IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) J 1.0 I.I liilM |25 mm 1^2 ■u lis ■it 14.0 |20 ^ly^i 1.6 Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SS0 (716) S72-4S03 4 ^\ "^^ <^ Cs 'i CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian da microraproductions historiques Trrr Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Nota» techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D D D V D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommag^e Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur^ et/ou pellicul6e I I Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque I I Coloured maps/ CaN tTHi: ACCOUNTS FOR 1829, li sK^ urn tHE ESTIMATE FOR 1830. .^i>uLi&:i-^:'' ti^i-:.' :-„ii--..^.'niiii;<*_rVi -■t#"-'' SECOND REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITEE To whom were referred the Public Accounts for the year One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, His Excellency's Message of the thirteenth February last, relating to the purchase of a New Custom House, and His Excellency's Messages of the nine- teenth of the same month, accompanying the Esti- mate of the necessary Expenses of the Civil Go- vernment of the Province for the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty, and the Account of Mo- nies advanced last year for certain services connected with the Civil Government, — with power to report from time to time. The Accounts of the Public Revenue and Expendi- ture for the year 1829, consist of eleven different State- ments. In No. 1, a minute detail is given of the amount of Duties collected, the Sums deducted or paid for Sala- ries to Officers of the Customs, Commission and Inci- dents, and for Drawbacks and Return of Duties. The iiett Revenue (after deducting the amount paid to the Government of Upper-Canada) is also shewn, and your Committee perceive that there appears an increase above the Revenue of the preceding year of j^l 5, 195 5s. 3jd. No. 2, is a Statement of Monies paid to the Receiver General on account of the Casual and Territorial Re- venue of the Crown. No. 3, is a Statement of Monies collected under au- thority of the Provincial Acts 48th Geo. III. Cap. 12 ; 5l8t 5l8t Geo, III. Cap. 12, and 2d Geo, IV. Cap. 7, and of the expense incurred in supporting and improving the Navigation of the River 67. Lawrence, under the management of the Corporation of the Trinity House. During the Session of last year it was resolved, that the Salary granted to the Master of the Trinity- House, and the Pensions placed on the Funds of that Corporation, are contrary to the true meaning and spirit of the Act, and ought to be discontinued ; yet, notwithstanding this expression of the sense of the House, and in con- tradiction «f the true intent and meaning of the Law, this Salary has been continued, and is again charged against the funds exclusively appropriated towards sup- porting and improving the navigation pf the River 6Y, Lawrence. The Pension granted to one of the Harbour Masters at Montreal, is this year charged as a Salary ; and Mrs. Hambleton's Pension is also included in the list of Expenses. No. 4, is an Account of Duties collected at Chateau- guat/f under the Provincial Act 48th Geo. III., Cap. 9, for the improvement of the Inland Navigation : the balance remaining unexpended is stated at £6,9^9 l^s, 8d. currency. No. 5, is a Statement of the particulars of payments made from the Revenue, for expenses of Collection, Drawbacks, Return of Duties, ^c. ; the expense of collection amount to £lO,43G 14s. 4|d., being rather more than six per cent, upon the gross Sum collec- ted. No. 6, is an Account of the Expenditure of the Civil Government for the year 1829 ; This Amount is stated at, £55,309 19 6 The Monies appropriated by the Act 9th Geo, IV. Cap. 69, are, 54,o42 2 6 1 Shewing an excess of i€767 17 Ko.7» is an Account of Payments made under autho- rity 2 6 rity of sundry Acts of the Legislature, amounting to the Sum of £69,460 17s. 6il. currency. No. 8, shews the Expenditure under authority of the Act 9th Geo, IV. Cap. 4G, for the encouragement of Elementary Education, amounting to the hum of £11,680 10s 3d currency, £5,250 3s Od of which were paid under Special Appropriations. On the Statements Nos. 9i 10 and 11, Your Commit- tee do not feel called upon to report, more particularly the principle upon which these Accounts are lormecf, having never been acknowledged by the House, and His Excellency having communicated His Majesty's most