Proceedings of the House of Assembly During the First Session of the Thirty .First General Assembly of Newfoundland 1 957 PRINTED BY GUARDIAN LIMITED, ST. JOHN"S, NEWFOUNDLAND

PROCEEDINGS of the FIRST SESSION of the THIRTY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY PROVINCE of OF the NEWFOUNDLAND WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1957, The House met at 3:00 of the clock in the afternoon, pursuant to adjourn­ ment. SERGEANT-AT-ARMS: Mr, Speaker, I have the honour to inform you, His Honour, the Administrator, Sir Albert ·walsh, Knight Bachelor, has just arrived to open First Session of the ThirLy- f'irst General Assembly of New­ foundland. Mr. Speaker leavf's -the Chair. His Honour, the Administrator takes the Chair. HON. J. R.

SMALLWOOD (Prime Minister): May it please Youi· Honour, tJ1e House of Asse.mbly agTceablc to Your Honour 's C mmaud, have proceeded to Lhe choice of a Speaker, and have elected J ohn R. Courage, Esq\J.ire, Member Cor lhe DislricL of l~onune Bay and He.rmitnge, to tliaL office, and by their direcLion I present him for the appr obation of Your Honour. HIS HONOUR THE ADMINISTRATOR: On behalf of Her Majesty I assure you of my sense of your efficiency and I do most fully approve and confirm you as the Speaker, MR.

SPEAKER: Your Honour's ready approval of 'lhe choice with which I have been honoured by t-he House having constituted me in due form the Speaker of the Rouse of Assembly, it has now become my duty in the name of the repr esentatives of Her Maj{!sly's loyal subjects, the people of this Prov ince, and respectfully 'i:o claim of Your Honour their accustomed righta and privil­ eges and Lhat they sha ll have freedom of speech in their debat es, tlmt Lhcy may be free from arrest dur ing their atLcndance in Parliament and ~hat I as Speaker, may have full access to Yo ur Honour 's presence and 1h:it they have confi rmed to them all their ancient righ ts :md privileges which have been confirmed •to them by Your Honour 's predecessors.

HIS HONOUR THE ADMINISTRATOR: On behalf of Her Maje~ty I do confirm this House in the enj,oyment of all its ancient and undoubted rights and privileges,

4 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS His Honour then read the Speech from the Thrnnf' as follows: MR. SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HONOURABLE HOUSE 01' ASSEMBLY: I w~lcomc you to thi s first Session of th~ Thirty-First General Assembly of Newfoundland, and congratulate you upan your election t-o this House. I trust that you will have a pleasant term of useful service to the people of our Provinc e, and that under your wise guidance the interests of New­ foundland will be mat erially advanced.

You are the Third General Assembly sine ~ Confederation, and although much has been accomplished in the two General Assemblies tint have preced­ ed you, much remains to be accom­ pEshed if Newfoundland is to be a thoroughly successful and happy part of th~ fast-growing Canadian nation. 1:o r all of you it will, I f eel, be a labour of p:itriotic zeal to shape your legis'.ation always with the thought of New foundland's tru e welfare in mind.

As you are awa re, the Prime Min­ i~ter of CJnada has announced the ap­ pointmen t of the Roy al Commission, th e creation of which war. provided for in Term 29 of the Terms of Union ur..dcr which Canada and Newfound­ land unit ed feder ally in 1949.

Term 29 provid ed for the appointment of a R oya l C ommission th a t would revi ew th ~ finan cia l consequences of union up­ on the finances of the Government of the new Province, and would recom­ m end to the Government of Canada th e form and scale of the additional fin ancial assistance, if any, that might be required by the Province to enable it lo continue Public Services. You are, I am sur e, quite familiar with the wording of Term 29, so I do not med to dwell upon that subject at this time.

My Ministers feel that the work and recommendations of the Royal Commissi-on are of very great importance to the future of Newfound­ land, and they feel that Newfound­ land's case will receive skilled, fair and sympathic consideration by the Royal Commission on Revision of the Financial Terms of Union, have en­ ergetically prepared evidence and argu­ ment to be laid before the Royal Com­ mission.

They feel that the prepara­ tion of the case for the Province has bem made with great thoroughness and efficiency by the committee of dis­ tinguished Newfoundlanders to whom the task was entrust e,d, and they await the outcome oI the review with con­ fidence. A few months ago my Ministers ap­ pointed the firm of Arthur D. Little Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts, to un­ dertake an economic and commercial analysis of the new indu:,tries estab­ lished in recent years by means of Government Bonds.

This firm has commenced the work of making this analysis, and my Ministers hope to have ihc benefit of its report within the next few weeks. My Ministers last year appoin-ted a Royal Commission to examine into eco­ nomic and social conditions along the South West Coast of the Province. The Commission c-ompleted their examina­ tion some time ago, and their report is now nearing completion. It is hop­ ed that this report can be laid be­ fore you in the present session.

My Ministers have no knowledge of the contents of the report, and are un­ able to determine whether its imple­ mentation will require action by you in the present session. Mr. Speaker, there has been a grow• ing feeling tha,t there is need for a re­ view of the whole matter of Civil Serv­ ice pensions in this Province. T ·he con-

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 5 siderable growth of the Civil Service, both established and non -established, in recent years has cause,d the question of pensions to become a concern of major importance. and my Ministers propose soon to appoint a Royal Com­ missian to take evidence and make recommendations on the question. Announcement has already been made of the fact that the plans and specifications of the first four new University buildings have been com­ pleted, and of the Government's hope soon to award a contract for their con­ struction.

You will be asked to vote the necessary funds, and I am sure that you will do so with considerable satisfaction. The notable growth of the Memorial University in recent years has given all Newfoundlanders much cause for pride, and there will be uni­ versal confidence -that this growth will be maintained and even increased in the next few years. There has been considerable con­ troversy, arising out of differences of opinion, in recent years over the mat­ ter of the weekly closing day in shops and such establishments.

My Ministers will propose to lhe House the setting up of a Select Committee to conduct public hearings and take evidence from all p ersons or groups who wish to ap­ pear, and to report to the House. For a great many years in New­ foundland there has been a strong feeling amongst many of our fisher­ men, that the customary measure for salt dried codfish, namely, the quintal, is no longer a satisfactory one.

My Ministers have received from the New­ foundland Federation of Fishermen a request that they propose to this House a law that would abolish the quintal as a unit of measurement of salt fish, and substitute a simple measurement by pounds avoirdupois. It is proposed to ask the House ,to set up a Select Committee to hold public hearings at which all interested parties will have the opportunity of expressing their preferences. This Select Cammi ttee will report back to the House. Mr.

Speaker, some few years ago your House passed legislation enabling the Government to deal with a prob­ lem that had arisen in connection with certain grants of mineral lands and forests lands . Many of these ar~as had been granted a good many years ago, on certain conditions of develop­ ment. The conditions had not been carried out, but the grants had never been cancelled and the lands in ques­ tion reverted in the Crown. This Hon­ ourable House passed laws requiring that the conditions be fulfilled, and -that the land revert to the Crown in case of con tinned failure to fulfill them.

This legislation, which went a long way in the direction of giving the concessionaries in question ample opportunity, even at the last hour, to carry out the conditions of their grants, has been the means of briw~ing back into possession of the Crown con­ siderable areas of mineral and tirn ber lands of value and importance. My Ministers are so encouraged by the results of that legislation that they propose in this Session, to ask you to pass similar legislation affecting other kinds of land granted under conditions which have not in fact been carried out.

It is not proposed that this legis­ lation shall apply to land measuring less than 200 acres in area. Although the number of cases involved would be small, the areas of land would he considerable. The continued failure to fulfill the original conditions of t.he grants of this land has retarded, and continues to retard Newfoundland's progress. My Ministers feel that 1he time has come when steps should be taken to provide the proper remedy.

6 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS It is the belief of my Ministers that an indispensable feature of Newfound­ land's rapid expansion and progress in the next few years is the construc­ tion of many miles of new roads and reconstruction of many miles of exist­ in5 roads throughout the Province. My Ministers intend to embark upon a large programme of such road build­ ing , and with that in mind they will request you to pass legislation divid­ ing the present Department of Public Works into two , by creating a new De­ partment of Highways and giving it jurisdiction over all matters of roads, bridges and the like.

All other func­ tions of the Department of Public Works would continue to be discharged by the existing Public Work.~ De­ partment. MR. SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY: You will be requested to make pro­ vision of Supply to Her Maj esty. I know that you will apply your­ selves with zeal to the public business that will come before you in this Ses­ sion, and I pray the blessing of Provi­ dence upon your labours. His Honour the Administrator then left the Assembly Chamber. Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair. HON. L. R. CURTIS (Attorney General) : Mr.

Speaker, I ask leave to introduce a Bill, entitled, "An Act to Amend the Trade Union Act," and I ask that this Bill be now read a first time. On motion Bill read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomor­ row. MR. SPEAKER: I beg to inform the House that at 3:00 of the clock today His Honour, the Administrator, was pleas~d to open this first s~ssion of the Thirty-First Parliament, and His Honour was pleased to confirm me in my election as Speaker of the House of Assembly. I would like to again acknowledge to the Members of this Home my thanks for the very high honour that they have conferred upon me.

The responsibilities that go with this position are very great and the burden is heavy, but I wish to assure honour­ able members that I am sensible of these responsibilities and that I shall endeavour to perform my duties with the strictest impartiality. I would like to feel also that the fact that I was elected unanimously is a guarantee that I can at all times count on the fullest support of all honourable mem­ bers of this House.

In yo-ur name I asked His Honour if he would confirm the ancient rights and privileges inherent in this Parlia­ ment, and His Honour was graciously pl eased to grant us these traditional rights and privileges freely. At the time of opening this House His Honour was graciously present to make a Speech from the Throne, a copy of which I have obtained and of which, for greater accuracy, the Clerk will now read; if it is your wish. MR. SMALLWOOD: We might dis­ pense with it, Mr. Speaker. It was agreed by •the House that the rereading of the Speech from the Throne should be dispensed wi.th. MR. C. SHEPPARD: Mr.

Speaker, I rise to move that a committee be appointed to draft an address in reply to the gracious speech with which His Honour, the Administrator, has been pleased to open this First Session of

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 7 the Thirty-First General Assembly of Newfoundland. In doing so I would like, Sir, with your permission. to make reference to certain parts of the message contained in that speech. The people of Newfoundland have again shown that they have confidence in the policies of the Government of this province which has been in office since union with Canada.

They have shown -that they have renewed and added confidence in the Premier who leads this Government; and they have shown that they have confidence that under this Government the amazing progress of our province will be main­ tained and magnified. One of the things that must have interested us most, Sir, I think, is the reference in the speech to ·the appoint­ ment of a Royal Commission, under Term 29 of the Terms of Union where­ by Newfoundland became a province of the great Canadian Federation .

With visionary wisdom the negotiators of that union inserted this clause; and we are about to witness the Royal Commission embarking upon its task. We know that the eminent and con­ scientious men who form that Royal Commission will address themselves to their task with incomparable skill and integrity. It has become increasingly more evi­ dent in late years that in order to have a happy, successful Canada we cannot allow ourselves to think in terms of a "have-not" province.

Rather we must endeavour •to employ our financial and natural resources in such a manner tha,t no part of our nati-on may feel that because of geographical position or for any other cause it is being rele­ gated to the position of a depressed area. It is, I think, Sir, fair to sug- gest that the concept of mutual help has permeated the thinking of world statesmen both on the international and national level.

I think also, Sir, that it is fair to suggest that the policies of our Federal Government are being shaped that together all of the partners in this nation may enjoy in equal measure an equal share of prosperity, services and security. The confirmed pessimists will continue as always to spread alarm and despond­ ency. They say there is nothing good in Confederation, and have so blinded themselves that they would have us believe that some great evil was done this Island Home of ours. They now say that this great evil is to be sealed upon us through the Royal Commis­ sion to which I refer.

These pessim­ ists are without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity. It would be foolish, of course, to suggest that all of our problems would be solved by the recommendations of this Royal Commission. But is it not reasonable to assume that, working to­ gether in good faith and mutual un­ derstanding, we shall adjust the orig­ inal conditions envisaged by Term 29 to conform to the conditions existing and likely to exist as we develop and expand. The keynote to a mutually satisfactory revision, Sir, in my opin­ ion, is good faith and sympathetic un­ derstanding on all sides.

