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Date: 1866-06-20
By: Province of Canada (Parliament)
Citation: Province of Canada, Parliament, Scrapbook Debates, 8th Parl, 5th Sess, 1866 at 17-18.
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LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

WEDNESDAY, June 20^th

The Speaker took the chair at 3 o’clock. After Routine.

First Reading

Hon. Mr. Flint introduced a bill to authorize the corporation for the Town of Belleville to purchase a piece of ground for a cemetery and to exempt the Roman Catholics from taxation on account of thereof, as they had a cemetery of their own.

Civil Code of Lower Canada

Hon. Mr. Bureau moved that a humble address be presented to His Excellency will be pleased to cause to be prepared and printed an index or alphabetical and analytical table to the Civil Code of Lower Canada.

Inquiries

Hon. Mr. Ryan begged to inquire,

1^st. What are the reasons which have induced the Government so long to delay appointing a Collector of Customs for the Port of Montreal, and whether it is their intention shortly to appoint one?

2^nd. Whether it is the intention of the Government, to provide more suitable and commodious buildings than those at present in use, for the purpose of a Custom House and Custom Warehouse at Montreal?
3^rd. Whether it is the intention of the Government to take any steps for improving and enlarging the present Post Office or for erecting a new and more convenient one at Montreal?

Hon. Sir N. F. Belleau stated in reply that the Government understood that the duties of the Collector of Montreal had been performed to the satisfaction of the public by an efficient officer for the last year or since the demise of the late Collector, Mr. Holmes, but that they intended however to appoint a collector shortly.

Hon. Mr. Ryan said that perhaps it would be as well not to appoint a collector at all, and that thereby a saving would be effected. (Laughter.) With regard to the 2^nd and 3^rd inquiries, the Hon Member said both subjects were under consideration of the Government.

Second Readings

Hon. Mr. Campbell moved the second reading of the Bill to regulate the sale of the wood upon the reserved of the Iroquois Indians at Caughnawaga

In support of the bill the hon. member said that the wood in this reserve had been trespassed upon in various ways, and that the tribe had suffered considerable losses in consequences. The object of the bill was to prevent the reoccurrence of such wrongs in future, and for this purpose the said reserve would be brought under the same regulations as that of the Lorette Indians.

Hon. Mr. Ferrier said he was extremely pleased that the Government had taken actions in this matter, for since the time the Caughnawaga Railway had been constructed, the Indians in that locality had been robbed of their wood to a very large extent. The condition of these Indians was of a nature to call upon the Government for protection and he conceived they were in duty bound to look after their interests and to protect them from such lawlessness.

The bill was then read and referred.

Hon. Mr. Campbell then moved to second reading of a bill to grant a patent to Pierson Harris, for the deodorization of Petroleum mines.

The honourable member said that the applicant for this patent was not the sole part concerned, but that his brother and tow American gentlemen were concerned in the matter. The invention, be believed, was calculated to be of great advantage to the parties working the Petroleum mines in the country, by enabling the producers to get their oil clarified and deodorised more effectively and at a much smaller cost than at present. To the present the Government had declined entertaining the policy of freely extending the patent rights to aliens believing that the privilege could be used as a good argument in connection with any slope that might be taken for procuring a renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, but the negotiations for [sic] and having failed they had determined no longer to refuse patents to aliens, but to trust […]

• (p. 18)

[…] every application upon its own merits. (Hear, hear.)

In the present case Mr. Harris and his associates proposed to set up establishments and machinery at the West, and also at Gaspe, and and [sic] as the invention was in opart at least due to a British subject he had no doubt the House would readily acquiesce in the measure proposed.

Hon. Mr. Ferrier said he desired particularly to mark what the hon. Commissioner of rown Lands had said of the determination of Government to allow every application for patents to come up and be determined on its own individual merits. This he considered quite necessary. He had always held that when patents were granted in Canada the parties getting them should be placed under the onligation of manufacturing the patented articles in the Province, for it had happened that parties who had onbtained patents had gone away, and when the people of Canada desired to avail themselves of these pretended articles or machnes, the patentees could not be found or they had to be sought for in a foreign country. In this way, with the additional cost of transportation and other charges, our people had been obliged to pay exorbitantly for such things.

Hon. Mr. Campbell agreed generally with the hon. member, and said that every application for patents would here after be treated upon its own merits, and subjected to such conditions as might be deemed necessary to secure to the Province the greatest afvantages from the patents.

Hon. Mr. Ryan suggested that the general subjects of patents was about to e brought under consideration of the other Branch of the Legislature as he perceived that the hon. minister of Africulture had brought in a bill to amend chapter 34 of the consolidated statutes which related to patents of invention.

Hon. Mr. Campbell replied that the intention of that bill was not to amend or alter the principle upon which patents were at present granted, but to provide for abritrators in certain cases.

The bill was then read and referred to the Standing Committee on Private Bills.

Hon. Sir. N.F. Belleau moved the second reading of the bill to amend the St. Lawrence Tow Boat Company’s Act. The amendments desired, he said, had been agreed upon by a general meeting of the stockholders at Quebec last winter, and he believed were open to no objections. However that would be for the Private Bill Committee to examine into.

The bill was then read and referred to the Private Bill Committee.

The House then adjourned.