gracious assurance that measures will be immedi. Rtely taken to effect an amicable arrangement under the authority of Parliament of a controversy which has continued too long for the real interests and welfare of the Province. Your Committee observe with regret, that in these Accounts the pretensions relating to certain portions of the Revenue which have been alleged to have been ap- f)ropriated without the consent of the Provincial Par- iament, are unnecessarily brought before the Legisla- ture. Your Committee cannot undertake to express an opinion on the correctness of those Accounts generally ; to enable them to do so, it would be necessary that the Accounts of the different Collectors of the Revenue should be examined by some competent authority act- ing under well defined and real legal responsibility which could readily be enforced withi* ihe Province, and that the Accounts of Receipts and Disbursements of the Receiver General duly vouched, were also sub- mitted to a similar examination before benig laid be- fore this House. Yo Committee think themselves bound to observe on this occasion, that ever since the administration of Sir John ShcrhrookCy which terminated on the 10th October 1818 as to accounts, no final settlement of the Public Public Accounts has taken place or been sanctioned by the Provincial Parliament, or by this House, saving th6 account of the application oi' the appropriations for the expenses of the Civil Government in 182,5. The Account No. 10, already alluded to, shews the money alleged to be at the disposal of the Provincial Parliament. It obviously includes only the alleged ba- lance of the money which would be at its disposal after deducting the defalcation in the Public Chest in 1823, and the amount of monies alleged to be appropriated without the consent of the Provincial Legislature. It states this balance as £ld4,0od 12s Id. unappropria- ted or unexpended to 3 1st December last, while on the 1st February the whole amount of cash in the Receiver General's Chest, arisinp^ from every source of the Pub- lic Revenue, is stated at being only £7^,259 6s 8d. Sterling, or «£'83,621 Ds 7d currency, according to a Document laid before the House, on Address, by His Excellency tiie Administrator of the Government. \ MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Thursday, Q5th February, 1830. Thomas Young, Esquire, in the Chair. Joseph Cary, Inspector General of Public Provincial Accounts, called in, and examined : Q. 1. Did you receive any particular instructional from His Excellency Sir James Kempt, for your gui- dance in inspecting and examining the Accounts for Contingencies included in the Bill of Supply, 9th Geo, IV. Cap. 69 ; if you did, state what the Instructions "Were ? — I received some verbal instructions, but it will be necessary for me to refer to minutes that I took at the time to ascertain what the instructions were. Q. 2. Did you not call the attention of the several Accountants to the amount voted by the House of As- sembly for the Contingencies of their respective Offi- ces, and require them to limit their expenses accord- ingly ? — I did ; either to the amount of the estimate, or to what I understood to have been the amount of the vote. I had no official intimation of the amount voted. Q. 3. Did you not remark upon each Account of Contingencies where the expense exceeded the vote of the House, and bring under the view of the Auditor General the actual amount voted, and the consequent excess of expense ; and were not your remarks subse- quently brought before the Executive Council by being annexed to the Auditor General's Report ? — For the first six months in my remarks, I stated that there was so much estimated for or so much voted ; I cannot posi- tively state to which I referred, without referring to liny minutes, and called the attention of the accountant thereto •' thereto. Mv remarks were rorwarvleil by iiie to tlie Audi- tor General ; and 1 luive some recollection that some of my remarks were forwarded by him to the Council. Q. 1. What was the decision of tiie Council upon the Accounts of the Coroner at Quebec \ -1 cannot state this from memory. Q. r>. What was the decision of the Council upon the Accounts of the Coroner and Clerk of the Peacei at Three- RiverSi and the Clerk of the Peace at Mont- real? — I cannot state this from memory. Q. n. State the accounts of disbursements which ex- ceed the amount voted by tlie House ? — I cannot state this from memory. Fridoj/, iiiith February 1830. Ebenczei Peck^ Esquire, a Member of Your Honorable House, called in and examined : Can you give the Committee any information upon the Accounts of C B. Fellon, Esquire, Clerk of the Peace and Prothonotary at St. Francis ? — On reference to his Contingent Accounts between 11th October 1828 and 10th October 1829» 1 perceive there is char- ged for firewood for the Court House and Offices, a sum amounting to £4)7 7s lid Currency, £^7 2s Gd of which is charged for wood consumed from the 11th April to the 1 0th October 1829, and the remain- der of the whole sum being £i20 5s 5d is charged from the 11th October 1828 to 10th April 1829. 