We are con­ vinced that these conditions shall pre­ vail. Let us now turn to a matter of a more domestic nature, but never los­ ing sight of the fact that we are, and I hope always will be, part and parcel of a great family of nations-I refer, Sir, to our proud and glorious history as the first-born of the British Com­ monwealth, and whose sons lie broken and scattered over many a land and sea in mute testimony of your right

8 HuUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS and my right to gather in this Parlia­ ment torlay. The Speech makes reference to the fact that an analysis of the new indus­ tr:es established in recent years is being made and that a report may be expected shortly. It 1s not unreason• able to assume that certain honour, able members will again indulge in thdr favourite pastime during this session. For myself, I am prepared to await the report to which reference is ma.de.

But, with your permission, Sir, I would like to comment here that the new industry presently operating in my district appears to have over­ come any initial difficulties it might have experienced and is now operat­ ing on a full time expanding basis; which means much to the economy and prosperity of the district. The rates and standards of production have improved to the point where, in free competition, this plant has recently succeeded in obtaining an order for almost half a million dollars worth of its product.

This order is over and above its normal market outlet, which I understand also continues to expand at a satisfactory rate. The high level of prosperity en­ joyed by our people is continuing and -there is every reason to believe that it will cont;nue as our economy ex­ pands. We have cause to believe with every confidence, that we are on the thr eshold of great mineral devel­ opment within the boundaries of our province.

Both industry and Govern­ ment continue to endeavour to make possible the development of our nat­ ural resources on the land and on the sea, and undoubtedly we are approach­ ing an era of production with amazing implications for the good of this pro­ vince .

It is unfortunate in a sense that we must look to the outside so much to obtain people with the energy, the confidence and the capital to develop these resources while within our own Province there is a tendency on the part of those of us who should be in the foreground, not only to hesitate, but even to actively and passively re­ sist the forward momentum of our economy.

The Government's never-failing in­ terest in our most valuable resource, the youth of our country, is reflected in the intention expressed in the Speech to proceed wi-th the first phase of the erection of four new buildings comprising part of the Memorial Uni­ versity. It is a matter of public knowl­ edge and concern that we have ap­ proached somewhat of a crisis in edu­ cating our children at -the primary, high school and university level.

With the C-OmplE'tion of these new buildings and the added enrollment in the facul­ ty of education together with the in­ creased facilities I feel one of the first steps towards a better supply of more fully trained educators and thus an easement of our current teacher prob­ km will have beeu achieved.

It has been shown time and time again that in the field of education we face many prcblems-We have the ever increasing demand for more and better schools, which is but another sign of our forward march-The pro­ vision of these schools and facilities is a problem of major concern not only to the Government but to our individ­ ual constituents. We have witnessed, Sir. quite recently, an example-the setting up of a system of local taxes for this purpose. The Government in former sessions made provisions for the voluntary adoption of various forms of local taxes by individual communities for this purpose.

And very wisely the Government left the adoption of these methods of school

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 9 financing to these individual com­ mumt1es. With some experience in certain aspects of school financing, I am prepared to suggest -that all of us with like interest should study closely this legislation to ascertain if it might not be the most suitable and equitable answer •to the problem. I would stress, however, that communities contem­ plating this form of school financing should in all cases place the full im­ plications before all the people to be affected, and only after careful study and approval by the communities, im­ plement school taxes on the individ­ ual local level.

That part of the Speech dealing with the matter of weekly closing days in shop closing areas is of parti­ cular interest to my district and to other districts where the Shop Act is applioable. At the present time we have no uniformity in this matter, and we have a situation where it is now possible to step from one settle­ ment in a particular shop closing area into another settlement in another shop clo.,ing area nearbv, with busi­ ness establishments obserl'ing entirely different closing days.

This situation makes for confusion anrl uncertainty and serves no useful purpose It is my considered opinion, Sir, that uniform­ ity in holidays, applicable to all shop closing areas, should he the aim of any proposed legislation or amend­ ment to the various piece~ of legisla­ tion dealing with the ~ubject. I would not insult the Home, Sir, ·with any lengthy reference to that need which exists in all parts of our province. I refer to the expressed in­ tention of the Government tu pursue a great programme of road building and reconstruction.

All forms of deve­ lopment whether they be industrial or social depend upon good communi­ cations, and this particular form of communications we must have or stagnate in our various isolated set­ tlements. This aspect of the Speech may not be so appealing to the mem­ bers of the House whose districts have relatively good roads both summer and winter. But, Mr. Speaker, I feel tha·t most. 'honourable Members will agree that those parts of our province undeveloped in this resprct will not look to this Government in vain. Mr.

Speaker, together with all hon­ ourable members of this House, I am confident that we can look forward to the continuing and continued prosper­ ity of our province and a bright fu­ ture for all our people. In making this motion, Mr.

Speaker, I am fully cognizant of the fact that a great honour, together with a great ,burden of responsibility has been placed upon all of us as we gather to represent a great and noble people in this proud edifice where so many learned, gallant and illustrious men have guided the destinies of this land and have ·preserved for our people ·t,his, the greatest bulwark of freedom, the parliament of free men. Let us Sir, so dedicate and conduct ourselves that we may, with God's help, pre­ serve and maintain that tradition which is ours, but which we often prize so very lightly. (Applause) MR. J. O'DRISCOLL: Mr.

Speak­ er, I rise to second the motion that has been mov-~d with such elegance by the honourable and gallant member for Harbour Grace. It is a special pleasure for me to be associated with him in this motion for, as the House is aware, he had a distinguished career in the armed forces during the Sec­ ond World War, and he has displayed a rare ability which should carry him

10 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS a long way in the public life of this province. Perhaps ,the Hous e would bear with me if I expressed a purely p ersonal word before I go on to oomment on some of the matters that are contained in the Speech from the T hrone. In the fir st place I would like to take this opporLLmiLy to thank the l"rcmier and ,the Leader of tbc Lib ei-al Par ty for the invitation tha-t he so generously extended to me to be his standard bearer in the District of Bell Island in the recent general election.

I have never been a politician, and when I received the invitation I had to give it some very pretty hard thoug·ht before [ c-0uld accept. I had some idea what I •was undertaking if I accepted, I did know enough about politics to realize that representing a distriot in this House meant much more than just sitting here for two or three months -while the House is in Session. If that was all it mean,t almost anybody could ,be a member o'f the House. I know that 110,w today it fa practically a full­ time profession, and people who live tn our districts do not cease to have problems the day after the House closes.

These problems ru!l into hun­ dreds, and there never seems to be an end to them. I thought, as a busi­ nessman, I had a lot of experience in dealing with letters and telephone calls and telegrams but it was never until after the election last October that I really began to discover the number and variety of :iffairs that the elected representative of a district had to grapple with. I could not say that I did not have some suspicion of what would confront me when the Premier invited me to be a candidate last Sep­ ,tember, and that is why I considered t'he matter pretty carefully before I said yes.

Now that the election is over, and I find myself in a seat in this Hon- ourable House, my mind is made up that I will devote myself to the task of giving the people of Bell Island the very best that lies in me for the next four or five years and at the same time that I will make every ef­ fort to be a useful and loyal member and supporter of the p:irt.y and Gov­ ernment that are running rhe affairs of Newfoundland. I sincerely trust the House will for­ give me this ,perwnal word which I felt I had to express before touching briefly upon two or three matters mentioned in the Speech.

I shall not delay you with any extemive referem:e to that part of t'he Speech from the Throne which deals with the Revision of Term 29 uf the Terms of Union. Enough has been written and spoken about this term in recent months to drive it home to all iJeople that this is truly very important and for the future prosperity and success of this province.

We all know that New­ foundland is still away t~e most back­ ward of the ten provinces, that in spite of the splendid progress that has been made in recent yoars, in spite of all the advances that 'have been made since the outbreak of World War II and since the advent of Confederation, the hard fact of the matter is that Newfoundland is still far behind Nova Scotia in such things as roads, hospitals, schools, water 'lnri sewerage services and electricity and a lot of oth{;r things.

Even a great centre of national wealth such as Bell Island, for instance, does not even have a hos­ pital; there are still great stretches of our coastline that are not linked up 1by road; our schools still require re­ building and enlargement and im­ provement notwiths~anding all that has been done in recent years . Is it, Mr. Speaker, too much to hope that the forthcoming review of the financial side of Confederation will result in a

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 11 big increase in the subsidies coming to us from Ottawa? Frankly I am not in a position to express an opinion on that matter. I am encouraged by the opinions of those who have given the matter very deep and exhaustive study. Some of our ablest Newfound­ landers have served over three years on our own Commission preparing the case for the Royal Commission, and all I can learn from the5e men is that they are very confident of the out­ come. Mr.

Speaker, I know that all ·patriotic Newfoundlanrlers will be :pulling strongly for Newfoundland in the next few months while our case is being r-eviewed, and regardless of party affiliations, everyone in this House will hope for a successful outcome of the work of the Commission. As a businessman I am glad to know ,that the large firm of Arthur D. Little of Boston are making a thor: ough-going analysis and appraisal of the -new industries, as they are called.

This Boston firm are verv well known, they have nearly two thousand finan­ cial expeits and indmtrial and tech­ nical experts and have had great experience in going into all kinds of business enterpJises and making just this kind of analysis. I sincerely trust the Government will receive a useful report on each individual enterprise amongst the new industries and that everyone may be found to be basic­ ally sound. It would be a wonderful thing for Newfoundland if they all succeeded. Mr.

Speaker, I am very pleased at the contract that will soon be let for the construction of the first four buildings of the new university. I am sure that all members of this House heard the news with great pleas­ ure. There are thousands of young men and women in Newfoundland today who will have a better chance in life because of this university, and New­ foundland herself is bound to become a better place because of the existence and work of this university.

Many of us rubbed our eyes the other day •when we read the Honourable the Premier's announcement that the uni­ versity has eight hundred enrolled students and will have eleven hundred in the year that starts next fall. It is a pretty wonderful sign of New­ foundland's progress and gives us cause to have greater faith than ever in the future of our Island Home. Mr. Speaker. at the start of my re­ marks today I asked tbe House to forgive me for expressing a personal word, and now again I am a~king the House to forgive me if I depart from that Speech from the Throne for my closing words.

This House, as we all can see, is pretty lopsided. Here on this side of Your Honour there are thirty-one of us. Across the floor are four members of the Opposition. It is lopsided, we must admit. But we must not blame the people who sent us here. They had every right to vote the way they did. But at the same time ~ve must admit that the House is a bit one-sided. This does not mean, Mr. Speaker, that the four members of the Opposition need to feel bashful or discouraged or down­ 'hearted. They have their duty to per­ form just as we on this side have our duty to perform .

I can't see wohy we cannot all perform our duties, and conscientiously -too, in a gentlemanly iway and as good Newfoundlanders. Newfoundland has Responsible Gov­ ernment, and it has had it for the last eight years, For eight years we have been a province of Canada. Our Newfoundland people ,ue looking to us for guidance and for leadership. We can all be loyal to our party, to our side, and we can all be loyal to Newfoundland at the 5ame time. To-

12 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS day is a 'happy day for all of us, and as we take our seats here in this Honourable House may our last day here in this General k,sembly be just as happy four or five years from now. I have much pleasure in seconding the motion. HON. M. M. HOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition): Mr. Speaker, in rising to support the motion which has been most ably proposed, I want to say at the outset that I have no intention of raising anv controversial issues at this particular session. The reason is obvious. The reason is on our side of the House-it always was, as a matter of fact, a reason.

But I want, Sir, at this time to take this op­ portunity to congratulate you, Sir, upon the very high honour which has been conferred upon yon, an honour, Sir, which all of us would in a sense be envious of, because it i~ one of the highest honours that ,:ny country can confer upon a citizen, that of being the first citizen of this the tenth prov• ince of Canada. I congratulate you, too, Sir, because I know that you have the ability to carry out the duties, and very onerous ones, with which you will ·be taxed . I promise you that in the coming session you will be taxed wi,th onerous duties .

