Monday, April at 1967

He was as good as half a dozen ordinary men, even men who are classed “good". Before I leave the matter of transportation I would like to make a few comments on the road situation. Mr. Speaker, one of our greatest assets is good roads and it has been my ambition before and since I became a member of this Legislature, to do everything in my power to upgrade and improve the roads in my District. I feel that everyone has an equal and God-given right to such improved services regard- less of his political or other affiliations. I do not intend, at this time, to outline the various roads that I would like to see built or paved or what have you, but I would be prepared to discuss this with the Minister and I know my colleague, the junior member, would be willing to talk it over with the Minister too. The Cardigan District has been fairly fortunate in the last half dozen years. but prior to that it was one of the neglected districts.

I am quite pleased that the present government is seeing fit to continue the program of rural school consolidation. This change in the rural school system will enable the students of smaller and poorer districts the opportunity heretofore available only to the larger and better off districts. I hope and trust, Mr. Speaker, that present and succeedin generations will take full advantage of this wonder- ful facility. One can rea ily visualize the conditions that must have prevailed when the famous poet, Thomas Gray, in describing the conditions of that time in that enduring poem, “Elergy Written in a Country Churchyard,” and I quote, “For many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air.” We always had the potential but we were, for years, lacking the facilities. This program, inaugurated by the Minister, the Senior Member for Second Prince, was long-over- due and before leaving this subject I think it is only fair that we should make special mention of the work that the former Minister did in this regard. All honour- able members are quite aware of the hostitlity encountered when any great change was made in the educational field. Whether it was just moving the school across the road, or any minor change, there was hostitlity to burn — more so in the rural areas — and this problem faced the former Minister. The first thing was to set the machine in motion and educate the people, the masses, of the need. And I think everybody will agree that the former Minister did an excellent job of doing that.

The Minister of Agriculture, in his remarks the other day, mentioned the great increase in the number of people availing themselves of the Farm Im- provement Program, which, by the way, was set up by the former administration. And for the last couple of years the federal government paid one-third and the local government one-third, leaving only one~third for the farmer. That setup enabled farmers to do clearing jobs and improving their position which otherwise they could not afford. I have done quite a bit of this work, had a lot of this work done myself the last several years and unfortunately most of it was done before the cost-sharing program came into effect. However, this year I was not quite so fortunate, I had an order in to the Department of Agriculture for work, I had a good amount, about $200.00 worth, but I kept after the operator for the whole summer and it ended up that he arrived along in December and at that time the ground was full of water so I had to abandon it. I hope I will have a little better luck next year. Now I am not saying that there was any discrimination, but ap- parently it was a lack of directing. The Minister of Agriculture made reference in his speech also of the new dairy policy and he also touched on the problem the farmers experienced last year in artificial insemination. We have had a few very good years but last year was very, very unfortunate and a lot of semen was damaged. Most of our cows at home freshen in April, but this year we won’t have only about a third of them freshen at that time. The remarks made here sometime ago about the Junior Member from Charlottetown finding a place for some of those mystery men. I wonder could the Minister of Agriculture not use some of those fellows and work in liaison with our technicians in connection with the unit in Fredericton. It would probably eliminate some of the problems we had last year. They might be more useful there than where they are! (Laughter)

The Minister also discussed, at considerable length, the potato question and dealt with federal subsidies relating thereto. There has been quite a bit of dissatisfaction expressed concerning this milk policy. Take, for example, the one who last year produced less than 50,000 pounds, and this year intends to double that output. I understand he will only qualify up to 50,000 pounds. This, to my

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