Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, for the third time, within less than a month, it is my painful duty to be called upon to refer at the opening of Monday's proceedings, to the removal by the hand of death, during the brief adjournment over the week-end, of an hon. member of this House.

Three weeks ago it was hon. members on this side of the House who were bereaved of one of their numbers; last week, it was hon. gentlemen immediately opposite; to-day it is the leader and members of the Progressive party. In each instance, death followed swiftly upon a brief illness.

John Douglas Fraser Drummond, who died in this city yesterday afternoon, was the member for West Middlesex, in this province. He was in his sixty-sixth year. Mr. Drummond was one of the best-known farmers of western Ontario. He started farming as a boy on his father's farm in Middlesex, and attained marked success in mixed farming and in the raising of grade Durham cattle. He became actively identified with the United Farmers' movement when it took its rise in the province a few years ago, and at the last general election was returned to this parliament, defeating nominees of both the Liberal and Conservative parties.

Mr. Drummond's life rvas continuously associated with the interests of agriculture and the county he represented, which was also the county of his birth. Before entering federal politics he had during a period of thirty years, been successively councillor, reeve and clerk of his native township, having held the latter office for sixteen years.

Greatly respected by all who knew him, and especially by hon. members of this House, the country loses in the death of the hon. member a well-informed and faithful representative of its agricultural interests in parliament, and the constituency of West Middlesex one of her best-known and most devoted sons. '

The sympathy of hon. members of this House will go out in fullest measure to the widow and others of the family of our late fellow-member who have been so suddenly and so greatly bereaved.

Right Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker, it will be borne home upon all of us that the passing of eleven of our number in the short space of three years and four months emphasizes the uncertainty and the hazardous character of human life. I do not think that within any period of our history so many have been called in the duration of a single parliament. All of the hon. members who have gone were men of quiet, unpretentious demeanour and, with the exception of two, took no very ostentatious part in the affairs of this parliament. If they had infirmities they kept them to themselves. This was very em-

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phatically the case as respects the hon. member for West Middlesex who, with tragic suddenness, was taken from us just yesterday morning.

As he came from that portion of the province in which I was born and brought up, I can well understand the type represented by Mr. Drummond. He was of that hard-headed, firm-principled group of men of Scotch descent who mainly settled western Ontario and to whom that favoured section of Canada owes to-day its greatness and its wealth. Mr. Drummond gained early in his career the confidence of his fellows, and carried that confidence into a wider sphere. I am sure we all concur in the graceful tribute of the Prime Minister, and to-day I can only add that among his associates in the House the same opinion was formed of his character and attainments as that gained by him in the section in which he was born. We on this side join hon. gentlemen opposite in sympathy with our friends to the left and extend to them, and still more to his family and to his neighbours, the expression of our deep regret for his loss and our sincere appreciation of his valuable labours in this House.

Mr. R. A. HOEY (Springfield):

Mr. Speaker, in the absence of the leader of the Progressive party (Mr. Forke) I desire to associate myself with the words spoken by the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition, and to join with them in their tribute to one of our number who has been called from our midst by death. The news of Mr. Drummond's death reached us with painful-shall I say tragic?-suddenness.

Many of us were unaware until two days ago that he was ill; none of us realized that the illness was of a serious character, or one from which he might not speedily recover. The late member for West Middlesex was a quiet, sincere, unassuming man who undertook his work here seriously, and sought to accomplish it fearlessly and conscientiously. After years of service in the municipal sphere he entered this House at an age when a man less public spirited might think of retirement, ease and seclusion. He did so in an attempt to serve his fellow men. In that service he was stricken, and in the service of his country many miles from the home in which he lived, and many miles from his loved ones, he died. That the strain imposed upon him by his duties here in no small measure contributed to that physical collapse from which his strength did not enable him to recover no one will dispute. It is, with feelings of profound regret, mingled1 with that sense of

sorrow and sadness inseparable from the severance of friendship's ties by death, that we, the members of the group to which he belonged, with those who have already spoken, ask you to convey to his sorrow-stricken widow, and to the members of the bereft family our most sincere and heartfelt sympathy.

Mr. SPEAKER:

I shall convey to the

hon. member's family the regrets that have been expressed by hon. members on his death.

1. Is it the intention of the government to amend the Income Tax Act, thus creating an exemption on the assets of the tax payer so as to afford greater security to the purchaser or lender in good faith?

2. Owing to the injustice which results from the fact

that, under the Quebec provincial laws, the consorts married under the clause of separation of property are not on an equal footing with the consorts married under the clause of community of property, in regard to statements concerning the Income Tax Act, is it the intention of the government to do away with this anomaly by giving to the consorts married under the clause of community of property the same advantage as that given to those married under the clause of separation of property? [DOT]