1 know that in the month of October last, there was very little or no firewood about the Court- House, and thef keeper of the Building has since that time complained to me, that he had not any wood to warm the build- ing, except what was picked up by himself and fami- ly, and I have good reason for believing that his state*^ ment was correct. 1 would add that he has charged the I I I the Government Cs 3d per cord for wood, while ds is the common price for four feet cordwood at Sherbrooke^ and that (10 cords would be more than ample for all the consumption of the whole building;. Have yuu anv information to give on the Account for Fees of the Clerk of the Peace ? — In the account of the Clerk of the Peace for services in Session,! observe a charge is made for ^1 1 Is for the indicting and prosecu- ting, in Octr. last, of one Michael Burner for a violent assault, which assault was committed upon one Aher, as i infer, knowing that such a prosecution was had. Since that period, or at the time, the Clerk of the Peace obtained Alger*% note for the expenses of indictment and prosecution, which note he transferred, and a Judg- ment in the Provincial Court of the District has been recovered against Alger on that note. Domnick Dali/, Esquire, Provincial Secretary, called in, and examined : Will you explain to the Committee why the disburse- ments of your office for the year 182 J, exceed the amount voted by the House, by the sum of j^78 15s did sterling ? — The excess will appear from the Ac- counts as having been occasioned by the Postage of the Department having been separated from the Postage Account of the Civil Secretary's Office, in which up to the time of my appointment it was included. The great increase of the ordinary business of the Depart- ment has given rise to a corresponding expenditure on account oY Stationery, Registers, &c. Did you make any representation of the probable increase of your disbursements before the Estimate for the year 1S29 was laid before the House, and to whom ? — I did ; to the Inspector of Accounts. Do you know why this was not stated in the Esti* mate ?-»I do not. Saturday^ /■> 10 Saturday, ^tk February, 1830. Joseph Cary, Esquire, Inspector General of PubKc Provincial Accounts, was again called in, and gave in the following explanations to his answers of the 25th instant : To the 1st Question : — My instructions were verbal- ly from His Excellency, that although the total amount only of the Supply granted appeared in the Act, yet as it was His Excellency's wish to adhere generally to what was understood to be the intentions of the House of Assembly in respect to the amount of the several Itenisr of the Estimate, I was particularly directed not to allc w the payment of any of the Salaries objected to by the House. As to the Contingent Expenses, it was also His Excellency's wish that the sum for each Service upon which the amount of Supply was understood to be formed, should be kept in view, in the examination of the Accounts, and no payments beyond that amount to be made, unless in very particular cases, which were to be represented for His Excellency's consideration. To the 2nd Question :— ^I intimated to the several Accountants the Sum to which they were required as far as possible to limit their expenditure. To the 3d Question : — In general I did remark to that effect, and I believe in all cases my remarks were an- nexed to the Reports of the Auditor General to the Executive Council* To the 4th Question :— They recommend that aWar- rant issue in favor of the Coroner for £146 1 8s 4d Ster- l^g, upon his account of Fees and Disbursements during the six months ended lOth October 1829, being theb^anceof the Sum appropriated towards paying the Contingencies of the Office of Coroner for 1829, and \}^ 4^pHcation be made to the Legislature for an ap- propriation