But I feel you •have the ability, Sir, and the good judgment to carry out these duties. lh congratulating you, S'ir, I want too to pay tribute to your predecessor, the Honourable Mr. Sparkes who has given to this House and to the coun­ try, faithful service all the while that he sat in the Chair in which you now find yourself. I only hope and trust that this Province will not be depriv­ ed of the public services which the Honourable Mr. Sparkes can and is well qualified to give to this Tenth Provin~t:. MR. SMALLWOOD: Hearl Hearl MR. HOLLETT: Now, Mr.

Speak• er, there are one or two other congra­ tulations which I have to make, and they are sincere, of course . I congratulate the mover and sec­ onder upon the manner in which they proposed the motion to draft an ad­ dress in reply to the Speech from the Thrnne. I will say that I was im­ ·pressed by the oratorical effort made ·by the proposer, and I do hope that we shall ·have the benefit of this ora­ tory at a time when it will be pro- 1b.ubly more needed than it is today.

We shall see what the Honourable Member for Harbour Grace can do in this House when things are not running just as smoothly as they are at the present time. I congratulate ,both the Honourable Members for t·he manner in which rhey have made this motion .

There is one other thing which I think, as Leader of the Opposition I would ·be remiss in my duty if I were to forget, i.e. to congratulate the Hon­ ourable the Premier, (and that does not mean that we will not cross swords, that we will not in effect politically stab at each other.) In all sincerity I wish to tender to him, Sir, hearty congratulations upon the fact that ·he is confirmed in his office as P'r-emier of this Tenth Province, and not only that but that he has had the honour, a distinguished hClnour, to see representing a district of thi$ prov­ ince here in this House one of his own sons.

That honour, Sir, comes to very few people in rhis Province or any other province of Canada. I do hearty congratulate him on that signal honour. Sir, the Honourable Member for Bell Island referred to the lopsided-

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 13 ness of the House. In one respect, Sir, undoubtedly this House is lopsided, but when I point out to you, Sir, that we of the Opposi1ion have with us today the people, the people of Newfoundland, I say we are lopsided in this direction. But when these peo­ ple leave, S'ir, when these people leave I will admit that lopsidedness is in that direction, and God help this House if we run into rough water. You will see some of them crossing over to keep the balance of this good ship of state. There is no question a;bout that. We are going to run into stormy water.

I give now a free invi­ tation to all members of the opposite side; we have life belts on this side and we have accommodations when the weather gets tough and rough. Sir, it is true there :.ire thirty-one members, but I would like to point out that I suppose my honourable friend from St. John's F.a~t had more people go to the polls to vote for him rhan probably any other four which I might pick out on the opposite side. If I so desired I could say the same for my honourable friend from St. John's centre and from St. John's South.

They had a lot of people go to the polls to support them, and much more than any two or three of the members which I could name on t•he opposite side of the House. So as you see, we, of the Opposition, do represent a cross

section of the people of this country. They h,1ve delegated us to assist you in governing, and if by opposing you we can a5sist in the better Government on any particular matter then I know that the people and the Government will be happy to have us 'here. Now, Sir, I don't think I should say very much about the Speech from the Throne. How in the world the Honourable Member 'for Harbour Grace could make such an excellent address on that inocuous document which was read here today beats me. Did anybody in this House see any­ thing whatsoever in that Speech from the Throne?

I have bt>en sitting here four or five years, and I have heard several Speeches from the Throne; and this one, Sir, beats me completely . What is there in it for ptople to take hold of? What do they see in it? We are told the Royal Commission for Tel1Ill 29 is being set up. Every­ body knew that- Everybody knew that in this country. We are told that Mr Little of that firm-some little man in the states­ is to look into the matter of the new industries. He spoke of the new in­ dustries with bated breath. That is the only mention of the new indus­ tries there. "Too little and too late," did somebody say?

They spoke of the Southwest Coast Commission sitting for a year, I think. Everybody has been told a dozen times they had completed their work. Civil Service Pensions; the four uni­ versity buildings, the weekly holiday. W·hat did they say about Fisheries? They are not going to weigh the fish any more by quintals at all. They are going to do it by pounds, avoirdu­ pois or something like that. How im• .portant .it must .h.av.e been to them as they drafted .it. Then there is a sentence about for­ est lands and a short sr.ntence a,bout roads and we are then asked to vote supply.

Now we on this side of the House must say that it is ~he only Speech from the Throne since we have been here containing absolutely nothing. I think the Honourable the Premier will agree with me when he gets on

14 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS his feet-there is no question about t,hat. I want to congratulate the Honour­ able Member for Harbom Grace. To hear 'him speak, that Speech from the Throne is one that ought to be 1·ead in the House of Commons in Lon­ don. There is nothing in it-absolute­ ly. It is the most futilr Speech from the Throne I have ever seen and ever heard of. Go ·back anrt look at all the old Hansards, what do they say? For instance, about thP. fisheries. New­ foundland has been a fohing country. What do they say? They are not going to weigh the fish the same as before-that is all.

There was not one iota more~Ghange the quintal- What about the new great mineral development? There is nothing in the Speech from the Throne about Javelin nor the LabradoY Exploration Company nor all the other big com­ panies, BRINCO-Nuthing about that. I have not heard it- What about the paper mills? Did they mention that? Was there any word of the great paper mills, the three or four paper mills we are to get? Why our people will be left without any hope wh:itsoever when they hear that read over the radio. What was said about the new in­ dustries? Oh yes, Mr. I.ittle-1 hope Mr.

Little is not set up to try and prevent us on this side of the House from going into matters touching on the industries because Mr. Little will have a hard time and ~o will the Gov­ ernment if they mean to prevent us from saying anything about the new industries. But I said I was not going to get controversi:al. Dr. Valdmanis, of course, is not mentioned at all. Is there anything about schools in it, anything about unemployment? I believe the mover of the motion said we were enjoying the greatest prosper­ ity the Province ever had before.

Do not let us forget there are twenty thousand people unemployed today, t•wenty thousand people in the St. John's area and eighteen t'housand, I believe, to be exact. Any man today who is unemployed in "'l'ewfoundland is not enjoying any prosperity whatso­ ever nor are five or six or seven people who are affected by his earnings. They are not living in a great pros­ perity, not hy any means whatsoever. There is nothing about that. There is nothing about all the~e important things. And, Sir, I do wish that there had been.

I do wish that the Speech From the Throne had contained some reference to t·he paper, to Javelin, to the mines and the great earnings which are going to come to our people and how the Children's Health S'cheme would be financed by it. It would be lovely if we could hrar something about that. We may h,!'ar something as the time goes on, but it is too bad that somebody forgot to put these in the S.peech from the Throne. The honourable member for Har­ bour Grace spoke of the people having confidence in the Premier and in the Government. I have no quarrel with that at all.

The last election indica-t­ ed that beyond any doubt, and we ad­ mit it. It makes the burden of the Government all the more difficult for the honourable gentleman. By the way, as we look across at them it al­ most looks to me like a magistrates' convention. I can think of a magis­ trates' convention in the old days, Commission of Governmrnt. We had the magistrates all on one side and the Commission on the othrr side. It was a little bit unbalanced then too. But I will say this, Sir, the people have elected on the Government side, to

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 15 say nothing a:bout the Opposition, some men in whom I have the great­ est confidence. There are seventeen magistrates over there, Sir, and out of that seventeen new faces I do ex­ pect that somebody will emerge who will be a,ble to assist the Government and to help the people of this coun­ try to a higher and better standard of living. I am not going to say any more be­ cause I understand, Sir, on this your first time in the Chair, you have in­ vited us all to partake of refreshments, and I do not want to delay the House. I do say that I am very proud to be here.

I am glad of the honour of re­ presenting the people whom I do re­ present and I am glad to be associated with the three members on my left, and I can assure the people and I can assure the Government that we will give all within our power to as­ sure good and better Government for Newfoundland. Thank you, Sir. MR. SMALLWOOD: Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House some six­ teen per cent of us are former magis­ trates, on that side fifty per cent, half of them, the Honourable Leader him­ self and his honourable colleague next to him. I am very happy indeed that they have ,half who were former magis­ trates.

I think men who have spent years and years on the bench as magis­ trates administering the law, to speak, ought to be all the better for that as law makers. I believe they will study the Bills as they are brought before the House and enact the laws with all the greater interest became of t'he fact ~hey were magistrates. I believe fur­ thermore that the fact that they were magistrates throughout this island it gave them experience in dealing with the problems of our people right out in the field and not in a comfortable and well-lit chamber.

I believe that will make them all the more valuable as legislators and as members of this House. Mr. Speaker, I should like to add mine to the chorus of congratulations you have been receivinl\' since your election today as first commoner, the Speaker of this House. It is a position of very great honour, very great hon­ our indeed. One day your portrait will join these on that wall, because there are the portraits of the former Speakers of the House of Assembly, U1is side of the bar, and it is a very honourable company .

They are some of the greatest Speakers Newfoundland ever produced, they are men who have made a very great contribution indeed to Ute upbui l<llng of vhis people and this island -and )' OU will join that honourable company in due time. Your predecessor, the Honourable Mr. Sparkes is, if I may be bold enough to say it, the greatest of the speakers in this Home in modern times. I personally knew every Speak­ er beginning with the Honourable John R. Goddison-Judg-r> Morris, W. R. Warren and John R. Goddison, Mr. Higgins and the five on that side. I kn-ew personally ~hese seven.

Your immediate predecessor makes eight Speakers, and I believe that in the present century Mr. Sparkes was the greatest of them. You served for nearly eight years as his Deputy. You have had a mag­ nHicent training, Your Honour, and if you do not turn out to be one of t'he great Speakers I for one will be greMly surprised. Certainly you will have the warm support of the whole House, on both sides of the House, be­ cause you have that personal popular­ ity which ought to be very valuable

16 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS indeed in any member of this House who presides over its debates. May I offer a very special word of congratulations to the two honourable and gallant members w·ho moved and seconded this present motion; !he hon­ ourable and gallant member for Har­ bour Grace and the honourable and gallant member for Bell Island, The mover of the motion, the honourn:ble and gallant member for Harbour Grace served in this late war with very great distinction indeed. I be­ lieve he was a policeman on the beat. I believe he was a member of the po­ lice force who served as a policeman on the beat.

I believe he was then taken into the office ot the police force at clerical work and I believe he was engaged at that clerical work for the police force when war broke out and he enlisted in the British Army. In no time at all he was a Sergeant and after not very long, be­ came a Lieutenant and then a Captain and came out of the war with the rank -of Major. Then he _joined the magistracy of Newfoundland ~nrl be­ came rapidly one of the most distin­ g·uished of the law men occupying seats on the Newfoundland Bench.

I b espeak for him, and T think all of you who hear him today will agree that I am not over-optimistic when I bespeak for him a fine career in the public life of this Province TJ-ie honourable and gallant mem­ be:· for Bell Island who seconded the motion is likewise a war veteran hav­ ing been a soldier in the Royal New­ foundland Regiment in the First World War and having then joined again in the late war, in charge, I believe, of the home guard and then overseas with the Royal Artillery, and from uhe Royal Artillerv he was trans­ ferred to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

It is a rather striking fact that just about one-third of the members on this side of the House are war veter­ ans. I think some ele1·en or twelve of the members here have served in Her Majesty's Forces in one part or another of the world. I greatly regret the ~bsence today of two of our members, two of our Ministers, the Honourable Minister of Finance and the member for Grand Fall s who is in hospital but is, I am ha,ppy to say, shortly to leave the hos­ pital so that I hope he will be back here in his place on Monday when the House reassembles; and the Hon­ ourable Minister of Health, -the mem­ ber for St.

Mary's who is, as is fairly well-known, confined fo1 the most part to his house although he has been able to come along and attend some Cabinet meetings, with his foot prop­ ped up; in the Cabinet room . May I say this word further, that we have here on this side of the House thirty-one members and that is the largest membership that ever sat on ~his side of the House or any side of the House since this House was con­ stituted well over a hundred years ago. Never •before today did as many as thirty-one members sit on one side of the House. There w,is ·a time when this Cabinet was made up of forty members.

