Mr. CANTLEY:

We claim that our principal products are fish and coal and lumber- and men. Allow me to refer to further hardships suffered by us. I have in my hand a statement showing the rates-taken at random-on grain from points in western Canada to Fort William and Port Arthur. These rates are shown per ton per mile in mills, with the percentage they bear to the eighth class rate under which grain and flour are classified according to the Canadian Joint Freight Classification. On the same statement are shown the rates on fifth class goods, steel products-which should be moved-and the tenth class rates on pig iron. This is assuming these goods were given equally favourable rates in proportion to class as is given to grain and flour.

We submit that if one section of Canada receives preferential consideration for its products another section should receive similar consideration for products produced within its territory. We think this must have been the intention of the government in passing the order in council No. 886 of June 5 last. The statement I am now dealing with shows that grain and flour are moved from some points in western Canada to Port Arthur and Fort William at as low a rate as 30 per cent of the class to which these products belong. It is well understood that the value of the goods receives consideration in the establishment of freight rates. There are no steel products manufactured in Nova Scotia valued at as high per ton as flour is at the present time. This is one reason why our iron and steel products should receive a more favourable rate. We submit that the westbound rates should be brought more in line with the rates we have mentioned as being given only for the benefit of other parts of the country, and the discrimination in freight rates westbound against coal, iron and steel products thus overcome.

There is only one word I wish to add on that subject. If Canada will impose a duty on coal considerably less than the duty which the United States at one time put on Nova Scotia coal, within ten years or less the Dominion will be entirely independent of all foreign sources for what is a vital necessity, coal, and can keep at home over a hundred million! dollars annually. All the anthracite now imported can be replaced by coke produced in by-product retort ovens. This policy would add .seven million tons to our Canadian output of bituminous coal, and would provide employment for over 40,000 working men. Of course it would add largely to our railway traffic.

When we in the Maritime provinces refer to our railway rates we are told that the British North America Act does not contain a clause guaranteeing to Nova Scotia or New

The Address-Mr. Cantley

Brunswick any definite rates of freight on the Intercolonial railway. True. But here we may inquire whether any stipulation was made or whether any clause of the British North America Act refers to the construction and free operation of an extensive system of canals in Ontario and Quebec at the charge and cost of the confederated provinces. The canals were constructed, they are now being greatly enlarged, and f,or many years they have been and still are operated wholly at the cost of the Dominion. Ninety-nine per cent of the advantage accrues to Quebec and Ontario, and the grain-exporting western provinces. Further, American products have been for years and still are carried free through these canals, and that in competition with the products of Nova Scotia, which have to pay high rates on a thousand miles of railway carriage, only to meet in Montreal manufactured goods from Ontario and the United States enjoying special canal transportation facilities at our expense. Maritime business has not only to pay heavy transportation rates, but it has also to pay its proportion of the cost of free canal service given to our highly specialized and long-established American competitors in the iron and steel trade.

Nova Scotia has but four important sources of trade: fish, lumber, coal and steel. No adequate effort has been made by any government since confederation to carry out the assurances then held out to us as to interprovincial trade. Geographically, the continental trade of the Maritime provinces should be with the eastern United States, and outside of these, with the West Indies, South America and Europe. This water-borne traffic is carried at rates of freight of from one-eighth to one-twelfth of a cent per ton mile, or, say one-tenth of the rate per ton mile charged for rail haul.

Full cargoes of iron and steel can be delivered at South American cities distant from 3,500 to 5,000 miles for one-half the present railway rate from Sydney to Montreal, a distance of 1,000 miles. Lumber is today being carried from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania ports at from $6 to $7 per

Shipping point Destination

Drumheller

Springhill, N.S

Stellarton, N.S

Stellarton, N.S

Sydney Mines, N.S... . . ..Montreal..

Sydney Mines, N.S... . . ..Toronto.. .

Sydney, N.S

Sydney, N.S

thousand feet, while the railway charge to-day is $3.25 for a haul of 106 miles from New Glasgow to Halifax, a distance only one-sixth as great as that to these United States ports. Again, the same class of lumber is carried to the West Indies, a distance of say 2,000 miles, for $9 per thousand feet, which is relatively even a lower rate than to United States eastern seaboard ports; it works out at about one-quarter of a cent per thousand feet per mile. Our fish is carried to South America, the West Indies and Mediterranean ports at correspondingly low rates.

During the summer season Nova Scotia coal is largely water-borne from Pictou and Sydney to Quebec and Montreal, but low rates which are needed during the season of closed navigation on the St. Lawrence, are lacking, Were Nova Scotia operators given a mileage rate equivalent to that last year accorded to the Alberta collieries from Drumheller to Toronto, rates of $3.25 from Sydney to Montreal and $4.90 from Sydney to Toronto would be available as against the actual rate of $4.50 to Montreal now charged on Nova Scotia coal, or the only rate published, a commodity rate, of $9.80 to Toronto. Last summer Drumheller coal to Toronto, a distance of 2,025 miles, enjoyed a rate of $7, or say 3.5 mills per ton mile. I have prepared a statement which I will read showing the relative mileage and the actual rail rates charged on Nova Scotia coal, and the rate which should apply if Nova Scotia coal was accorded the same proportional mileage rate as Drumheller coal.

Mr. CANTLEY:

Coke ought to be laid down and delivered to wholesale buyers in Montreal for about two-thirds the present price of hard coal. And remember this: you are getting a fuel that is worth at least five to eight per cent more than any hard coal that is coming into this country to-day, whether it is American, Welsh or any other coal. The domestic coke to-day made from Cape Breton coal has a fixed carbon content of about 93 per cent. There is no anthracite coal coming into Canada, whether it be American or British, that will go over 85

The Address-Mr. Cantley

Mr. CANTLEY:

Mr. Speaker, I made no such assertion. Anyone who knows me and who knows the province of Nova Scotia must be aware that I have been opposing Besco since Besco came into being.

Mr. CANTLEY:

I know of no rate being asked for except on the quantity that I refer to: 6,000 tons a month for the next two and a half months. I do not admit the railway cannot haul that coal for that money, for this reason: They are hauling hundreds of cars down to Cape Breton which are coming back light. Those cars have to be hauled back in any case. This amounts to only four carloads a day hauled over the railway from Sydney Mines to Montreal at a rate of $3.25 a ton. Further, Mr. Speaker, if there were a loss, the government could easily have provided for it. There was in the estimates of 1024-25 an item of $200,000 covering assistance towards the shipment of coal from the Maritime and western provinces, and only about $50,000 was expended. The balance lapsed on the 31st March, 1025, and it was not revoted. If I am correct in my understanding of the situation, that amount was available by Governor General's warrant as being an unexpended part of a vote, and it could have been devoted to making up any shortage, if there were a shortage, in the cost of moving that coal.

As regards the character of the men who are working in the collieries of Cape Breton, and particularly those of North Cape Breton, Sydney Mines, I had the proud privilege of being their general manager for twenty years, and there is no finer body of men in this country, either ,in the houses of parliament or amongst workers on the farms, in the mines or anywhere else. We have men there who, on occasions of danger following explosions and fires, have exhibited heroism unexcelled by any other men in any country, at any time, or in any war. These men deserve some consideration from this House. Are we going to balk on a question as small as the pittance represented by the loss, if there be any loss, in hauling this coal for $3.25 a ton? At any rate, this loss will not exceed a few thousand dollars. The House and the country should take this matter into consideration and deal with it promptly and effectively.

Mr. CANTLEY:

What about the price?