to pay the ^unount remaining due to the Coroner \ 11 ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto Coroner on the above Account, amounting to £59 lOs lOd Sterling. To the fifth Question : — No Report on these Ac- counts have been communicated to me. To the 6th Question:— They are,— Civil Secretary's Postages, Provincial Secretary's Contingencies, Sheriff of Quebec Ditto of Montreal Ditto of Three-Rivers Coroner at Quebec Ditto at Three-Rivers Clerk of the Crown at Montreal, Clerk of the Peace at Quebec, including Fees to the Crier -^f the Quarter Ses- sions and Expense ol' the Police Office at Quebec, Clerk of the Peace at Three-Rivers, in- cluding Fees to the Crier of the Quar. ter Sessions and Expenst of Police Office at Three- Rivers, Sheriff of Montreal for needy Witnesses, Do. of Quebec for do. Expense of printing the Laws, £\6 le 1 78 15 9 325 3 9 253 12 6 7 15 8 59 10 10 19 5 6 13 I 13 15 1 34 1^ 145 1 13 11 698 1 6 3 8 1 Sterling, £1654. 4 8 Q. 7» Will you give the Committee an explanation of the causesfrom which the excess of expenditure arose in the Accounts, stated in your answer to Q. 6? — lu the SherifTs Accounts, the causes arose partly from the ne- cessity of procuring the new Records required by the Act passed last Session for regulating the office of Sherifl^ partly from the Jurors beingsummoned from the Country Parishes, and partly from the encreased price of bread and oatmeal for the prisoners. — In the Provincial Secre- tary's Office, the encrease arises from the Postages be- ing now separated from those of the Civil Secretary's Office, "»**"~»tT"r '1 1 t i '■«, 12 Office, and from the encreased public duties of the De- partment, for which no Fees are received, and which cause an encreased consumption of Stationery.— The Contingencies of the Coroner at Quebec vary according to the number of Inquests : The expense of the year 1329 exceeds tlie vote of the House, but is less than the expense of the preceding year : A Sum of £100 was deducted froiD the Estimate from this Service in voting the Supply of last year. — The expense for needy Witnes- ses must necessarily vary according to the business before the Courts.— There being a Statute which re- quires the Laws to be printed, it was imperative upon the Administrator of the Government to carry the pro- visions of the Act into execution : the augmentation of expense originated in the number of Laws passed last Session, and the great increase in the number of Copies required, payment for which was made according to the diminished Tariffas established in 1825.-The remaining trifling excesses of expense above the votes, arise from the impossibility of fixing the exact sum to which a con- tingent charge will amount. Q. 8. In Account No. 9. you state the Appro- priation under authority of the Act 9th Geo, IV, cap, 69, at £[4,bOd 18s 7d Currency, will you acquaint the Committee with the principles upon which this is so stated ?— The principle is founded upon the Message of His Excellency the Administrator of the Govern- ment, dated 28th November 1828, which was communi- cated by command of His Majesty to tue House of Assembly, and the Account could not be otherwise stated conformable to that principle. 11 THIRD REPORT I OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE To wliom were referred tlie Public Accounts for the year One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, His Excellency's Message of the thirteenth February last, relating to the purchase of a New Custom House, and His Excellency's Messages of the nine- teenth of the same month, accompanying the Esti- mate of the necessary Expenses of the Civil Go- vernment of the Province for the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty, and the Account of Mo- nies advanced last year for certain services connected with the Civil Government, — with power to report from time to time. Your Committee having considered the Esti- mate of the Civil Expenditure of the Government of Lower-Canada for the year One thousand eight hun- dred and thirty, and the Account of certain indispensa- ble Expenses of the Civil Government of Xoztcr-Cflw^- da incurred during the year ended the thirty-first of December one thousand eight hundred and twenty- nine, for which a Supply is required, are of opinion that the Explanations annexed to these several Docu- ments are generally sufficient to enable a Committee of the whole House to proceed finally to determine upon the proposed appropriations.