Document Information

Date: 1871-04-14
By: Canada (Parliament)
Citation: Canada, House of Commons Debates, 1st Parl, 4th Sess, 1871 at 403-405.
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[Page 403]

NORTH WEST

Mr. SMITH (Selkirk) rose to make explanations respecting statements made in the speech of the hon. member for Lisgar (Mr. Schultz) yesterday.

Hon. Mr. McDOUGALL (Lanark North) objected to this irregular proceeding and said that the people of the country would come to regard the hon. member for Selkirk as a representative of the Hudson’s Bay Co. sent to this House to rehabilitate them before the Dominion.

Hon. Mr. HOLTON also condemned the course of the hon. member for Selkirk as irregular.

***

INDEMNITY FOR MANITOBA MPS

Hon. Sir GEORGE-É. CARTIER moved that it be resolved that Mr. Speaker be authorized to direct the accountants of this House to pay respectively to the three members lately elected from Manitoba and attending the deliberations of this House the full sessional allowance, deductions, however, being made at the usual rate for the number of days of their non-attendance at this session. He explained that the hon. members from Manitoba had not been able to attend the thirty days necessary for them to obtain their sessional allowance, in consequence of the delay in the election and the distance they were obliged to travel to reach Ottawa.

The motion was carried unanimously.

Some formal business having been transacted, at 3.10,

The Usher of the Black Rod appeared and summoned the Commons to the Senate Chamber as follows:

A Message from His Excellency the Governor General, by René Kimber, Esquire, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod:—

The SPEAKER,

I am commanded by His Excellency the Governor General to acquaint this Honourable House, That it is the pleasure of His Excellency that the Members thereof do forthwith attend him in the Senate Chamber.

Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, with the House, went up to attend His Excellency, where His Excellency was pleased to give, in her Majesty’s name, the Royal Assent to the following Public and Private Bills:—

An Act for the prevention of corrupt practices in relation to the collection of the Revenue.

An Act to establish one Uniform Currency for the Dominion of Canada.

An Act to prolong, for a certain time, the term allowed for the redemption of rents reserved on certain Indian lands in the Township of Dundee.

An Act to extend the provisions of the Act authorizing the imposition and collection of Harbour Dues by the Corporation of the Town of Owen Sound.

An Act to indemnify the Members of the Executive Government, and others, for the unavoidable expenditure of Public Money, in excess of the Parliamentary Grant, incurred in repelling the threatened invasion of the Fenians in 1870.

An Act to amend and explain the Act to amend the Charter of the Ontario Bank.

An Act to incorporate the Ontario and Quebec Railway Company.

An Act to incorporate the Mutual Life Association of Canada.

An Act to make further provision for the government of the North West Territories.

An Act for more effectually preventing the desertion of Seamen in the Port of Quebec.

An Act to amend the Act thirty-third Victoria, chapter forty, respecting the settlement of the affairs of the Bank of Upper Canada.

An Act respecting the Loan authorized by the Act 32 and 33 Vic., Cap. 1, for the purpose of paying a certain sum to the Hudson’s Bay Company.

An Act further to amend the Acts respecting the improvement and management of the Harbour of Quebec.

An Act further to amend the Act respecting fishing by foreign vessels. An Act to amend the Acts relating to Duties of Customs.

An Act to incorporate the Sault Ste. Marie Railway and Bridge Company. An Act respecting certain officers of the Trinity House of Quebec.

[Page 404]

An Act to incorporate the Isolated Risk Fire Insurance Company of Canada.

An Act to incorporate the Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway Company.

An Act to amend the Insolvent Act of 1869.

An Act to incorporate ‘‘The Confederation Life Association.’’

An Act to amend the Census Act.

An Act to incorporate the Kingston and Pembroke Railway Company.

An Act to extend to the Province of New Brunswick, the operation of the Act of the Legislature of the late Province of Canada, concerning the Synod of the Church of England in Canada.

An Act concerning the Vaudreuil Railway Company.

An Act to incorporate the Western Bank.

An Act to incorporate the Metropolitan Bank.

An Act to comprise in one Act the Financial Affairs of the Great Western Railway Company.

An Act to incorporate the Bedford District Bank.

An Act to amend the Act incorporating the Sun Insurance Company of Montreal.

An Act to incorporate the Bank of Liverpool.

An Act to authorize the incorporated Village of Trenton to impose and collect Harbour Dues, and for other purposes.

An Act Relating to the Commercial Bank of New Brunswick.

An Act to incorporate the Dominion Telegraph Company.

An Act to authorize the Northern Railway Company of Canada to make agreements for the leasing, using, and working of the Lines of Railway of other Companies.

An Act to provide for the appointment of a Port Warden for the Harbor of Quebec.

An Act to make provision for validating certain Premium Notes taken or held by Mutual Fire Insurance Companies.

An Act to amend the Act respecting Insurance Companies.

An Act to authorize the sale of the Oakville Harbour.

An Act to extend to the Province of Manitoba certain of the Criminal Laws now in force in the other Provinces of the Dominion.

An Act to incorporate the Fredericton and Saint Mary’s Bridge Company. An Act in relation to the Library of Parliament.