The Premier of lhe day wa3 the late Honourable Sir Richard Squires. There were forty menibcrs elected to that House . Ten of them were Op-position members and thirty of them were Liberal. and oI the thirty, one ceased ~o be an active mem­ ber of the party because he, of course, was elected to be Speaker of the House and that left a total sitting here of twenty-nine out of forty. Now we have thirty-one which is ·the largest

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 17 number this House has ever seen on any one side of it. May I say that I grow increasingly convinced, session by session, that this Chamber is too small. It is very much too small. You may ~ay that it held more when it ,held forty. That is true, but when it held forty, as I said before, there were really only twenty­ nine on this side and ~en on the op­ posite side. We have clung tenaci­ ously to the old traditions here in this Province notwithstanding the fact we have become 3. modern province of Canada.

We have clung to many of our old traditions and I am, for one, very fond of the splash of pageantry and liturgy that occurs here on opening day. I like to sec the Lieutenant-Gov­ ernor arrive accompanied by hi:; at­ tendants and repreJentatives of the armed forces and the like, but admit­ tedly it is a bit crowded when they come in and when they go out there is scarcely room for them on both sides of Mr. Speaker. The distinguished visitors who come here on opening day feel the place to -be over-crowded, and there would be two or three times as many if only there was physical room to hold them here.

It sl'erns to me that one day we will have to take this wall out, cut the wall away and let the oher Chamber, which · is about the same size, into this and make the two into one, and perhap, put the Speak­ er's Throne at the eastern end of the building and have the members fac­ ing north and south, up and down this way, which would make ample room for the public up and down the south side . of the Chamber both down­ stairs and up and would make perhaps some ro,om at -the back of there which might well be part of the public sec­ tion of the Chamber.

If our popula­ tion grows as it has been doing and Newfoundland continue~ ,to expand as it has been doing perhaps we will not alwa ys have a House of only thirty-six members but it might go to forty or fifty in six, eight, ten or fifteen year s, and gcner• ally a larger Chamber would lend dig­ nity and spaciousness to it and gen• erially make a great improvement. Then when the building is rebuilt, as is being done, the east ern wall being a completely new wall al! of the old wall having been remo ve,\ to he i-e­ placed by completely new. This is to be done on Lhe west and nor th side as well as the front.

In the course of time this will be a completely new building, the grounds in front will be paved and there will be new trees in new positions and a magnificent park· ing space on the side over here. Gen­ erally and in the cour se of time this Peopl e's House should become the great shrine, almo st, of democ racy in this Provinc e. C ertainly if you leave us in power long enough to <lo it we will give you a building of which you can all be extremely prnud.

I should like to say one or two things to my honourable friends opposite: Like the honourable and gallant mem­ ber from Bell Island I t oo feel that the House is somewh at lops ided. There are only four member s on the other side. There are four men only. They are usually able men but they are four only in number and if some fifty or sixty pieces of legislation comes be­ fore this House at the present session, as th ere will likely be, it is a great task for four men to undertake to study that legislation line by line and word for word. It is perhaps to:i great a task for ,them.

Not now for the first time do I say that I have cert ain mis­ givings about the smallness of the Op­ position, about the fact that the peo­ ple of Newfoundland elected only four on that side of ,the House. I do not think that that is good. I said that before. I said it here in the last ses-

18 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS sion of the House. I said it leading up to an elect~on. I said it during the election. I said it during the cam­ paign. I said it publicly, and I say it again. It is not intrinsically good for this House to be so one-sided. That is not good for Newfoundland. If we politicians can look at it a little more s~Iflessly than that, it is not good for politics, it is not healthy politics. So, w:th all my other responsibilities I have been taking on me the responsibility for trying to assist the Opposi-tion. I hope to have more success in that than I have had up to now.

At all events I am happy to see them occupying their new space in this building, their own offices. I regret greatly that the newspapnmen have had to be put out of thos~ moms. They have changed places temporarily-it is purely tem­ porary-with the Oposition. For de­ cad(s the Opposi!lion occupied a room down here in the basement, a dark, dismal dungeon, which they reached by going down the winding stairs with the iron sp:ral staircase. They have moved from that up into two fine, well-lighted rooms on the next floor, behind the public gallery.

I hope to have -the pleasure in this present ses­ sion of proposing t-o the House that the House vote each year to the Op­ position, whoever the Opposition may be, a sum of money, a reasonable mod­ est sum of money to the Opposition as such, not to any individual member of the Opposi-tion but to the Opposi­ tion Party, whoever they may be, a modest sum of money towards the cost of maintaining their own secretariat or at least a secretary or possibly a re­ search clerk or worker who would assist them in preparing their que&tions and sedng that they do not ask the same question twice, as they frequently do, when one honourable member stands and gives notice of a question to be followed immediately by another hon- ourable member of the same pal'ty ask­ ing identically the same question c.onc:hed .in other words in other ver­ biage; and generally to help the Op­ pos1t10n.

I hope in this present ses­ sion that a larger remuneration, salary whatever the Leader of the Opposition gets, whatever it is called, over and above the ordinary indemnity, that a larger allowance than the present one be voted to the Leader of the Opposi­ tion. In other words, Mr.

Speaker, in so far as we can; we cannot take the place of the Newfoundland people who are the ones who sent us here, but in so far as we can we want very sincerely to help the Opposition, to h~lp them to be stronger than they are, to be more effective than •they are, because we can't help ourselves any better than by helping the Opposition to be strong.

If we are unopposed by the Opposition, if we are not severely criticized by the Opposition and if the Opposition are not always on their toes to detect wrong doing on our part ther-e will be greater temptation for us to do wrong maybe wrong by omission only or as well as positively. I do hope sincerely that my honourable friends opposite will not feel discour­ aged. One of the strongest Oppositions I ever saw in this Chamber consis,ted of two men, the Leader and one follower. The Leader was the present Senator Bradley and the follower was the late Ronald G. Starkes.

The two of them were just enough to move and second a motion. I was helping them at that time. I was a newspaperman. On the opening day of the House they gave notice of three hundred ques­ tions and on the following day they gave notice of some two or three hun­ dred more, and every day until ·It ran up into the many hundreds. I wrote every one of them. It was a labour of love, a great joy for me, as an

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 19 amateur politician, to prepare these questions. The honourable and learned member for St. John's South (I do not have to distinguish them now.) That is one advantage of the recent Redistri­ bution Act. We do not have to distin­ guish between them. There is only one case in this House where two mem­ bers represent one distriot (Harbour Main) , was a member of the House at that time, and sat then on the Gov­ ernment s:de. He was a supporter and p:rhaps a member, I don't remember, but he was certainly a supporter of the Government.

There were hundreds and hundreds of questions tabled by \he Opposition of two men. But I as­ sure you these two men were anxious to make their positions a full time job. Being members of the House was not in their view a job for mere amateurs, and br.ing members of the Opposition was not a part-time hobby; it was a full time job. These two men set out to bring the Government tumbling down and I dare say if they had had long enough they might have suc­ ceeded. They worked hard. So the present honourable grntlemen opposite need not feel a bit discour­ aged.

In fact, you know, the old say­ ing-"the bigger they come the harder they fall." That should be their mot­ to as they look over here on these thirty-one members-"the bigger they come the harder they fall" and they should hammer away at us, it will make us better.

If I can repeat an anecdote that is told of the Duke Wellington and if I can do It without being misunderstood by my honourable friends on this side of the House, I will adapt it-He looked at his army, before some bat­ tle, and he said as he looked at his own troops, ragged and bedraggled as they were, badly trained and badly equipped, "I don't know," he said to his adjutant or right-hand man, "I don'-t know how they affect ,the enemy but, by God, they frighten me." I say here that my honourable friends and colleagues and supporters on this side of the House, do not frighten me, but I will tell you what does frighten me, it is the •tremendous majority and the small minority on the other side of the House.

I do not intend to stay in politics all my life, Mr. Speaker. I ,ntend to get out of politics before I :1m kicked out. I want to get out an "undefeated champfon" if I can. It may mean winning another two or three elections, but I do want to go out "undefeated." There is something I want far more than that: I want ,to go out having helped some to make politics in New­ foundland, the political game, and it is a game as well as many other things, I want to help them make p:ilitics vig­ orous, vital, true, sincere but above all vital, full of life, full of vi-tali ty.

You cannot have that if politics is too one-sided, you cannot have it. People finally will grow discouraged even with voting, people finally will get just a little fed up with elections, people finally will get more interested in base­ ball and •television and other things than politics. The day may come when we even may have to pass a law re­ quiring people to vote, as they had to do in Australia. That comes event­ ually when politics gets to be too one­ sided.

So in this session and in the next ten or eight or twelve or fifteen years or however long or short it may be, let us do something to make poli­ tics the aggressive, the very aggressive, thing it used to be here in New­ foundland. Now, Mr. Speaker, we arc going to adjourn as usual until Monday. I won­ der if the Opposition will be ready on Monday, if the Address in Reply

20 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS is brought down, would they be ready to proceed with the debate? (Mr. Hollett nods) . There will be, I believe, some fifty odd Bil'.s, most of them of no great consequence, most of them originating, in fact, in the Department of the At· torn ey General, who continually tells us this Act or that Law ought to be amended in this way, in that way or in another way, and we do it as a mat ­ ter of course. We are not particularly intere ;ted. There is no very vital legis­ lation unless we do have ,to bring legis­ lation in here affecting the iron depos­ its of Labrador.

In the House this afternoon as one of our visitors is Mr. John C. Doyle of Canadian Javelin. ·with him is one of the senior partners of that great American firm of Pickands Mather and with him is one of the senior lawyers. They are here, I believe, t-o confer wi-th the Attorney General's Department with proposals to amend the NALCO Act and other legislation. Whether or not these will come before the House I frankly do not know. I imagine they will, and I certainly hope they will. I hope we can agree with Javelin completely and Pickands, Mather. There is no guar• antee that we will.

We will try to agree with them and try to bring in the le5islation before the Hom-e, but if we do not, then the legislation tha•t wlll come here this session will not be of very great or world-shaking con­ sequence. Now in the meantime, Mr.

Speaker, I hav,~ only this final word to say­ perhaps if I say i:t I won't be believed -Perhaps I am overplaying-perhaps over emphasising, but, will the Opposi­ tion take my word for it, and time will tell if I am sincere in this or not, will they •take my word we are anxious to accommodate them, we are anxious too to give them whatever •time they want, we can stay here as long as they can. Whatever time they wa1H to study any Bil] they need just say the word and we will give them any ,time they want. We do not want to rush you nor hustle you. We do not want to make you work too hard.

We want to collaborate with you. We think it can be a very easy-going session. I doubt if there is going •to be any mad pas­ sion roused or great oration here in the present session of the House, and, with the help of the Opposition, we Ghould have a very pleasant time in­ deed. MR. SPEAKER: It has been moved and seconded that a Committee be ap• pointed to draft an Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. Motion carried. MR. SPEAKER: I shall now name that -Committee: The honourable member for Harbour Grace, the hon­ ourable member for Bell Island and •the honourable member for St. John'.s Centre. MR.

SMALLWOOD: Mr. Speaker, I give notice I will on -tomorrow ask leave to introduce a Bill, "An Act Respecting the Department of High• ways." HON. W. J. KEOUGH (Minister of Mines and Resources) : Mr. Speaker, I give notice I will on tomorrow ask leave to introduce a Bill, "An Act to Amend the Co-opera,tive Development Loan Act," and a Bill, "An Act to Amend the Co-operative Societies Act." HON . S. J . HEFFERTON (Minister of Supply) : Mr. Speaker, I give notice I will on tomorrow ask leave to intro­ duce a Bill, "An Act to Amend the Community Councils Act, 1956" and a Bill, "An Aot to Make Further Pro-

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 21 visions Respecting the Supply of Water in the Town of Carboncar." DR. F. W. ROWE (Minister of Edu­ cation) : Mr. Speaker, I give notice I will on tomorrow ask leave to intro­ duce a Bill , "An Act Further to Amend the Memorial University Pensions Act." Notices of Questions Notices of questions on tomorrow given by Mr. Browne, Mr. Duffy, and Mr. Hollett. MR. HOLLETT: Mr. Speaker, I have other questions here, but due to the fact which was mentioned before, we have an invitation to attend for refreshments, I shall defer them. On motion of Mr.

Smallwood, the House at its rising adjourned until Monday, . March 25th, at 3:00 of the clock. MONDAY, March 25, 1957. The House met at three of the clock I ask leave to table the sixth annual report of the Industrial Development Loan Board of Newfoundland, for the period ending March 31, 1956. HON. E. S. SPENCER (Minister of Finance) : Mr. Speaker, I give notice I will on tomorrow ask that the House resulve i,tself into a committee of the whole to consider certain resolutions for the granting of supply to He1· Majesty. MR. SPENCER: Mr.

