Mr. PUTNAM:

Do you stake your word as a responsible man that that would necessarily do away with an annual discussion, on this question?

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

An annual discussion will be inevitable so long as the conditions to which I have referred exist. This Parliament is responsible for the exemptions I have mentioned. All the ingredients that go into the manufacture of oleomargarine in Canada are exempt from inland) revenue tax and the sales tax, which are imposed on all other articles. In addition to that they are free from customs duties.

Mr. PUTNAM:

What does the hon.. gentleman propose as a means of obviating this annual discussion?

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

If the hon. gentleman wants to have a discussion on the question at any session there is nothing to prevent him.

Mr. PUTNAM:

Well, that is my point. What are you wasting time for, then?

Oleomargarine

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

I am registering my protest as a free citizen. I represent people engaged in a legitimate industry who are being subjected by the Government to a most contemptible and unfair competition.

Hear, hear.

Mr. PUTNAM:

I do not want to be discourteous to the hon. member, but-

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Marti!) :

Order. The hon. metnber may not interrupt the member who has the floor.

Mr. BUREAU:

Put your question later. The hon. gentleman will cool off in the interval.

Mr. PUTNAM:

The hon. member complained that this was a shilly-shally policy and that the discussion would be provoked again one year hence. I want to find out from him if he has any proposal by which we can prevent an annual discussion on the subject, on which the opinion of the country is sharply divided.

Mr. [SUTHERLAND: The discussion

could very well be avoided if this industry were put on a reasonable footing.

Mr. BUREAU:

Oleo has no feet.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

Hon. members

may try to be funny, but this is a serious subject. This industry ought to be made subject to the same taxes that other industries, legitimate and native have to pay. But do not single it out and give it a preference over a natural industry, as las been done in the past.

Mr. PUTNAM:

Does the hon. member think that an annual discussion of this question would he avoided if we had a unanimous opinion in the House on the subject?

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

There is no need for the hon. member to ask that question. If he wants a discussion at any time he can have it.

Mr. PUTNAM:

Do you think your side would be unanimous?

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

Let me state

some of the things that are exempt from the sales tax.

Oh, oh.

Mr. SUTHERLAND:

Hon. gentlemen

say that the Government are anxious to get revenue. Yet, in the face of that, we find this condition existing in the past

year: There was imported last year into this country the following materials: Butter, 3,741,000 pounds; lard, 11,493,000 pounds; lard compounds, 3,245,000 pounds; oleomargarine, 4,630,000 pounds; grease in the rough, 1,431,000 pounds; oleo raw material, free of duty, 3,668,000 pounds, or a total of some 41,102,000 pounds of these articles which were brought in free of sales tax and most of them free of customs tariff. These are the things that I object to, and so long as such a state of things exist you may rest assured that this question will come before Parliament. Apparently the Government is ashamed of the measure.

Mr. BUREAU:

Oh, no; we are not a bit ashamed.