April 14, 1871 An Act to authorize the sale or lease of the Rockwood Asylum to the Province of Ontario.

An Act relating to Banks and Banking.

An Act to incorporate the Mutual Insurance Company of Canada.

An Act to extend the Act respecting the Militia and Defence of the Dominion of Canada.

An Act to make temporary provision for the election of members to serve in the House of Commons of Canada.

An Act to amend the Act further securing the Independence of Parliament.

An Act to provide additional facilities for depositing Savings at interest with the security of the Government, and for the issue and redemption of Dominion Notes.

An Act to amend the Inland Revenue Act, 1868, and to alter the duties of Excise chargeable in the Province of Manitoba.

An Act to amend the Act 31st Vic., Cap. 66, respecting Aliens and Naturalization.

An Act respecting the force and effect of the Acts of the Parliament of Canada in and in relation to the Province of Manitoba, and the Colony of British Columbia when it becomes a Province of the Dominion.

An Act to continue for a limited time the Acts therein mentioned.

An Act to make provision for the detention of female convicts in Reformatory prisons, in the Province of Quebec; and for other purposes, relating to prisons in that Province.

An Act to enable certain Railway Companies to provide the necessary accommodation for the increasing traffic over their railways; and to amend The Railway Act 1868.

An Act respecting certain Savings Banks in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. An Act to render permissive the use of the Metric or Decimal System of Weights and Measures.

Then the Honourable the Speaker of the House of Commons addressed His Excellency the Governor General, as follows:

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY:―

The Commons of Canada have voted the monies required for the Public Service.

In their name I present a Bill, entitled: ‘‘An Act for granting to her Majesty ‘certain sums of money required to defray certain expenses of the Public Service, for the financial years ending respectively, the 30th June 1871, and the 30th June, 1872’,’’ to which I humbly request Your Excellency’s assent.

To this Bill the Royal Assent was signified in the following words:—

[Page 405]

‘‘In Her Majesty’s name, His Excellency the Governor General thanks her loyal subjects, accepts their benevolence, and assents to this Bill.’’

After which His Excellency was pleased to make the following Speech to both Houses:—

Honourable Gentlemen of the Senate, Gentlemen of the House of Commons:—

In releasing you from further attendance in Parliament, I beg leave to express my warm acknowledgements for the diligence with which you have applied yourselves to the discharge of your public duties.

The Session has been brief, but work of importance has been accomplished, and I may congratulate you on the prospect which is foreshadowed, that in the future, the Sessions of the Parliament of the Dominion will not make the inconvenient demands on the time of the Members which they have done in the past.

The arrival in Ottawa of the Representatives elected to serve for the Province of Manitoba, and their taking their seats in Parliament, mark signally the completion of the Union of that Province with the Dominion.

The Criminal, Militia, and other Statute Laws, not in their nature inapplicable to Manitoba, have been extended to that Province.

The regulations for the Survey and granting of lands in Manitoba were modelled on a system tested by experience, and will, by their liberality, offer a free home to all, without restriction, who desire to settle in the county, and avail themselves of the advantages held out to them.

It shall be one of my earliest cares during the recess to take steps to negotiate, on equitable principles, with the Indian tribes in Manitoba, and the North West Territory, in order to quiet their titles to lands.

The Session which we are now closing has witnessed the consummation of the Union of Manitoba, and the adoption of the necessary initial measures to facilitate and ensure the admission of British Columbia into the Dominion.

The Addresses passed by the Senate and House of Commons have been sent forward to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for submission to Her Most Gracious Majesty, and I trust Parliament will, at its next Session, have the satisfaction of viewing, as an accomplished fact, the Union of all Her Majesty’s Continental Possessions in North America, an object, the attainment of which, even the most sanguine advocates of Confederation did not anticipate for many years to come.

I cherish the expectation that the result of the Census will demonstrate that the several Provinces of the Dominion have made a rapid advance in population, and in all the elements of material prosperity during the last decade.

The Fisheries’ Question is still under the consideration of the Joint High Commission at Washington, and I am confident that every effort is being made to secure such a result as will meet the reasonable expectations of the Canadian people, and tend to the preservation of lasting amity, and good feeling, between Great Britain and the United States.

Gentlemen of the House of Commons:

I tender you my thanks for the readiness with which you have granted the Supplies for the present year.

Honourable Gentlemen, and Gentlemen:

We have abundant cause for rejoicing at the present moment in the favourable state of the revenue, and the thriving condition of many branches of the national industry. I gratefully acknowledge the loyalty of the people, and the spirit of order and respect for the law, which prevail in every part of the Country, and I pray with all humility that these blessings may be of long continuance, and that He, from whom all good proceeds, may vouchsafe to look with favour on this Dominion.

Then the Honourable Speaker of the Senate said:—

Honourable Gentlemen of the Senate, Gentlemen of the House of Commons,

It is His Excellency the Governor General’s will and pleasure that this Parliament be prorogued until Thursday, the Twenty-fifth day of May, next, to be then here holden; and this Parliament is accordingly prorogued until Thursday, the Twenty-fifth day of May next.