The proceedings on the reference will be governed in Ontario by rules 402 to 459 (x) so far as they are in their terms applicable to a reference in a mortgage action and so far as they are consistent with the provisions specially applicable to mortgage actions contained in rules 460 to 490 hereinafter referred to.

The scope of the master's authority is thus discussed by Strong, J. in the Supreme Court of Canada (y):

"The general practice of the Court of Chancery of Ontario, according in this respect with that which prevailed in England before the abolition there of the office of Master, is, that a question such as this, the invalidity of a mortgage deed, should be raised by the pleadings and adjudicated on by the Court at the hearing of the cause. We can find no exception to this cardinal rule of equity procedure save in some few respects, where the general orders of the Court of Chancery in Ontario have authorized the Master to deal with matters of account which formerly required special directions in the decree, and which have no relation to the present case. If the doctrine of the Court of Appeal were to prevail, it is hard to suppose any case in which the Master, under a reference to take the account in a mortgage suit, might not assume the jurisdiction to decide on the validity of the mortgage deed. If the mortgagors are to be at liberty to say in the Master's office, there is nothing due on this mortgage deed, because it was beyond the power of the Respondents as a corporation to make it, why should they not also be heard to say, there is nothing due because the deed was obtained by fraud? Unless some arbitrary line is to be drawn, the right of the Master, under such a reference, to enquire into the validity of the deed would, according to the doctrine of the Court below, be co-extensive with that of the Court at the hearing, embracing every case in which a mortgage might be impeached upon a ground which would have entitled the mortgagor to have had it wholly set aside by decree or to have had the mortgagee's bill for foreclosure dismissed. We know of no authority for any such delegation of the functions of the Court to the Master."

(x) As to matters of accounting, see chapter 27, Accounting between Mortgagor and Mortgagee.

(y) Bickford v. Grand Junction Ry. Co., 1877, 1 Can. S.C.R. 696, at p. 726.