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 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. 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 con. tract 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 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 with, will be submitted to you without delay, following Speech from the Throne :--Honorable Gentlemen of the Senate: The contract and the papers connected there and I invoke for them your early and earnest 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 satisfactorily made until the policy of Parlia- | for the ensuing, year will be laid before you ment with respect to the railway has been decided. 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 Estimates will, I trust, be found to have been prepared with due regard to economy and the efficiency of the Public Service. 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 submitted 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 Govern ment Railways; and for the improvement, in several respects, of the Criminal Law. I am pleased to be able to inform you that The correspondence on this subject will be there are now good hopes of our being able to 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. No effort will be spared to induce the whole of the aboriginal population to betake themselves to agricultural pursuits. Gentlemen of the House of Commons: The Accounts of the last, and the Estimates 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 of Commons withdrew. The House resuined. BILL INTRODUCED. Hon. Sir ALEX. CAMPBELL intre duced a Bill intituled "An Act relat ing to Railways." The Bill was read the first time. THE ADDRESS. MOTION. Hon. Sir ALEX. CAMPBELL moved That the House do take into consideration 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 those 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. The SPEAKER presented to the THE SENATE, Friday, December 10th, 1880. The Speaker took the chair at Three o'clock. Prayers and routine proceedings. and 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 Legislatures 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. GIBBSA 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 Houses of Parliament. I may say that I should have been very much better pleased had it been assigned to some one who would have discharged the duty that now devolves upon me in a much more satisfactory manner than by any possibility I can expect to do. Although this is not the first time that I have had the opportunity or privilege of moving an Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne, yet I feel that I do so today under very different circumstances from those under which I did it in 1866, while addressing the other branch of the Legislature of the then Provinces of 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. Inumber 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 bo 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 the question which naturally followed from the consideration of the measure of Confederation, was the construction of un intercolonial railway. Now, the question which this Parliament will have to deal with, is not one simply intercolonial in its character, though it is to benefit the remote provinces which have since been added to the Union, but it is the construction of nothing less than a trans-continental railway. The consideration of the finances and resources of the country, caused no little anxiety to those that were about to enter into the Confederation of the several provinces. To-day the question 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 |