Development of Province: Speech of the Hon. Richard McBride, Prime Minister of British Columbia, on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, in the Provincial Leg

Excerpt from Development of Province: Speech of the Hon. Richard McBride, Prime Minister of British Columbia, on the Address in Reply to the Speech From the Throne, in the Provincial Legislature, Monday, January 15th, 1912 My friend from Alberni thought fit to make a very pointed reference in re spect to the passage of a certain order in-council providing for an increase in the price of crown lands and asked the House to believe that that order-ln council was rendered necessary at that particular time by political reasons, in order to protect what he tel-med 'an inside ring.' I may say to this House and to the country that this govern ment knows or recognizes no rings or special friends. No individual or com bination or aggregation of any sort Or description has had any recognition from this government in connection with any public business not strictly in accordance with the law or right; and Liberal, Independent. Socialist or Laborite. Has as strong a place before this administration and is as certain of receiving just consideration in any dealings with it as its most hearty Conservative follower. It is not only unfair to the government, but to my friend in opposition that anyone should have put in his hands statements such as he has made today The strongest word that can be found in the dictionary is not sufficient to properly char wterize and condemn the misrepresents. Tion of the government's administration of public lands that he has expressed to the House. I have reason to be lieve that if the grand total of land operations in British Columbia of re cent date could be analyzed it would be found that the majority of appli cants is made up of Liberals and not Conservatives - with perhaps some few Socialists as well. (laughter). And why should this not be so? The law says that a man can buy these lands or Dre-empt them. We are here to ad minister these lands in the public be half. Here again my friend seems to have suffered through contact with 'an inside ring.' We in the Conservative party do not know what it is to have any inside ring. The Conservative party stands today. As it has always stood. For favors to none and equal rights for all. (applause). About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.