united; but it is known that under a federal system the legislatures of the provinces or states of the country so united are to be independent within their own limits, and that they shall be supreme as to all matters which come within their jurisdiction The Bill was read the second time. BRIDGES OVER NAVIGABLE IN COMMITTEE. In the Committee, The House went into Committee of HON. SIR ALEX CAMPBELL-I the whole on Bill (V) "An Act respecting am sorry to interrupt my hon. friend, but Bridges over Navigable Waters, Conas he says he has spoken before on this structed under the Authority of Provincial subject, perhaps I may be allowed to sug- Acts." gest that it would be far better to delay any further remarks which he may have to offer upon the constitutionality of the Bill until he sees the measure in its new shape. When it is brought down my hon. friend can take such a course with reference to it as he thinks fit, but in the meantime it would facilitate the business of the House if my hon. friend will allow us to get the measure into the shape which" Bridges," in the first clause; such a we desire. change he considered would make it perfectly plain. HON. MR. POWER-I am always, I think, as willing as any other member of this House to facilitate the progress of public business but the hon. Minister of Justice knows, of course, that when a bill is read the second time the principle of that bill is supposed to have been approved of. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL-I mentioned particularly that after the Bill was put into shape all objections would be considered to have been reserved. HON. MR. POWER-I would then suggest that the better way would be to postpone the second reading of the Bill until we have it in the form in which it is intended to be passed. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL-The same objection which would hold good now can be taken then. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL said that in order to make it more clear that the Bill was only to refer to bridges which might be constructed after the passage of it, he proposed that the committee should insert the word "hereafter" after the word In HON. MR. POWER asked if the Minister of Justice would kindly explain, while the Bill was in Committee, what was meant by the word "navigation;" whether it might mean navigation by a canoe. that event he considered it would be objectionable, and thought it was the duty of the Government to make the law clear, so that ordinary men not gifted with the knowledge of judges of the Supreme Court, would be able to understand it. For his own part he did not lay claim to an unusual amount of common sense or knowledge of law, and he could not tell from reading the Bill to what waters it was intended to apply. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL did not think there was any force in the objection taken by the hon. member from Halifax, and said it was for the law to interpret the meaning of the word "navigation." The hon. gentleman, if he had been in the House of Commons when the British North America Act was passed might just as well have taken exception there to the language of the 91st clause, which was precisely the same, and which uses the word HON. MR. POWER-Then on the "navigation." He thought few people understanding that the whole question would contend contend that the word navican be discussed in Committee I shall gation would mean by canoe, or that it not press the motion I intended making. would refer to a stream a few inches deep, HON. MR. AIKINS-If the Bill be not read the second time now the difficulty would be that we should have no way of substituting another bill in Committee, which we now could do. which could only be navigated by such local authorities, before they could reconfrail craft. He (Sir Alex.) would interpret struct a bridge of that sort, would have to the word in connection with commerce, come to Ottawa and submit plans of the and it was in that sense that courts of law bridge to be substituted for the one dehad interpreted it. He asked the hon. stroyed. Then the probabilities were that gentleman from Halifax (Mr. Power) what the engineer of the Department would be construction he would put upon the word, employed somewhere else and would not whether he would say that it should only be available. In all probability the Minapply to vessels of five, ten or twenty tons. ister would be in England, or out in BritHe would like to know on what authority ish Columbia, or somewhere else. But, or sound reasoning his hon. friend could supposing the Minister to be in his office, and having time to attend to the matter, the engineer of the Department would in all probability have to send an officer down to see whether it would interfere with navigation or not, and in that way time would be lost and a great deal of base such a limit. HON. MR. POWER said it was not his duty to fix any limit, though he could readily make a suggestion; he would say, for instance, that no stream should be considered navigable through which a ves- inconvenience would be experienced. It sel drawing so many feet of water-say six feet-could not pass. was causing the local authorities unnecessary inconvenience and expense. It seemed to him that the Government HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL pointed should enact the substance of the sixth out there was a difficulty in that at once. section, and merely say that any bridge Vessels going down the Red River, for erected under a local authority which is instance, only drew two or three feet of found to interfere injuriously with naviwater. Then on the Mississippi River, gation may be removed or altered by which at some periods of the year is an authority of the Governor in Council, or enormous sheet of water, vessels sometimes of the Railway Committee of the Privy find only a depth of six inches. He him- Council. Otherwise there would be an self had passed down the Mississippi unnecessary interference with the local River when the vessel in which he was, authorities, which would be objectionable drew only two feet of water, yet that was legislation. The measure should be to a navigable stream. The moment one provide that when navigation is interfered attempted to define the word navigation, with the obstruction may be removed; he would immediately get into some diffi- that was all that was necessary. culty from which he would find it hard to extricate himself. No doubt the word was intended as applied to the commerce of the country, and as the House was acting under an Imperial statute in which the very same expression was used, he did not see any grounds for the hon. gentleman's objection. