CANADA AND ASIA MARINE TELEGRAPH-Motion-Mr. Cornwall RICHELIEU EEL FISHERY-Motion-Mr. Trudel DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE SENATE OF CANADA FOR THE THIRD SESSION OF THE FOURTH PARLIAMENT OF THE DOMINION oF CANADA, CALLED FOR DESPATCH OF BUSINESS ON. THE NINTH DAY OF DECEMBER, 1880. SENATE CHAMBER, Thursday, December 9th, 1880. The members assembled in the Senate Chamber. Prayers and routine proceedings. NEW SENATOR. Hon. JOSEPH NORTHWOOD, of the town of Chatham, Ontario, summoned to the Senate in the room of Hon. George Brown, deceased, was introduced and, having taken and subscribed the oath prescribed by law, took his seat. The House was adjourned during pleasure. SPEECH FROM THE THRONE. The members of the Senate being assembled, His Excellency was pleased to command the attendance of the House of Commons, and that House being present, His Excellency was pleased to open the Third Session of the Fourth Parliament of the Dominion of Canada, with the following Speech from the Throne:--Honorable Gentlemen of the Senate; Gentlemen of the House of Commons: In opening this, the Third Session of the present Parliament, I have to offer you my sincere congratulations on the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed, 1 as well as on the undoubted return of her commercial prosperity, and the substantial development of her various industries. During the recess my advisers thought the time opportune for making another attempt to carry out the declared preference of Parlia ment for the construction and operation of the Canadian Pacific Railway by means of an Incorporated Company, aided by grants of money and land, rather than by the direct action of the Government. Three of my Ministers therefore proceeded to England for the purpose of carrying on negotiations to that end. I am pleased to be able to inform you that their efforts were so far successful that a contract has been entered into, subject to the approval of Parliament, with men of high financial standing in Europe, the United States and Canada, for the speedy construction and permanent working of this great national enterprise. The contract and the papers connected thereand I invoke for them your early and earnest with, will be submitted to you without delay, consideration. With this view I have summoned you before the usual period, as no action can be taken by the contractors to prosecute the work, and no permanent arrangement for the organization of a systematic emigration from Europe to the North-West Territories, can be 永 satisfactorily made until the policy of l'arlia- | for the ensuing, year will be laid before you ment with respect to the railway has been The Estimates will, I trust, be found to have decided. been prepared with due regard to economy and the efficiency of the Public Service. Steady progress has been made in the construction of those portions of the railway now under contract. Two additional sections have been recently opened for traffic, one from Winnipeg to Portage la Prairie, the other from Cross Lake to Keewatin; so that there are now in all 264 miles in operation. You will be glad to learn that the measures adopted to promote economy in the working of the Intercolonial and Prince Edward Island Railways have resulted in a large reduction of the difference between revenue and expenditure; and that the steadily increasing traffic warrants the expectation that during the current year these railways will be selfsustaining. I have the gratification of informing you that Her Majesty's Government has generously presented to Canada, for training school purposes, the steam corvette Charybdis lately returned from service in the Chinese Seas. The correspondence on this subject will be laid before you. I have thought it well, in consideration of the increasing duties thrown by the develop ment of the country upon the Civil Service, and for the more efficient organization of such service, to issue a Royal Commission to examine and report on the whole question. The Report of the Commissioners will, I believe, be ready to be laid before you at an early day; and I ask for your consideration of such report and of the whole subject of Civil Service Reform. A measure for the enlargement of the boundaries of the Province of Manitoba will be submitted to you. I greatly regret being obliged to state that the entire failure of the usual food supply of the Indians in the North-West, to which I called your attention last Session, has continued during the present season, and has involved the necessity of a large expenditure in order to save them from absolute starvation. Several of the Bands have, however, already applied themselves to the cultivation of their Reserves and the care of their cattle. effort will be spared to induce the whole of the aboriginal population to betake themselves to agricultural pursuits. Gentlemen of the House of Commons: No The Accounts of the last, and the Estimates It will be satisfactory to you to know that the existing Tariff has not only promoted the manufactures and other products of the country, but has so far increased the revenues of the Dominion as to place it beyond doubt that the receipts of the current fiscal year will be in excess of the expenditures chargeable to consolidated revenue. Honorable Gentlemen of the Senate ; Gentlemen of the House of Commons: Several measures of importance will be sub mitted to you; among them will be Bills tor the