Speaker, I beg leave to lay on the table of -the House the copy of the Public Accounts in printed form, tha-t is ready in proof form for the printers. These are not the actual copies which will be d:s­ tributed to the House in due course. MR. BROWNE: Mr. Speaker, I be­ lieve it was the practise of the pre­ vious Minister of Finance •to ask leave to do that when he had the bundle by his side. MR. HIGGINS: He was a fast in the afternoon, pursuant to adjourn• worker. ment. Presenting Petitions None. Presenting Reports of Standing and Select Committees: MR.

SPEAKER: It has been moved and seconded tha,t the report by the committee set up to draft the address in reply. MR. SMALLWOOD: Mr. Speaker, may we have that stand until later in the day. On motion rewirt deferred until la-ter in ~he day. Notices of Motion HON. J. R. CHALKER (Mini&ter of Economic Development) : Mr. Speaker, MR. SMALLWOOD: They were per­ haps printed a little fas-ter. It may take a whole day now to get them printed. On motion leave was given to get the reports printed. Notices of Questions Notice of questions on tomorrow given by Mr. Hollett. Notice of questions on tomorrow given by Mr. Browne.

Notice of questions on tomorrow given by Mr. Duffy. QUESTION NO. I: (See Appendix).

22 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS QUESTION NO. 2: Mr. A. M. Duffy (See A:ppc:mlix). QUESTION NO. 3: Mr. A. M. Duffy (See Appendix). QUESTION NO. 4: Mr. Malcolm Hollett (See Appendix). MR. HOLLETT: Mr. Speaker, in the last four or five years I have been in the House, we have asked the Hon­ ourable Minister of Finance for those, and he has given them to us. MR. SMALLWOOD: Tha<t is finan­ cial orders-That does not say that Minute of Council. The first part of that question will not be answered in any case by anyone. MR. HOLLETT: We always got the first part of the answer. MR. SMALLWOOD: No, never.

We do not table the Orders in Council, never did and never will. We ·table only Tr~asury Warrants and the like. MR. BROWNE: We should get them. They would make interesting reading. MR. SMALLWOOD: Well, when my honourable friends opposite •turn the ·table they can have great fun reading the orders that were passed in the last eight years just as we had great fun reading the orders of the Commission of Government for the fifteen years be­ fore us. QUESTION NO. 5: Mr. Malcolm Hollett (See Appendix). QUESTION NO. 6:Mr. Malcolm Hollett (See Appendix). MR.

HOLLETT: I appreciate hav­ ing these answers coming along so swiftly but I do not like the answer given to Question No. 6. (3). I am wondering from that if the Govern­ ment have no knowledge of how many are employed in the new industries. MR. CHALKER: Mr. Speaker, they are private industries. MR. HOLLETT: They are nor. MR. CHALKER: As far as I am concerned any information available can be procured from ,the management of the various industries. MR. HOLLETT: May I enquire if it is the plan of the Government to employ people like Little to investi­ gate private companies like Bowring Brothers and Ayre & Sons.

Are these private companies? We ought to have tha,t settled right now. QUESTION NO. 7: (Mr. Malcolm Hollett (See Appendix). MR. HOLLETT: Mr. Speaker, as a supp!ementary question-May I take it that the accounts have been tabled with the Government. MR. KEOUGH: I should simplify that-The necessary returns have been filed with the Government, yes. It is not a sworn s·tatement, apparently I understand from good authority the practise of having a sworn statement more or less went out of fashion some years ago. But we do have a certified copy of the audited statement of the company.

And •the Auditor General's Department is satisfied the purpose of -the Act is carried out, as far as he is concerned. MR. HOLLETT: As a supplement­ ary question, Mr. Speaker, may I ask why the Government takes an unsworn statement when the Act in question calls for a sworn document, as this pal'ticular Act does? QUESTION No. 8: Mr. Malcolm Hollett (See Appendix). MR. M. M. HOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) : Mr. Speaker, may I

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 23 ask if it is the -intention of the Gov­ ernment ministers ,to answer questions verbally. If so we would like to know so that we could have a stenographer somewhere ,to take down answers, I wonder if it is the intention to answer that way or to table the replies as formerly? MR. SMALLWOOD: I would imag­ ine where figures and the like are in­ volved or given in answers the answer would be given in writing. But the minister would have the right to quote figures and then table the paper.

But where que&tions do not call for an­ swers in figures, I think they might easily be given orally when a simple "yes" or "no" or the name of a per­ son. I think ,the minister might speak slowly enough so that honourable gen­ tlemen on either side would have the time to take down ·the answers, and if he were to speak a little too fast any­ one interested could slow him down by asking him to repeat it. In other words, the desire is to accommodate the House, both sides, especially the Opposition as much as possible. Orders of the Day MR. BROWNE: Mr.

Speaker, be­ fore we take up the Orders of the Day, I wonder if I could ask the Honour­ able the Premier if his intention was drawn to a message from Bell Island, published in the Evening Telegram last week: "A member of -the Com­ mittee set up to study the hospital question and make recommendations to Joseph O'Driscoll, Liberal, Bell Island, under Premier Smallwood's five-year development, told officials yesterday." I wonder ·if the Honourable the Prem­ ier could ,tell us what the five year de­ velopment plan is, and if it only ap­ plies to Bell Island. MR. SMALLWOOD: I will first say that it is not .

It has no•thing to do with Soviet Rur.sia, and nothing to do with the "five year plan." It is merely this: I have asked my friends in thi5 House to tell me what in their view their districts need, what Newfound­ land needs. MR. BROWNE: Your friends. MR. SMALLWOOD: My friends. I have some friends in this House, and I have asked- MR. BROWNE: Over there? MR. SMALLWOOD: Well, mostly over on -this side, I would not say all . My honourable friend who asked the question I think would qualify as a friend .

He has proven himself to be a friend more than once, and I hope I have done likewise, and I hope that wiJI not cease to be the case for the few remaining weeks he may be with us in this Chamber, and ,that we can work together amicably for the benefit of Newfoundland, and I hope if he goes -to another place he will work equally, indefatigably in the interest of Newfoundland. Wherever he is I hope he will do that and I believe he will. I have asked my friends if they would be kind enough to tell me what, in •their views, would be needed to make Newfoundland a much better place in which to live.

Now I have not asked each individual member to give that information for the whole province but only that part of the province he represents in this House. If the honourable gentlemen opposite care to do that same thing I will be more than glad. more than obliged. I have ,this to say, however, all of them represent mostly St. John's con­ stituents, and with ,the .exception of the honourable and learned member for St. John's South and the honour­ able and learned member for St. John's East, most of the areas they represent

24 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS are urban, strictly urban areas, within •the city limit s of St. John 's. That be­ ing so there is perhaps a little less field, a little less need for the Gov­ ernment of Newfoundland, ·as much, to int ere st itself in the progress of this

section of our province,

whereas the ontparts, parts of St. John's South and St. John 's East, I think, distinctly are areas in whi ch the Government can be of some pract ical help. And I would be mos,t obl iged if honourable gentle­ men opposite where they represent s·trictly urban ,1reas I would be happy to have any information they can give me. The idea is, after the revision of the Tnms of Union are effected and the award has been m2.:ie, and we get the report of Mr. Perry and the rep ort of the Anhur D.

Little Company, when we gc-t all tint date in , we will sit down and Dee what we can do to plan an orderly and quite intensive im­ p~oveme.nt in Newfoundland gcncrally. Na,turally any member of the House wou!d Eke to help in that, and would be mor e than welcome. There is noth­ ing mysteri ous ab out it at all. I was interested to see the Bell Island cor­ rrspondent take up the maHer of the hospital in Bell Island. So much to the good. That is only one hospital­ That is only one district. MR. BROWNE: Do I understand from the Premier, Mr .

Speaker , ,this is . not to be given considerntion by the Government until after the reports mentioned are in? MR. SMALLWOOD: I would not say they are not to be given considera­ tion, but I would say not to be given final. MR. BROWNE: Until we know wh ere the where-whh-all~the goose that lays the golden egg we want to have a look at her first. MR. SMALLWOOD: Don't be pessi­ mistic! MR. BROWNE: Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a quei.tion of the Honourable Minister of Public Works: I presume he has seen the interview which he gave to reporters of the "Daily News" published this morning.

He stated that in regard to the road to Placentia it was completely impass­ able almost every spring for the past four, five or ,ix years. I wonder if he sta,ted that, if he did, and he seems to have done it, without knowing it had been open for the last two years anyhow and other years. I would like to ask him if by this he means that the present flying column patrol set up is being replaced by fully mechan­ ized system-could he say how many team., th e Government arc going to put on there and also say whether that would be Government teams or wheth­ er the road is being repaired by con­ tract? HON . G. J.

POWER (Minister of Public Works) : Mr. Speaker, in answer to -the first question-! have, as every­ one here knows, have had reason to use the Argentia Highway every spring since I moved here to S,t. John's, and know that since 1950 that road has been closed three times for a period of two weeks. MR. BROWNE: Not in the last two years . MR. POWER: I said for the last five or six years. You are reducing i-t to the last two years. Now wi,th regard to the changeover in mainten­ ance of Newfoundland roads, I want ~o say what I said in the interview. The changeover will be gradual.

The plan we had in mind this year was to try lo reorganize maintenance east of Gander, because the whole thing is too big to hardle in one year, and to continue into the west coast next year when we have had more experi-

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 25 ence. I had in mind to ask the Gov­ ernment ,to agree that the Department of Public Works would operate several of these teams, and when we had es­ tablished costs, etc., or know the cost in advance by our amortization scheme over the years, to ask for tenders from con tractors to take ceiitain of these sections; because it is not always wise for a Government to own a lot of machinery which has to be serviced . MR. BROWNE: Especially if we cannot get a loan. MR. POWER: Don't be too sure­ We could get a loan next week if we wanted it. MR.

BROWNE: How many teams were you going to put on the Argentia Road? MR. POWER: The pattern of the Argentia Road has not yet been se,ttled. -MR. BROWNE: In other words this is largely theoretical and not de­ finite? MR. POWER: Yes. The decision to do it has been made by the Depart­ ment of Public Works. I assume the Government will agree. I have spok­ en to some of my colleagues about it. But the Argentia Road is another mM­ ter. MR. BROWNE: You have not de­ cided how many teams? MR. POWER: That is right. MR. BROWNE: Mr.

Speaker, could I ask the Honourable 'Minister of Public Works this last question? '\Ve have voted a much lesser amount for •the maintenance of highroads and sec­ ondary roads than in previous yearS­ The Premier told me it is because it is going to be put out in contracts. ,MR. POWER· As everyone knows I am very new to the department and do not know. MR. BROWNE: Perhaps the former Minister of Public Works could tell us. 'MR. SPENCER: Mr. Speaker, I can say, in answer to this verbal que&tion, that some work has been done on con­ tract.

As the present minister has in­ dicated, however, it was practically im­ possible to jump into contract work on maintenance without having first determined the approximate cost it­ self. That, I believe, is the intention of the present minister and will no doubt be approved by the Government, to •try and determine that, and then de­ cide what work may or may not be done on contract. I have a very exact personal knowledge of the effort all across the Dominion of Canada, and not only last year did this matter come up.

I have discussed it with ,·arious ministers from one end of Can­ ada to ·the other, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and I know the difficulties that are involved. I take it the minis­ ter is now endeavouring to approach it from a very proper manner, and I have no doubt that good results will be obtained. MR. BROWNE: Mr. Speaker, I wonder if I could ask the Honourable the Premier a question, as to why it is we have not had a Hansard since 1951? It makes such interesting reading, I wonder when we might get 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955 I don't expect. MR.

SMALLWOOD: I agree it will be a few years yet, but I believe there is one either ready or practically ready. Incidentally in that connection I have been having a most entertain­ ing time for my5elf reading the verbat­ im account of the reports of speeches made in the National Convention, and I am hoping the House will provide funds for publishing the proceeding of the National Convention as well as

26 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS Hansard- Then we would give the honuura!Jle gentleman lots to read in the next few years especially if he is in rethirement sometime he will need some interesting and entertaining read­ ing. MR. BROWNE: I wonder, Mr. Speaker, could the Honourable the At­ torney General tell me whether con­ sidera•tion has been given to the ap­ pointment of a judge for the family court? MR. CURTIS: That matter, Mr. Speaker, comes under the Department of Public Welfare. HON. B. J. ABBOTT (Minister of Welfare) : Mr. Speaker, in reply to the honourable member for St.