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL hoped that before his hon. friend (Mr. Power) had occasion to draw bills of this kind some years of experience would have passed over his head, because he could not but think that the measure proposed by the hon. gentleman would be rash and would never be adopted by Parliament. HON. MR. POWER thought that the The suggestion was that instead of examBill was framed to meet the circumstances ining the plans of a bridge beforehand and of Manitoba and the North-West more preventing unnecessary expenditure, the particularly. Nova Scotia was intersected authorities here should remain passive and in a greater degree than any other Pro- allow the bridge to be built, and after vince of the Dominion, by streams which the money had been expended, were not large, but which were still if it was found to interfere with navigable for small craft, and the local gov-navigation they should proceed to ernment were in the habit of constructing pull it down. It would be rash bridges over them. If such bridges should and tyrannical legislation, and it would be be broken by a storm, or allowed to fall into thought so by the hon. gentleman himself decay so as to become impassable, it would if proposed by the Government. If the destroy communication between different Engineer of the Department should be at parts of the country. Under this Bill the liberty to go and inspect all the bridges in a province and pull down those which in- | necessity for publishing the notice in the terfered with navigation, there would be an outcry at once. Canada Gazette. Where a bridge is to be built by a province it must be assumed that the power to construct it would not HON. MR. POWER-That would be be given if it interfered with local rights. giving the Bill a retrospective effect. The six weeks notice involved not only delay but serious expense, and there formalities, since the Bill required that the plans of the structure should have the approval of the Governor-in-Council. People in the vicinity of the bridge could not be taken by surprise because its construction would be under an Act of the HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL-Said seemed to be no necessity for all these it would be equally tyrannical if it were merely prospective. It would be permitting people to invest large sums of money in those structures when they might be compelled to pull them down afterwards. The Bill before the House threw the responsibility on the Executive of the local legislature. In the lower Provinces country, who were answerable to Parliament for the exercise of their power. It required them to see before hand, that no obstruction to navigation was caused by these structures. HON. MR. POWER said the operation of such a measure as he had suggested would be something like this: the bridge would be constructed under the direction of a provincial engineer who would see that it did not interfere with navigation. It would obviate the necessity of submitting the plans to the Department here; and when it was understood that if the work was found an obstruction to navigation, it would have to be removed, the engineer on the spot would take care to see that it was properly constructed. When it appeared from actual experience that a bridge interfered with navigation, then it would be time enough for the Federal Government to order that it should be changed. HON. MR. MACDONALD-It would be too late then the money would have been expended. the season for building bridges was short and these formalities would involve the loss of two months time at least, and postpone the completion of the work for a whole year. There was sufficient protection to the people of the locality afforded by the Act of the Legislature of the Province, and the navigation of the stream was protected by the plans deposited in the Department at Ottawa. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL did not know what the precise object was in inserting that provision in the Bill, but he presumed it must have been with a view to giving those interested in navigation an opportunity of looking at the plans and contesting, if they desired, the point whether it did or did not interefere with navigation. The plans would be of great interest to those navigating the stream to be bridged, and they would naturally desire to see them, and if necessary to remonstrate against the building of a bridge which would be an obstruction. Without notice in the papers how were they to know when the plans would be seen. He did not see any occasion The second clause, as amended, was for putting the notice in the Canada adopted. On the third clause, Gazette, but it might be desirable to publish it in the local papers, so that those interested in the navigation of the stream, could see them. HON. MR. POWER concurred in the opinions of the hon. Senator from Amherst. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL moved HON. MR. DICKEY inquired whether the Minister of Justice really considered this clause necessary. It applied to bridges built under the authority of a provincial act, yet it proposed that the plan should be deposited with the Secretary that the words, "and in the Canada of the Railway Committee of the Privy Gazette," be struck from the clause. Council, and that six weeks notice should be given in two newspapers, and in the Canada Gazette and also in the Provincial Gazette. Now he thought there was no The motion was agreed to, and the clause as amended was adopted HON. MR. WARK from the committee HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL said that after considering the definition of the term "officer of the law suggested by the hon. Senator from Halifax (Mr. Power) he had come to the conclusion that it would be better to adhere to the interpre tation in the Bill which was as follows : "Officer of