery that has cost twice as much as it should cost, and let them sell it all and go out of the business. At least, by that means we would avoid all the trouble of these discussions. Then, if binder twine is an absolute necessity to the existence of the farmers, they could get it without duty from the outside, in case it could not be manufactured within this country. Here is a way in which the whole problem could be clearly solved. The hon. member for East York (Mf< Maclean) has a panacea for everything that comes up, namely, to take the railways over, and then all difficulties would be solved. But I think he will admit that this Kingston penitentiary difficulty would not be solved except by the government going out of the business altogether. I may say that this is a question that does not affect us so much in Nova Scotia as it appears to affect the people of Ontario. But if, as has been clearly shown, the government have sold an article at the lowest price, if these people who are in the same business are to be believed, and I would trust them to tell the facts more than I would that single individual farmer that the hon. member for Hastings has told us about, if the evidence of the Solicitor General is to be taken, the government have sold the twine at a less price than it was sold elsewhere; and having taken the duty off binder twine, I think they have done all that they should do. Now, I would suggest to them that they should clear the decks of this question altogether, sell out everything ; and that would prevent a number of hon. gentlemen from talking for ever about this question of binder twine. It would give an opportunity to the manufacturers of the country to compete with each other in manufacturing a good article for the farmers, that they could get at the lowest price. I offer the suggestion in all modesty, and I trust it will be accepted ; and I have no doubt hon. gentlemen opposite will join with me in endeavouring to relieve this wicked government, as they consider it to be, from the necessity of dealing in binder twine to the disadvantage of the farmers.

Mr. FRASER.

Does the hon. gentleman (Mr. Monk) think it fair, when advertisements were inserted in the newspapers for two successive years calling upon people to tender and only certain people did tender, to say, that, because in the third year, all the parties who did tender were asked to tender again, they did not have a chance ?

Mr. D. C. FRASER (Guysborough).

I beg leave to support this Bill with all my heart. I believe, as the hon. member for North Norfolk has said, that the land of this country belongs to the country for the people who till it ; and if that fundamental principle is kept in view, our country will increase as it never has done before. I will go further than the hon. member. Not only would I prohibit the giving of any land to large corporations, and give it only to those who would become bona fide settlers upon it, but I would to-morrow find some means of estimating the value every acre of land that belongs to the Canadian Pacific and every other corporation, and I would pay them what they are entitled to for their land, and throw it open to actual settlers. We never can succeed in a country like the North-west except by the settlers settling down as near one another as possible, and under the most favourable conditions. Indeed, there are those who think that it might perhaps be a good investment for the government to make it still easier for the settlers by building small houses for them, and in the meantime holding the land as security. I will not go that far, for I think that any man who gets 160 acres of land in that country under the conditions now prevailing will have no difficulty, if he is a diligent and careful man, in making a better living there than he could in the older provinces. But 1 would not hamper him at all. I would give him the opportunity of getting the land. I would open every district in the country, making it as free as it was before we obtained possession of it, to every good man who wanted to go in and settle there. That country will never become as great as it was destined to be until these restrictions are removed. It is right in principle, and what is right in principle will always work out in practice. This is not the first time that I have declared in this House most emphatically, and I will continue to declare, that any government of this country would do a wise thing for the country if they could again obtain possession of the lands which we have given to various corporations, and throw them open to the people. The effect of this Bill will be that the land will only be given to bona fide settlers. That will have a double effect. In the first place, settlers knowing that they can get land there, and that it will not be tied up, will be more ready to go into that country ; and in the next place,

the alternate sections not being held by the corporations, the settlers will come nearer to one another. Their roads, their school-houses, and all their material interests, are bound up in this question. I support this Bill, and trust that it will receive the sanction of this parliament.