John's South, no consideration has been given to •the appointment. MR. HOLLETT: Mr. Speaker, fur­ •ther in regard to Hansard, I under­ stand it is the custom of the Honour­ able the Premier to look over the Han­ sard before it is printed with a view to correcting any mistakes may be made and so on? MR. SMALLWOOD: No. MR. HOLLETT: That is my in• formation- We have never been af­ forded •that opportunity, I may say. MR. SMALLWOOD: My honourable friend is entirely misinformed.

When the Late Captain Murphy was appoint­ ed editor of debates or editor of Han­ sard, I endeavoured orally, in conver­ sation with him to point out to him the urgency, the importance of adopt­ ing a uniformit} of style throughout the book. If honourable gentlemen read the Canadian or British Hansard carefully and frequently over a period of years they will know tha-t there is a definite style. For instance: In any one day, is a minister is mentioned, his name is spelled out and then in brackets "Minister of Finance" or wha•t­ ever it is, but if he speaks subsequent­ ly throughout that same day he is just " Mr.

Abbott" or "Mr. Harris" as the case may be. That is one of hun­ dreds of little points which altogether make a proper style, and not having different ways of doing it on different days of the House. I am afraid that we were not too sucessful in getting uniformity of style in the firs,t editions of Hansard that were printed, and I asked to see the proofs for that one purpose and one purpose only, and I did it more as an old-time newspaper man and a reader of proofs than in any other capacity , but as for corrections or changing anything, not one syl· !able, not one single syllable.

MR, HOLLETT: I was not refer­ ring to any particular changes, merely editing- I was wondering if it were not possible to have a daily record as in Ottawa. It would not cost any more, I am quite sure, and members would be kept aware of what is going on from day to day. Would -the cost be tre­ mendous or what? MR. SMALLWOOD: Terriffic, yes. 'We have one reporter, we have Miss Murphy who is the stenotypist, and every word uttered in the Chamber she takes down on the machine, but when does she get the opportunity to type? It is done for weeks and weeks and weeks after the House is closed.

She may be months at it, transcribing the remarks from that machine, put­ ting it in ,typewritten form. And to get tha-t daily, to get tomorrow what is said today would take a staff of about fif. teen reporters. MR. HOLLETT: I submit there are enough stenographers in the Govern· ment employ to do Hansard every hour.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 27 MR. SMALLWOOD: There is not even one Hansard reporter in the em­ ploy of the Government ,today - Or­ dinary stenographers can't even begin to do it. Now the Supreme Court has one or two .down there, quite cap­ able of doing it and Mrs . Finn, who is not employed by ,the Government, may be the fourth fully capable of doing i•t, but there are not six in all Newfoundland, unless they be on the America! Bases, who are Hansard Re­ porters and who could sit for fifteen minutes and take down every word uttered, there are not six in the whole Province, not in all Newfoundland.

Will Crotty used to be one. He is dead. All the ol,d-,time Hansard Re­ porters are dead, gone- The Supreme Court has two. I think Miss Louise Saunders is probably capable of doing it and Miss Murphy on the Stenotype and Mrs. Finn. Tha,t would be five. I doubt if there is a sixth. MR. SPEAKER: At this time I should like to announce ,the names of the members of the Internal Economy Commission who have been appointed in the manner prescribed: Mr. Speaker, Chairman of Committees. Honourable the Premier. Honourable the A,ttorney General. Honourable the Minister of Finance.

Orders of The Day On motion a Bill, "An Act Respect­ ing the Department of Highways, read a first time. MR. BROWNE: Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Honourable the Premier could tell us whether it is the inten­ tion •to have two separate ministers? MR. SMALLWOOD: Yes. MR. BROWNE: A Minister of Highways and a >Minister of Public Works, a new portfolio? MR. SMALLWOOD: The appoint­ ment of an honourable gentleman who is now presently Minister of Public Works, yes. MR. BROWNE: Do you care to make the announcement? MR. SMALLWOOD: Yes, indeed. I will be glad to do so at the right moment. MR.

BROWNE: There are a good many applicants for the office, I pre­ sume . MR. SMALLWOOD: I would say there are enough members on this side to fill the depar,tment five times over. On motion Bill ordered read a sec• ond time on tomorrow. On motion a Bill, "An Act To Amend the Co-operative Department Loan Act," read a first ,time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow . On motion a Bill, "An Act Further ,to Amend the Co-operative Societies Act," read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

On motion a Bill, "An Act to Make }'ul'ther Provisions Respecting the Supply of Water in the Town of Car­ bonear, read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow. On motion a Bill, "An Act ,to Amend the Community Councils Act, 1956," read a first time, ordered read a sec­ ond time on tomorrow. On motion a Bill, "An Act Further ·to Amend the Memorial University Pensions Act," read a first time, or­ dered read a second time on •tomorrow. On motion the report of the Com­ mittee appointed to adopt an Address

28 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS in Reply to the Speech From the Throne rea<l: To His Honour the Administrator, Sir Albert J . Walsh, Knight Bachelor, May it please Your Honour. We, •the Commons of Newfound­ land, in Legislative Session assem­ bled, beg to thank Your Honour for the Gracious Speech which Your Honour has addressed to this House. (Sgd.) Claude A. Sheppard. Joseph P, O'Driscoll. A. M. Duffy. Assembly Room, March 21, 1957. MR. SPEAKER: The motion is that this report be received and adopted, MR.

HOLLETT: Mr, Speaker, I would say at the start of that speech on the Address in Reply that I am very happy to represent Newfuundland, and may I say "Newfoundlanders," here in this House once again. I want, Sir, at this date again to offer our congratulations to you on your elevation to ,the Chair. As I have already said: it is an honour greatly to be desired by any member who ever sits in this House. You, Sir, are from Fortune Bay . I come from Placentia Bay, and I take i,t that you and I might very well get our heads together and see what we can possibly do for •these two important bays.

In fact, Sir, if you and I got our heads ~ogether we might do something about controll­ ing •this House and seeing that things are as we want rather than what is wanted by certain members on the opposite side. So I suggest, Sir, we might have a little, shall I say "plot." However that is by-the-way and on the side. But I do wan•t ·to say, Sir, how glad I am to see you here, I congratulate you and compliment you as a m an who has worked hard, taught school, studied law when you were a•t the age when most people have been practising law a long time, and are now in practise.

For that alone, Sir, you deserve congratulations from this House. Now, Sir, I want to say again how pleased I was with the speech made by the Honourable member for Har­ bour Grace the other day. l•t was a very excellent speech, well put together and well delivered. I think I took down a few notes while he was speak­ ing. There was not much that the honourable member had to speak about. The Speech From the Throne as I already pointed out, was a very slim one, there was not much fat on it, and •there w,,s not much examining to be done by anybody who got up to move the address in reply.

He did say, one of the first things he started out with was the last election, the re­ cent election and that it had proven that people had great confidence in our Premier. MR. SMALL WOOD: Mr. Speaker, the honourable gentleman is now re­ viewing a debate which is completely finished and disposed of in this session. MR, HOLLETT: I might say irre­ spective of what the honourable mem­ ber for Harbour Grace said, it has been stated the people of •this country have shown great faith in the Honourable ·the Premier.

We can look across the House I am impressed by that, And I must say the people of Newfound­ land surely did have great confidence in the Premier and in the cause which he represents. There is not very much I can say with regard to what •the honourable gentleman said . The Premier has put his foot down on that, so I better not say very much more about it. I might

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDING~ 29 say •that the opinion was voiced by the mover and seconder of the Motion that a hand was generously extended to him to come into the Liberal Party and stand for the District of Bell Island. The Speech From the Throne last year did have something in it which was worthwhile, and it started off with the childrens' health benefits. I do not know to what extent the pro­ gramme outlined by -the Honourable the Premier at •that time has been carried out. He did say at that time it was the greatest system of the kind to be found anywhere in North Amer­ ica.

The Government took full re­ sponsibility for •the cost and expenses of all dental, medical and optical care of children. I do not know if the honourable minister would like to tell, even right now, how far they have gone ahead with that particular plan. I would like to know the progress which has been made and tha,t the chil­ dren were being •taken care of as pro­ mised by the Government last year. The Speech From the Throne last year also referred to local roads, and a hardy annual now, the Terms of Union.

I think the Terms of Union have been on the carpet ever since 1954, and every year it appears in the Speech From the Throne. This year it also appears here, and as a matter of fact if I remember correctly the Honourable Minister of Finance in his budget speech last year did say that he hoped that when the budget was brought down this year a substantial amount would appear there for the review of the Terms of Union under Term 29.

There was a grea,t to-do about unemployment assistance and sick relief, dependents' allowances and able-bodied relief and also fishery de­ velopment, and it was stated last year in the Speech From the Throne that a programme was taking shape and that great new plants were being built a,t Quirpon, Merasheen, Seldom-Come­ By and LaScie. One of the largest fishery e&tablisbments in Newfound­ land in fact in the whole of Canada was being built at LaScie. We as yet have no inform ation as to that nor just how far this plant has progressed an<l how much fish has been processed and what the future of ,that plant may be.

Now that we have a new Minister of Fisheries and a man who, I say, ought to know a lot about the fisheries, we will hope that we can get a good report on the plant at LaScie and on the other plan ts as well. The Speech last year also referred to fishing companies which were to get some financial help, it referred to BRINCO and referred also to the never ending growth of prosperity since Con­ federation. We have ·heard that so often, Sir, that it begins now to be a li-ttle bit boring, to hear about the never ending prosperity since Confed­ erntion.

Surely the honourable mem­ bers on the opposite side of this House do know that there has been never ending prosperity since the last war in every country in the western hemis­ phere, and it was not brought about by Confedera •tion. It was not •the fact that we got into Confederation that such prosperity existed as it never ex­ isted before in the whole of Canada. Or was it? Perhaps it was. Perhaps we got in•to Confederation and brought prosperity to Canada and North Am­ erica and other countries in the west ­ ern hemisphere . We will be told that in a short time if we are not very, very careful.

There was very little in the present speech, Sir, about which we could talk, and I ·think I might as well pass over it. I believe-yes, the Terms of Union were mentioned, Term 29 and one or two other things . I took some notes

30 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS on that at that partciular ,time, but what I have done with them I could not say at the moment-Oh yes, I have them here. The Royal Commission on the Terms od' Union was set up, and on that as a member, was the Chief Justice, Sir Albert Walsh . Then reference was made to the Arthur D. Little Firm of New York, which was to make a spe­ cial analysis of all •the new industries.

I do hope that when this firm, this "Li,ttle" firm, does get busy they make a special analysis of all the new indus­ tries, and that they express the opin­ ion that they would like to hear from us on the opposite side of the House. I maintain we on this side can tell them more about the new indu&tries than is known generally by honourable members on the Government side of the House. So we would be very, very glad to give the "Little" firm all the information we possibly can and help them ,to come to a fair and just ap­ praisal of the new industries .

There was some reference also to the Southwest Coast Commission. That, I believe, has been sitting for some time. I am quite convinced that the Honourable Minister of Fisheries could have sat down in his own sit,ting room and drafted a report on the Southwest Coast, on the needs of the Southwest Coast and some of the remedies which might be applied advantageously, with­ out going to all -the trouble and ex­ pense of setting up a commission and having ,to wait so long for a report on that.

The present Honourable Minister of Fisheries has been interested in the fisheries since he was knee high to a grasshopper and as a matter of fact is interested in the coast too to a great exten,t. I believe he has some interest in some of the fish plants now exist- ing on that coast. He is, therefore, quite capable of arriving at a reason­ able report relative to the Southwest Coast and conditions out ,there. I would say this, Sir-Several of us come from the Southwest Coast, and we will all agree, no doubt, that what this Government has done for the South­ west Coast is practically nil.