the law includes not only the person having the legal custody of the prisoner, but also the persons employed under or assisting him in connection with the place of imprisonment." If an attempt were made to go into details some officer might be omitted, and instead of making the clause more thorough it would be made less satisfactory. HON. MR. POWER said his object was to meet the cases where persons were called in to assist the officers of the law. It would hardly be wise to give such persons the power conferred by this Bill upon constables and other officials. On the second clause, Hon. MR. HOPE objected to the following proviso at the end of the second clause : "Provided always that before firing at the prisoner the officer do order him to be and remain still on pain of being killed, and the order be disobeyed." He thought the guards should be required to call loud enough for the prisoner to hear them. These escapes from constables were generally through the carelessness of the officials themselves, and to give them this power to kill escaping prisoners was a cruel and bloody system of legislation, and would render the officers more careless than ever, because they would say, "we are authorized to shoot them if they attempt to escape. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL said the Bill was really not intended to permit cruelty to prisoners, nor could it be used in such a way as the hon. gentleman suggested. How could it be known whether a convict heard the warning of the guard or not? The prisoner could not be compelled to reply. The Bill was designed to prevent the escape of convicts, who were themselves given to violence and were very often unruly and truculent fellows-the worst class of people we have— and it was necessary to give the guards this power to prevent escapes. HON. MR. HAYTHORNE considered that so far from this being an inhuman regulation it was just the contrary, because if those convicts thoroughly understood that they could not attempt to mutiny without endangering their lives they would be less likely to create a disturb ance. It was quite right and proper that the guards in penitentiaries should have this protection. If he (Mr. Haythorne) were responsible for such a measure as this he would be inclined to drop the proviso from the Bill altogether ground that it would render it less probable that the convicts would attempt to mutiny. The clause was adopted. On the third clause. on the HON. MR. KAULBACH said the language of sub-section a, of the second clause, would authorize the shooting of a prisoner in case of an attempt on the part of others to rescue him from the officers. The man might be perfectly innocent, and yet his life might be taken because of the attempt to rescue him. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL said that sub-section a referred to the action of the prisoner. The clause was adopted. HON. MR. DICKEY wished to know why larceny was omitted from the list of crimes. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL—Because larceny is sometimes a very small affair. HON. MR. ALMON suggested that for amount has been expended, and some five the same reason shop-breaking should be or six hundred thousand dollars of it went left out. to purchase plant. It is believed that over $200,000 will be recouped to the Government by the sale of this plant. The Bill was read the second time. HALIFAX HARBOR MASTER BILL. The suggestion was adopted and the clause was amended by striking out the words "shop-breaking," HON. MR. POWER thought that the proviso requiring an officer to call to an escaping prisoner to remain still on pain of death before firing should be added to this clause. SECOND READING. HON. MR. AIKINS moved the second HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL said he reading of Bill (140), "An Act to amend would add it to the three clauses. The amendment was made accordingly and the clause as amended was adopted. HON. MR. BOYD from the Committee reported the Bill with amendments, which were concurred in. FELLOWES MEDICAL MANUFAC- SECOND READING. HON. MR. ALLAN, in the absence of Hon. Mr Ryan, moved the second reading of Bill (105), "An Act to amend the charter of the Fellowes Medical Manufac turing Company." He said the object of the Bill was simply to provide that a majority of the Directors need not be British subjects. The Bill was read the second time. the Act 35 Victoria, Chapter 42, respecting the appointment of a Harbor Master for the Port of Halifax." He said: This Bill amends the Act in two particulars. One is a different classification of the schedule of fees to be charged on vessels. HON. MR. POWER-Does this Bill propose to reduce or increase the fees? HON. MR. AIKINS-It does both. Under the provisions of the old Act, every ship of 200 tons register or under was charged $1; from 200 to 300 tons, $2; from 300 to 400 tons, $3; over 400 tons, $4. Ships engaged in trading between ports of the Dominion or in the fishing trade were exempt from fees. Under the provisions of this Bill, all vessels under twenty tons register are exempt, and it is supposed this is about the tonnage of the craft engaged in the fishing trade. I am told that, so far as the summing up of the whole is concerned, there will be very little difference in the fees. The other ST. LAWRENCE RIVER IMPROVE provision is with regard to the entry. MENT BILL. SECOND READING. Under the present Act, a ship can make The Bill was read the second time. QUEBEC HARBOR BILL. HON. MR. AIKINS moved the second reading of Bill (130), "An Act to make further provision for the improvement of the River St. Lawrence between Montreal and Quebec." He said: This is a Bill to authorize the Government to issue debentures in the manner prescribed by the Act 36 Vic. cap. 60, to an amount not exceeding $280,000 for the improvement of the St. Lawrence River below Montreal. By that Act provision was made for issuing the second reading of Bill (129), "An Act debentures to the extent of $1,500,000, and the ship channel below Montreal is now 25 feet in depth. The whole of this SECOND READING. HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL moved further to amend the Acts to provide for the improvement and management of the harbor of Quebec." He said :-This Bill |