Tuesday, _March 5, 19§§

Bruce L. Stewart: Mr. Speaker, you will recall that when the House ad- journed on Friday last I was relating my visit to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in London. And at that particular time we were relating some of the problems that were facing the great country of India. As We discussed these problems at Westminster in London, we discussed the problems peculiar to those countries and those that were mutual to our countries.

But at the conclusion of this debate by the member of parliament from India, we went on the remainder of our tour and I would like you to come with me now from London to the Island of Jersey. The Island of Jersey is situated about 150 air miles from London, about 14 miles off the French coast, an Island in many ways that resembles our own because the sources of income from the Island of Jersey are derived largely from agriculture, particularly the growing of potatoes, and the tourist industry.

When we visited the Island of Jersey we were most interested in the tourist industry, because that Island resembles so much our own, and I would like to relate to the Honourable Minister of Tourism that I had the opportunity to speak with a number of people at a gathering in the Island of Jersey, to hear something about his plans and policies, and something about our own Island here.

The Island of Jersey is washed by the Gulf Stream, it has great sandy beaches. Overlooking these sandy beaches in many places are the castles, the old Norman Castles, of the years .gone by. The climate is very condusive to the tourist trade, with the result that great numbers of tourists come from all over the world making the airport on the Island of Jersey the third largest in the British Empire.

The thing that was of most interest to me was the potato industry. They were digging potatoes when I was there on the 16th day of June. They were harvesting the first crop of the year because the climate allows them to grow two crops a year in Jersey. The crop was yielding some 400 bushels per acre, so I in- quired as to the price. He told me that they were getting nine cents per pound for potatoes from the field in the Island of Jersey. I asked why should the price be so high in this particular part of the world? Well, he said, just over there is Portsmouth and we have the great city of London, we have Paris, and we have cities in northern France. He said, as you know in your country, the price of potatoes is contingent on supply and demand. We have the demand here but we don’t have the supply to meet the demand with the result that the price is high.

The farmers on the Island of Jersey have a great opportunity for making money, Mr. Speaker, because they do not need warehouses that are frostproof, the Gulf Stream takes care of that for them.

I visited their House of Assembly on the Island of Jersey. Sometimes we think that in this Province, where we have thirty-two members we have too many. In that Island which is only 52 .square miles in area there are 52 members. The man who is their representative there, similar to our Premier, is called the Bailiff. He and fifty two other members rule the Island of Jersey.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I am sure you will be interested in this, because French is the official language in the Courts, but the debates in the legislature are optional, either English or French. I must not take too long on the Island of Jersey because we want to go now to Glasgow. Glasgow is part of a morning’s ride by air from Jersey. We arrived in Glasgow and were met at the airport by the Lord Provost of Glasgow. Glasgow is a city with a population of 1,300,000 people, it is an old city, built in the year 543 A.D. We Visited a cathedral that was built in the year of 1124, a university in 1450. The great Clyde River still carries a tremendous amount of shipping each year, with 15 million tons of shipping up and down the Clyde. But I think that perhaps Glasgow as you all know is famous for its shipbuilding yards. There are shipbuilding yards that have been in the same family name, Mr. Speaker, for 250 years, and up until 25 years ago in Glasgow they pro- duced one quarter of all of the shipping of the world.

The hospitality was turned on for us in Glasgow, and I was glad to be there,

—119—