I believe members coming from the Southwest Coast who are sitting on the Govern­ ment side of the House today could say that since Confederation very, very little has been done by the presen-t G:ivernment for the fishermen of the Southwest Coast. I do not think that anybody could deny that-So we on this side of th e House and all the members on the Government side, from the Southwest Coasl, are going to get together and demand that a fair deal be handed out. MR. SMALLWOOD: A new party? MR. HOLLETT: No. There is no need of any new party.

And as I look across at ,the Government side of the House I see n<' reason for any party at the present time. I have no doubt, Sir, before the present five years are up we will get su,fficient from the Government side of the House to set up a new party. I won't' say what we will call them, but they will be ready, Sir, to set up a new party in order to offset some of the ,things even now dev eloping in the minds of some of the Ministers, the five year planner. on the Government side of -the House.

I was re ading the other day "The New Five Year Plan in Russia," an excellent plan - and I give the name to the members on the Government side-"The New Five Year Plan in Russia." We are going to have four new university buildings, and the matter of the weekly holiday is to be dis-

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 31 cussed, I understand, and a select com­ mittee is to be set up. I do not want to say very much about the weekly holiday at •thi~ time. I think it is rather unfortunate that the question of the weekly holiday should have to come before the House of Assembly, because I see, Sir that every

section of New­ foundland could very well demancl a weekly holiday on a di.fferent day of the week, if it should be advantageous ,to any particular section. In other words, a weekly holiday on Saturday here certainly would not suit certain paI'ts of the coastline, certain towns and villages along the coastline. And similarly a holiday on Monday might not suit here or there or anywhere.

Offhand I would say the question of the weekly holiday is one which might very well be decided between those who work and those who sit in their offices and collect the benefit of their work. lt is a matter of getting to­ gether, I think. a1,1d ironing out the difficulties. And I see no reason why this particular f;.overnment or any Gov­ ernment should be asked to sit down and lay out one particular day for a holiday, a Newfoundland commercial holiday. That is only just an opinion. That could be altered by persuasion, if the select committee could show some reason for it.

I believe there should be Jaw, mind you, behind t-he weekly holiday. but to say when it should be I don't believe is a question for us here. Then there was mention of a quintal of fish, and there was the question of new roads and one or two other things in the Speech from the Throne. There was very little, Sir, in that Speech from the Throne into which anybody could get to his feet and com­ ment. I do not intend to deal very long upon that . I don't intend to deal any longer on it, as a maHer of fact.

The election, Sir, was fought with vim, I take i-t, by everybody in this House, and as has already been said, it showed confidence in the Honourable the Premier and consequently we on this side of the House admit that. We admit •that. We are not decrying the fact at all. We will endeavour to help the people of this country by assist• ing the Premier and his Government in all matters which are brought be­ fore us for consideration. We shall not agree with very much they wil bring in, if I know the Government. MR. SMALLWOOD: Don',t be pes­ simistic nowl MR.

HOLLETT: I don't think we will agree with all of it by any means. I think it would be rather sad if we did. I have an idea a good many things are to be brought in which may not be, when thrashed out, in the best interest of the country generally. I do not mean to say people in the Governmen ,t will bring in such ideas deliberately to hinder anybody, but they might bring in a five year plan, Sir, which we on this side might not be •thoroughly agreeable to. However, it is nice to see such fine looking men on the opposite side of the House, who come from here, there and everywhere.

Some of them repre­ sent a few people and some represent a lot of people. I noted here that the member for Labrador North has eight hundred and seventy-three votes and the member for White Bay South, the Honourable Minister, has one thou: sand four hundred and thirty-seven votes, and the Honourable Minister from St. Mary's has one thousand one hundred and sixty•three votes, alto­ gether three men had three thousand four hundred and seventy-three votes. MR SMALLWOOD: The honour­ able gentleman should at least be fair

32 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS and point out if the honourable mem­ ber for Labrador North h as received eight hundred odd votes he represents an area bigger than •the whole Island of Newfoundl and and almost twk e as big as the whole Island of New­ foundland. It is not his fau!,t there are not more people ,down ther e. MR .

HOLLETT: I am not dealing with territory or square mil es but with people, and I am pointing out, Sir, the Honourable Minister of Health and the Honourable Minister of Edu­ cation , and the honourable member for Labrador North altogeth er had three thousand four hundred votes while our hon ourable member for St. John's Centre had thirty-s even hun­ dred and the honourable member for St. John's East thir>ty-eight hundred and the honourable m ember .for St. John's South thirty-thre e hundred.

I am not going to say one man is as good as any three on the opposite side but I do want to point out they do repre sent a good many people on thi s side of the House, and consequently we have to speak with the voice of these people. T am not forgetting the fact that the honourable member for St. John's North did have two thou­ sand six hundred and ninety-four votes, and I am quite sure he will be quite an add~tion to the Government side of the House. I have so many papers here, Mr. Speaker, I am afrai.d I am going to get mixed up a bit.

I have some notes here with regard to the increase in the Progressive Conservative votes , which was considerable. I feel the Honour­ able the Premier has sort of a smile on his face, but it is an increase, ac­ cording to my records, from twen•ty one. per cent up to thirty five per cen•t o{ the electorate in the districts into which we did send candidates , And in places like Grand Falls, where in 1951 we only had one thousand six hundred and seventy votes and tha,t iudu<led at this time Bishop's Falls and Botwood.

But this time with Bishop Falls and Botwood out we had two thousand one hundred and twenty one votes. In St. George's, Port au Port in 1952 we got twenty seven per cent of the votes and in 1956 we had th irty nine per cent of the votes. Even in Burgco and LaPoile where the Honourable Minister of Fisheries was elected our votes went from five hun­ dred and fol'ly seven only to nine hun­ dred and fifty two, while the Liberal vote was re.duced to two thousand two hundred and one in 1956.

Now these were small gains for us, Sir, but nev­ erthel ess they were gains and we are going- to have more as we go ~long. as we get older. I do not know what time the Honour able -the Premier's term is supposed to be up. MR. SMALLWOOD : The honour­ able gentleman is forgetting that the Liberal party went up to sixty six per cent from sixty four per cent in its third election. Yes, from sixty four rer cent we went to sixty six per cent of all votes cas,. MR. HOLLETT: The Honourahle the Premier will concede •that only about fifty per cent of all the people in Newfoundland voted anyway. MR.

SMALL WOOD: If the other fifty per cent voted we -would be around ninety five or ninety per cent. MR. HOLLETT: In any case, Sir, as a result of the election we have seventeen new men on the opposite side of the House. And while I am about it I would like to congratulate th e Government on having back today the Minister of Health. He was the first casualty since the election. There will be lots. We ha,d them las,t year.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 33 I am glad to see the honourable Min­ ister of Health here. He is a great asset to the Government. I am also glad to see the Honourable Mr. Spen­ cer returned safe and sound from his journeys. If he falls into the foot­ steps of his predecessor who went from all over Newfoundland, of course, I ,take it, to Rome , Germany, Berlin, Hamburg, Jamaica, Ireland, London, New York . I do not think there is a capital in Europe (I was going to say in the world) which his predecessor has not visited.

Therefore I do hope and trust that the Honourable Min­ ister for Finance, •the new minister, will find time to visit us here occa­ sionally in Newfoundland. And I do hope we shall have an opportunity to see him here in the House every once in a while. It is refreshing to know that the Honourable Minister of Fin­ ance does come back to Newfoundland once in a while. I am very happy to see him here today particularly on ac­ count of his absence •the other day.

We have now seventeen members on the opposite side of the House who are babes in the woods as far as this House is concerned, and I think, there­ fore, I could be pardoned if I do try to lay before them at this particular time a small picture at any rate of -this country at the present time.

In order to do thi~ I think I would have to go back to 1'949 when we went into -Confederation because that is all we hear from the opposite side-the thou­ sands of you who read the "First Eight Years." I know the honourable mem­ bers on the opposi-te side know what I refer to when I refer -to the "First Eight Years," the manifesto of the Premier prior to the election. MR. SMALLWOOD: "The Best Eight Years Yet." MR. HOLLETT: Everything was promised there, practically everything. There were ten points, I believe, which were to be (I thought I had some notes on that but I dare say they have g,onc too) .

They do not stick to us these promises. They leave us very, very quickly , and they leave us in the "red." I h ad some notes on "The nest Eight Years Ye1," but rn1h~r unfort unat ely I mis.laid Lhcm. Ilut in rhat bes1 eigh t years Lhe Prcmkr did promise he is going in 1he next u ve years Lo devote h is energies, :md he has lots LO devo 1e to do certain things. And I have no doubt he intends to <lo it or try to do it. I see my honourable friend has the actual manifesto here. It is a marvellous document.

Any member of any candidate who went out with that in his pocke t ac ross this country all he had to do was show the pre tty pictures and everythi ng of that kind, and the people would not have time to think anything else but "what a wonderful Government to get out a book like that." There is the Premier on the cover, with a most determined look on his face. I think, it is the best bow tie I have seen in a long time. He has with him the loggers and the fishermen, and one of the fishermen carrying a net. I think that is wrong -I ·think our nets are bigger than that.

I think the Honourable Min­ ister for Fisheries better take a look nt th at new nee with a lon g handle . How cvei- It is a very excellent picture of the Premier. But I was referring to his promi ses. I shall give my stTength and my time to ten great purposes: Revision of the Financial Terms. I believe that Newfoundland should and could get at least so and so. I think it is rather unfortunate that the Honourable the Premier did mention any particular amount be­ cause I am hoping we will get more than he did mention. We are going to need it badly However he is going •Lo devo-te his energy to that and to the

34 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS third paper mill. We will soon be able to write a s-o ng on the third paper mill. That was promised to people in his manifesto but th ere was not a thing about it in the recen~ Speech llrom the Throne, not r.ne word. There is a great new mining boom coming up. And we all believe there will be some mining boom coming up because they are cc>ming up all across Canada. There are some that are being written off and thrown in the discard as fast as they come up but there are some which will come to something. And the Honourable the Premier is going to give us a net­ work of roads .

We have two thousand miles now. I suppose the network will increase that two thousand by another thous1nd or so, There is a great chil­ dren's health scheme . vVe were al­ r : ady promised that. More and bet­ ter schools. ,ve are actually going to Inve more and better schools. We shall have to have more with the popalation increasing as it has in­ creased recently. Confedenlion has b een blamEd, somewhere in this work, for the increase in population. MR. SMALLWOOD: Not blamed. Credited. MR. HOLLETT: The booklet tells us how the Newfoundland population is growing fast.

We have seventy thou­ sand new Newfoundlanders since Con­ federation. Our population is grow­ ing by over ten thousand a year. This is true growth. This is true progress. This is how he tells us Newfoundland is g-oing ahead under Confederation, and as an afterthought he adds, and th e Liberal Government. It is just an after! hought. MR. HOLLETT: Another four or five years of Liberal development and our popnlatlon will be over half a million in Newfoundland. It is a won- derful manifesto. There is no question about it.

But in view of that and in view of the political youth, shall I say, of half the members on the Government side of the House, I think we ought to refer briefly, possibly, to the finan­ cial picture or to the picture of New­ foundland. For •that reason I will have to go back to Newfoundland. You all remember, of course, that when we went into Confederation a beautiful picture did present itself fro111 the financial point of view. We, as you know, had been long under a national debt which was taking any­ where from four ,to five million dol­ lars every year to pay the interest.

Well, when we went into Confedera­ tion that was taken away from us. I believe the national debt at that time was around sixty-eight to seventy mil­ lion dollars. That was lifted from us. While on that subject let me say right now-Don't anybody get the idea in this country that that was a sort of a free gift from Canada to us. It was no such thing. It was an invest­ ment by Canada. It was an invest­ ment by them. They were prepared to buy shares in this country to that extent, to the extent of our national debt.

And if anybody thinks that it was not a good investment I have here before me the figures which refer to the income tax and the corporation taxes paid by Newfoundland last year and by Newfoundland since we went into Confederntion. And I know that last year . and this was in the press some time ago and available to every­ body, Newfoundland paid twenty-five millions eight hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars, or 1.03 of the total amount paid in under corpora­ tion and income taxes by all the Pro­ vinc es of Canada, or at the rate of sixty-two dollars per head of our pop-

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 35 ulation. Sixty-two dollars per head of our population was collected by the Federal Department of Financ e from Newfoundland. From New Brunswick they collected fifty·Lhre e doll ars p~r head and from Nova Sco tia fifty-eight dollars p er head but fr om Newfouncl­ lan<l they coll ected sixty-two dollars per head. Thirty-two dollars of that was for personal income tax. Just note -From Newfoundland last year they collect ed thirty-two dollars from every man, woman and child on income tax wherea s in Nova Sc-otia they only col­ lected thirty-two .

