Mr. SPEAKER.

I must call the attention of hon. members to the rule which requires that the petition shall be endorsed with the name of the member presenting it. Many of these petitions have no endorsation.

Hon. N. A. BELCOURT (Ottawa).

I beg to present a petition praying for incorporation. The shortest explanation is to read the petition itself, which is as follows :

To the Honourable the House of Commons of

Canada, in parliament assembled.

The petition of the undersigned L'Union St. Joseph de la cite d'Ottawa, humbly showeth :

That your petitioners prior to the commencement of the present session of your honourable House, became desirous of applying to your honourable House, at the present session thereof, for an Act of incorporation to entitle your petitioners to carry out the objects of your petitioners society, which are of a provident and benevolent nature, under the name of L'Union St. Joseph du Canada.

That your petitioners caused inquiries to be made as to whether or not it was probable that an Act of incorporation might be obtained from your honourable House authorizing them to enter into contracts of life and sickness insurance with members of the society in accordance with the methods of insurance in this regard now used by your petitioners, and some doubt as to this having arisen in the minds of the officers of the society, the matter was under discussion at various times, both with your pe-tioners' solicitors and with the Superintendent of Insurance.

That considerable time was occupied in the consideration of this subject, and it was not until the present time that your petitioners became satisfied that they were in a position to apply to your honourable House for an Act to incorporate your petitioners under the above name, with the likelihood of your petitioners application in this regard being favourably entertained by your honourable House.

That your petitioners are extremely anxious to obtain such ian Act of incorporation at the present session of your honourable House, in order that no time may be lost in putting your petitioners in the more favourable position which they have reason to believe they will attain by becoming incorporated by Act of your honourable House.

That your petitioners' society is of an entirely provident and benevolent nature, and is carried on entirely for the benefit of the members of the society, who for the most part are persons of small means who are enabled through the methods of the society to make provision for themselves and their families in case of death or sickness.

Wherefore your petitioners humbly pray that your honourable House may be pleased to authorize your petitioners to present a petition for an Act to incorporate yo-ur petitioners for

th-e purpose above mentioned at the present session of your honourable House.

And as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

Dated this 14th day of March, A.D. 1905.

Mr. SPROULE.

This does not seem to me to toe a case of emergency where there would toe a justification for suspending a rule which we have already made in this House. It is now about three weeks past the time when petitions could be presented for that purpose, and no great interest would suffer provided it lay over for another year. I quite understand that there are many things that might require that a Bill should be introduced during the present session, but this is one case where I do not think there is a justification for suspending the rule.

Mr. BELCOURT moved :

That the petition of L'Union St. Joseph de la cite d'Ottawa presented this day praying to be permitted to lay before this House petition for the passing of an Act to incorporate L'Union St. Joseph du Canada, notwithstanding the expiration of the time for presenting petitions for private Bills, may be read and received forthwith and referred to the Select Standing Committee on Standing Orders.

Mr. SPROULE.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to draw attention to the fact that this is another case of the same kind, where it does not seem that there is any urgency whatever. The petition asks for the right to incorporate a benevolent society about three weeks after the expiration of the time for receiving petitions. I draw attention to this because I think the government are more interested than we are in keeping the House, in a moderate degree at least, close to tiie rules, and after calling attention to this I have nothing more to say.

Motion (Mr. Belcourt) agreed to.

1. How much pastoral land lying to the north of the Thompson river has been applied for to lease by Ashcroft Water and Light Company ?

2. Were there any other applicants for this land ?

3. Has this company been granted a lease for these lands ?

4. Have the conditions set out in the lease been fulfilled ?

5. Has. this company applied for lease in the Hat Creek country ?

6. How many acres has this company applied for to lease ?

7. How many acres have been granted by lease to this company ?

1. 59,000 acres, more or less.

2. Yes, for some of the land.

3. The company was granted a lease for 3,437 acres of the 59,000 acres applied for.

4. The records show that the company has paid the rental, but there is no information in the department to show that it has complied with the other provisions.

5. The lands referred to are partly in the Hat Creek country; they are in one block, and lie south of Hat Creek and north of the Thompson river.

6. Answered by No. 1.

7. Answered by No. 3.