Mr. SPEAKER.

Amongst the petitions which have just been read, those numbered from No. 33 to No. 45 ask for aid for the construction of a bridge over the St. Lawrence river. I have already decided that such petitions are out of order, because they ask for the expenditure of public money. I declare these petitions out of order.

Mr. SPEAKER.

I have the honour to inform the House that I have received from the Hon. Justice Gagnti, one of the judges selected for the trial of election petitions pursuant to the Controverted Elections Act, judgment and report in the matter of the petition for the electoral district of Chicoutimi and Saguenay, by which said election petition was dismissed.

Mr. AVADE.

AVhen the House rose the other night we were considering an amendment to this clause, and also an amendment to the amendment. Since then I have drafted an amendment which I think will meet the views of hon. gentlemen on the other side who had objection to the section as it stands. I have submitted this amendment to the Minister of Railways, and it meets with his approval. The object is, that while the company has the power to fix the tolls, yet it shall be under the jurisdiction of the government and subject to their approval. I regret that the mover of the amendment to the amendment is not present, because I would wish to ask his permission to withdraw my amendment in order to substitute this one.

Mr. DEPUTY SPEAKER.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the hon. member shall have leave to withdraw his amendment *'!

Hon. Mr. HAGGART.

Let us hear the new amendment first.

Mr. HUGHES (Victoria).

Let us hear the amendment that he proposes to substitute.

Mr. WADE.

The amendment I propose is as follows :

Provided further that 10 such tolls shall be levied or taken until the by-law fixing the same has been approved by the Governor in Council and the same published as provided by section 227 of the Railway Act ;

And further provided that such by-law shall be subject to revision as provided by section 228 of the Railway Act; and for the above purpose of approval and revision, said sections 227 and 228 of the Railway Act shall apply mutatis mutandis to any by-law of the company fixing such tolls.

Section 223 of the Railway Act authorizes the company by by-laws to fix railway tolls;, section 227 provides that they cannot collect any of these tolls until the same have been approved by the Governor in Council and until they have been published for two Mr. SPEAKER.

weeks in the ' Canada Gazette '; section 228 provides that any toll so fixed or approved- by the Governor in Council shall be subject to revision by the Governor in Council. I objected to having the words from ' time to time ' appear on the face of the charter

*Hon. Mr. TISDALE.

Carried, carried.

Mr. HUGHES (Victoria).

The proposition of the hon. member gives the company power to fix tolls, but does not give the Railway Committee of the Privy Council power to reduce those tolls without the company's consent.

Mr. WADE.

That is provided for in section 228.

I think the section as proposed is all right. The only criticism I would pass upon it would be that it might be put in the form of a clause of eight or ten words to the effect that the right of the company to levy tolls would be subject to the provisions of the Railway Act. However I have no objection to the clause as it is drawn, for the Railway Committee of the Privy Council will have power to reduce the tolls, and no tolls will be legally recoverable unless the Governor in Council approves of the by-law fixing them.

Hon. Mr. HAGGART.

I think the hon. Minister of Railways and Canals is perfectly correct, that it would be better to have a short clause which would make this undertaking subject to the provisions of the Railway Act ; and it ought to go further and make the undertaking subject to that Act as amended from time to time. [DOT]

That would follow.

Mr. WADE.

There is a clause in the Bill providing that the Railway Act shall apply to the undertaking. But I would like to draw the attention of hon. gentlemen to one or two features of the Railway Act as amended in 1899 with respect to these bridges. There were express provisions made at that time giving power to fix tolls for foot passengers and for carriage passengers ; but inasmuch as the word company in the Railway Act only refers to a railway company, a doubt arose as to whether that would be sufficient to enable the company to fix tolls on this bridge. Therefore it urns necessary to put in a clause to make that clear ; and when we throw around it all the safeguards which are applied to railways, I think we have met every objection.

Amendment (Mr. Wade) moved at a former meeting of the committee withdrawn ; amendment now moved agreed to ; Bill reported, read the third time and passed.