Now that docs not mean actually that we are any less prosp erous or any less prosperou s than Nova Scotia. It just sh ows tint when we went into Canada as a tenth prov­ ince we had to should er our responsi­ bilitie s. ,,ve h ad to pay our income taxes, we had to pay our corporation taxes, etc. And I have figur es here which show that sin ce 1950 to 1956 from th e Province of Newfoundland there was a tot al of .$128,229,326. That was for personal incom e tJ.xes from individuals and from corporations. So that it was a good inv estment for the Federal Governm ent fr om the financial view alone.

Th ey took our na tional debt of s2venty•eight million dollars and since then they have collected one hundred and twenty-eight milli-0n two hundred and twenty-nine th ousand three hundred and tw enty-six dollars in income taxes and corporation taxes. MR. SMALLWOOD : Have they spent any,thing here? MR. HOLLETT: I wan speaking about what they took. I have an idea if they had not spent anythin g here the Liberal Government would be broke long, long ago. They spent enough to keep the Government afloat. The y sp ent a good bit of money here. I am not talking auout that.

I would say that in addition to income and corporation taxes they took from us probably another twenty or tw e11ty­ five million in excis e taxes and cus• toms taxes, etc. So do not let any­ body think th at wh en we wrnt into Confe<leration we went in as a burden. It was a good investment by Canada to tak ~s us over. Th ey alreJ.dy l1ave the n ational del>t we did owe liquidat• ed and more besides.

It is true they spent monEy here and will have to spend money here, but, Sir, you can note that in income taxes and corpora­ tion taxes alone , last year, they col­ lected •twenty-eight million dollars from the people of this country, and if you add an othtr twenty or twenty­ five million for excise taxes and cus­ toms taxes on the one hundred and fifty or two hundred millions which we imported, if you add th2't and also the amount of customs duty which should be credited to Newfoundland you will find we are p :iying more in r2venue to the Federal Government than they are spending here in this country.

That may be as it should be, but do not let us forget it. MR. SMALLWOOD: Tha•t is New­ foundl and, Ont a rio and Quebec are the thr ee "hav e" pro vinces and give Ottawa more than Ottawa gives us. MR. HOLLETT: No. I am not saying tha,t. Everyone has to give more than he gets if we are to finance op­ cra-tlons. If you want the figures. They have five million odd people there and th~y paid last vear in corporation and income tax 49.9 nearly fifty per cent of the -total amount which was col­ lected, that is the people of Ontario. If Ontario is a have province, Mr.

Speak er, she certainly is contributing to the revenue of the Government of Canada became last year in income tax and corporation tax alone she paid fifty per cent of the whole of or forty nine point nine per cent or a per

36 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS capita of two hundred and forty one dollars

whereas we in Newfoundland paid sixty two dollars. MR. SMALLWOOD : But we paid Ottawa more than Ottawa paid us? MR. HOLLETT: I would not be exact on that. I have not •the exact figures. The figures I am quoting are exact. I would say we are definitely p:iying more. MR. SMALLWOOD: We, and On­ tario and Quebec. MR. HOLLETT: I am not ,talking about Ontario but about the country I know. Mind you we were not going to pay any taxes when we went into Conf~rleration. I could read it from statements made by the Honourable the Premier, where we were not going to pay any taxes. MR.

SMALLWOOD: I never said that in my life, never once in my life. I said we would not pay property tax. MR. HOLLETT: And you did not say the cos-t of living would be lower? MR. SMALLWOOD: Yes I did, and so it di.d come down. MR. HOLLETT: Is it lower -today? Was it ever lower? MR. SMALi.WOOD: Yes, for three years after we went into Confederation, at least, it was lower. MR. HOLLETT: Nonsense! The promise was only good for three years? MR. SMALLWOOD: No, that is not the answer. MR.

HOLLETT: Let me say, On­ tado paid forty point nine per cent of the income and corporation taxes; Quebec paid twenty-five point eight per cent; British Columbia ten point two per cent; Alberta four point nine; Nova Scotia one point six; New Bruns­ wick one point two and Newfoundland one point three; Prince Edward Island one point three. These are the figures. You cannot dispute -them. They come from the Dominion Bureau of Statis­ tics. Wha•t I want to say is that it is not good for a people to be always thinking we live by the bounty we get from Ottawa.

We have to stand in our own shC>es and fight our own battles. And we have to pay revenue into the Federal chest. Naturally we have to pay our share because not only does the Federal chest have to fish out for relief and services in ,the various provinces but it also has to pay rle­ ferrce, and the defence expenditures are terrific, something like two billion dol­ lare a year. The Federal Chest has to take care of that and all sorts of other things. I do not think it is good to be always claiming we are a have-not pro­ vince and only live by the bounty, the handouts we get from Ottawa.

Just think, we are paying all that into the Federal Ches-t, and I think our people ought to be told that because it is com­ ing out of their pockets anyway. Now then in addition to that nation­ al debt taken . from us in 1949, and for which we jolly well paid, the Fed­ eral Government took over certain ser­ vices which were weighing down the country financially.

The upkeep of the railway and its vearly dificits were no longer a burden to us, the Customs was taken over, the postal telegraph ceased to be a charge on the treasury, the care of veterans, •the Newfoundland Hotel and various other expenses we were relieved of, and the coastal boats were taken over. And the coastal boats remind me of a certain gentleman in Canada, called Donald Gordon. He made some remarks the other day in connection with an interview, I believ.e,

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 37 he was having with our Newfoundland Liberal Federal Representative. Some of •the things that Mr. Gordon said I deplore very much. I do not intend to make any caustic remarks about them, but I think any man in the pos­ ition of Mr. Donald Gordon should girdle his tongue, so to speak, when it comes to referring to us in New• foundland as a troublesome lot and as a bothersome lot. He should girdle his tongue, put a bit on it. It is un­ fortunate for him to have said that, I think. Probably Mr. Carter had agitated him a bit. I do hope Mr. Carter will agitate him very much more.

On motion the House recessed for ten minutes after which Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair. MR. HOLLETT: Mr. Speaker, when we recessed I was referring •to the picture of Newfoundland when we en­ tered into Confederation in 1949. I was doing that, I said, for the benefit of the honourable members who are si-tting on the opposite side and on this side who are still young . And I was pointing out that our national debt was taken away, that the telc· graphs and railway and various other services were taken care of by Ottawa; we had forty-two million dollars of a surplus in the bank and we had certain realized assets.

And in case we want -to refresh our memory with regard to our realizable assets; assets which were paid for by the Federal Government and which eventually brought our sur­ plus up to fifty million dollars we have to refer to the statement issued by •the Newfoundland Delegation where it states -that the Federal Government would pay the Newfoundland cost of the "Springdalr and Bar Haven;" Re­ imburse Newfoundland for the pay· ment made under

Article two of the agreement between the United King- dom and Newfoundland for ,the build­ ing of an airport building at Gander Airport, taken over by the Royal Air­ force and pay Newfoundland two thirds of the expenditure in respect of the expenditure mw..le by Newfoundland for the convers!ons of buildings to civil use and the value of che consumable goods and supplies determined by phy­ sical inventory a.~ at March thirty -first, 1949 in respect of post al telegraph ser­ vices and Gand er Airport.

Canada took over the fixed assets of the New­ foundland Railway and Canada assum­ ed responsibility for payment of rail­ way equipment on order at the date of this memorandum. Canada assum ed responsibility for paym ent for tele-com­ munica•tion equipment, and she took over certain buildings and one or two other things for which we were paid, which, at any rate, brought the sur­ plus in cash in the bank eventually up to forty-two p!ns approximat ely eight miJiion dollars bring ing the surplus to approximately fifty milli on dollars. That is a prettv picture for any Gov­ ernment in a small province.

There was no national debt, no post office, no telegraph office, no customs, no railway to take care of and fifty mil­ lion dollars in the pot. That, I say, was a very, very pleasant outlook for -the Honourable the Premi er and the men who joined him in that first Gov­ ernment. Then millions of that went of course, to Ottawa, and it should still be there. In addition to that, for the first three years we had a transitional grant from Canada of six and a half million. Now what happened to all this?

During that time and since that time and up to the present time that forty million dollars has been spent, the surplus, and our potential national debt has increased from three an,1 a half millions to some forty-five mil­ lion dollars. The Government of the

38 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS day, in 1951, went on a spending spree the like of which was never known, the sky was the limit, there were commis­ sions here and commissions there and commissions everywhere-a Cost of Liv­ ing Commission, Fishery, Forests, Agri­ cultural and always costing anywhere from fifty to a hundred and fifty thou­ sand dollars each. There were trips to Ottawa, to New York, to London, to Rome, a stea<ly stream of Newfound­ land Cabinet Ministers on a conducted tour of the world, Sir--a conducted tour of the world, conducted by none other than Dr. Alfred Valdmanis.

I think tha•t he can now be written off as a five hundred thousand dollar steal. Imagine he was paid twenty­ fiye Lhom:md dollars a year to steal from us some five hundred thousand dollars. But I no not want to say very much about it. It bring·s up s:id mem­ ories. And wh:it have we got, Sir, after this orgy of spending·, this spree of the Government? I am saying this for the benefit of every member of this House. What have we left? What have we got today? We have a national debt, as I pointed out, I take it around forty mill'on and a potential debt of around fifty two or fif'.y four million . What else lnve we?

The Premier will tell us, of course, our people were never better fed, never better clothed, never SJ prosperous , never so happy. What with unemployment insurance and monies paid out in Public Welfare, we are told, the people are as happy as they can possibly be. We do real­ ize that figures talk, and we are told by ,the unemployment people that there are some eighteen to twenty-five thousJnd out of work here today in St. John's area. ·we fail to see where the prosperity exists at ,the present time.

True a good many people are better off than ever they were, but there are a lot of people, Sir, from Port aux Basques down the coast, around the coast and back to Port aux Basques again who today are very little better off than they were in 1949. It is true they gN the family allow­ ances and it is true they are going to get increases in family allowances, but it is also true, Sir, ,the cost of living has mounted since we went into Con­ feclcratkm and the paltry amount which they get for family allowances d oes not make up for the increase in the cJst of living.

I was referring to the conducted tours, and I have a few notes here taken from the 1951 Speech From the Throne, and it stal'ts out with the prosperity existing at that time and it talks about the economic develop­ ment and about the cement mill and hJw that cement mill is now in opera­ tion and that cement in Newfoundland will be at least eight times as much as is n eeded will be produced by the cement mill.

The Gypsum Plant was then in course of construction and the birch plant and tannery and the mach­ ine plant at that time, in 1951, stated it to be the largest single labour giv­ ing enterpris e, apart from fisheri ~s­ in the next two years it was to take care of five thousand employees. I wonder how many are nut there at the machinery plant today? Five thousand men-More than Grand Falls, Corner Brn:ik, Buchans and St. Lawrence would be employed. Then the textile mill and ,the le:,ther goods factory, and also coming into the country were sev­ eral other industrie, as well.

Then the Sp:ech from the Throne referred to conducted tours around Europe and to the fact they have secured a further fifteen new industries. How­ ever, that is enough abouc the 1951 Speech from the Throne. I suppose one of the saddest things we have at the present time is our n eglected fish­ eries-our neglected fisheries.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS 39 In my opinion, if the Government of the past, since 1949 have neglected anything they definitely have neglected the fisheries. Now I am not saying they did it deliberately, Mr. Speaker, Last year when I referred to the Fish­ eries Department as an inept depart­ ment I was scorned and I was laughed at. But, Sir, I still maintain that we did have, for a numb er of years, since 19i9, an inept department of Fish­ eries. The only reference in the present Speech From the Throne is that we are going to weigh our fish differently.

Instead of having it by quintals, one hundred and twelve pounds, we are now gning to weigh fish by avoirdu­ pois. This is the only reference made in the Speech From the Throne of 1957. How many m en today are en­ gaged in the salt fish industry, Sir? Here I want to refer to -the fish,