winding up of Insolvent Banks and Incorporated Companies; for the amendment of the Railway Act of 1879; for the revision and consolidation of the laws relating to Government Railways; and for the improvement, in several respects, of the Criminal Law. I am pleased to be able to inform you that there are now good hopes of our being able to place the naturalization of German settlers or a more satisfactory footing. A measure will be submitted, with all the papers connected with the matter, for your consideration. Your best attention will, I am sure, be given to the subjects I have mentioned, as well as to everything that affects the well-being and good government of the Dominion. His Excellency the Governor Genera was pleased to retire, and the House or Commons withdrew. The House resumed. BILL INTRODUCED. Hon. Sir ALEX. CAMPBELL intre duced a Bill intituled An Act relat ing to Railways." The Bill was read the first time. MOTION. Hon. Sir ALEX. CAMPBELL moved tion the Speech of His Excellency the Governor General to-morrow. The motion was agreed to. THE ORDERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SENATE. COMMITTEE APPOINTED, Hon. Sir ALEX. CAMPBELL moved -That all the Members present during this Session be appointed a Committee to seem consider the Orders and Customs of this deal with, though very important, now House and Privileges of Parliament, and that the said Committee have leave to meet in this House, when and as often as they please. The motion was agreed to. THE LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT. FIRST REPORT. The SPEAKER presented to the House the Report of the Librarian, on the state of the Library of Parliament. The Senate adjourned at 3.45 p.m. THE SENATE, Friday, December 10th, 1880. The Speaker took the chair at Three o'clock. Prayers and routine proceedings. THE ADDRESS. and the trivial when compared with which have been presented, which will be presented, for consideration of the Parlia ment which is now assembled. Though the great question of Confederation was before that Parliament, and had been practically disposed of by the Legislatures of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and by the Legisla tures of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, yet, all that that Parliament had to deal with was the consideration of the Union of the older Provinces, whose names I have just mentioned, and whose Legislatures had given assent to the terms of Union. The legislation contemplated under the British North America Act, extended only to these Hon. Mr. GIBBS - A duty has been provinces, and was of an inter-provincial assigned to me upon the present occa- character. Now, the legislation which sion to move an Address in reply to the this Parliament is called upon to deal gracious Speech which His Excellency with, extends to half a continent. Then has been pleased to deliver to both the question which naturally followed Houses of Parliament. I may say that from the consideration of the measure of I should have been very much better Confederation, was the construction of pleased had it been assigned to some one un intercolonial railway. Now, the who would have discharged the duty question which this Parliament will that now devolves upon me in a much have to deal with, is not one simply more satisfactory manner than by any intercolonial in its character, though it possibility I can expect to do. Although is to benefit the remote provinces which this is not the first time that I have had have since been added to the Union, the opportunity or privilege of moving but it is the construction of nothing less an Address in reply to the Speech from than a trans-continental railway. The the Throne, yet I feel that I do so to- consideration of the finances and resourday under very different circumstances ces of the country, caused no little from those under which I did it in 1866, anxiety to those that were about to while addressing the other branch of the enter into the Confederation of the Legislature of the then Provinces of several provinces. To-day the question Canada. When I heard His Excellency which you will have to consider -- which deliver his Speech yesterday, I could not the Parliament of Canada will have to help going back to the time when I had consider is perhaps the most important the honor of moving the Address on the one which may come before it for a occasion to which I have just alluded. I number of years, as it is certainly the was forcibly reminded, as he progressed most important that has engaged the with his Speech, that the questions of attention of Parliament for the last that day sink into comparative insignifi- decade. If one may judge from what cance when contrasted with the impor-has taken place in the past, he may tant questions which are submitted to fairly reason that the measure which ap the consideration of this Parliament. pears so important to-day may, to the Upon that occasion we had the Fenian statesman of a decade hence, appear as inraid upon us, which had to be sup-significant as the measure of fifteen years pressed, and Parliament then, as now, had been called together at an extraordinary season of the year, warranted by the circumstances of the case. The questions that that Parliament had to ago appears to the statesman of to-day. The progress of the country is so great that great events have crowded upon us rapidly and imperceptibly. I make these few introductory remarks because |