HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1949-09-15, Page 2THE TIMES-ADVOCATE, EXETER, ONTARIO, THURSDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1949
®fje Cxeter
Tinies Established 1873 Amalgamated November 1924 Advocate Established 1881
Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario
Aa Independent Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Village of Exeter and District
Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa
Member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association
Member of the Ontario-Quebec Division of the CWNA
Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation
Paid-In-Advance Circulation As Of September 30, 1948 — 2,276
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J. Melvin Southcott * Publishers Robert Southcott
THURSDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1949
Fateful Days
These are fateful clays, not only for
Britain but for civilization. For Britain
stands for the best things in modern life.
Should Britain fail, no one can forecast the
consequences. There is far more than a
financial situation at stake, let no one for
get. Britain is in dire need of cash. How
is she to get it? Should she. take relief from
Russia? Russian domination of everything
British is sure to follow and with Russian
domination of Britain will go out the lights
of liberty. With Russian domination of Bri
tain will come the collapse of western Eu
rope and in due time and, more rapidly
that we deem, will come the twilight days
and pitchy darkness of the United States
and Canada. Let no one deceive himself
into thinking otherwise. Just now, our
hearts sicken at the thought of the possi
bility of Britain’s surrender to Russia. We.
cannot believe that a disaster so terrible
awaits the race.
Politics and social life and finance
never were more intertwined than they are
this hour. Many of the choicest spirits are
calling upon Britons to solve their own
problems by ceasing to purchase unneces
sary things, to curtail or even to abolish a
great deal of alleged social service, which
after all is but a form of social enslave
ment by working harder and in a more en
lightened fashion, with better equipment.
Further, Britons are tired of being told by
outsiders how they are to do and how they
are to run their their business. They do
not like being told that they can cure their
financial ills by cheapening their currency,
meanwhile raising tariff walls against their
trade. We may add that there is a growing
weariness on the. part of the patient, loyal
sacrificing people of the eternal talk of the
political leaders. The people believe that
the politicians say one thing but mean quite
quite another thing. They do not like al
leged conferences that are little more than
debating contests.sj: SS sfc
Just Don’t
.Schools have re-opened. Children are
out in full force. Of course, they should be
careful to avoid accidents. They should
stop, look and listen and look both ways
before they cross a street. They should not
run out suddenly between parked cars into
the path of an oncoming car. Of course,
they should do none of these things. Par
ents and teachers and friends have warned
them against such folly. But they are but
children with children’s thoughtlessness and
heedlessness. But that is no reason fellow
citizen, why you should run over them with
your car or your truck. So, please, do not
run over these citizens-to-be. We know that
you smell the beans as soon as the noon
bell rings and that it is important that you
should be promptly back on the job. But
in your haste, please do not run over a
child. Fie is very dear to some one. If you
hit him he may be lame for life, or he may
be taken out there to the cemetery and
you’ll have a grief in your heart that will
burden and torment you for life.
Better think this over. And as you
think, remember that we have efficient
police officers in this village who are
aware of what we have been asking you to
attend to. They know how to write out
‘Tickets” and have a fine way of seeing
to it that you pay the price for disregard
ing traffic laws and human life. Of course,
you will be right-—dead right--as you speed
along but there are those who may not
agree with you and who have a way of
making you pay sweetly for your wilful
ness.
* * ♦ *
This War Of Nerves
Arc we getting a great deal of news
that is not information? It looks like it
sometimes. Every time that a cabinet minis
ter takes a walk or is seen entering his
car, some one rushes to the radio, or to the
newspaper offices, and the world is filled
with conjectures. Should a military centre
give its men a few exercises for the good
of the men’s health, the air is filled with
rumors to the effect that such and such
nation is on the march. Zealous newspaper
correspondents, not to be “scooped” by a
rival, secure by some secret means a bit of
half-news and the world is set agog with
the Lalf-ncw or one-tenth-news, and the
rest conjecture. In this way the public is
set on tip-toe instead of with both feet on
the ground and solidly at its job. The news
people must keep up the excitement or lose
their job. Well do correspondents know
that the public is not satisfied with sober
facts.
Most people crave excitement. For this
reason prices simply do not level off.
Should they take that turn, a new hulla
baloo is stirred up. The air is filled with *
dust. The populace is happy, even though
it suspects ft is being humbugged. There
are some real dangers on the horizon. These
must be faced seriously and our best men
may be depended upon to face them in
view of the best information obtainable.
Our leaders are not asleep. They are at
the switch, even though some designing
parties tried to get the workers looking
away from the real perils. Cold wars and
shooting wars are bad enough but they are
not much worse than the war of nerves
and rumours and delusions. Working at
one’s job with all one’s might is a happy
way of overcoming crazy nerves.
“So Long As You Stay On Shore”
“You’ll not get drown on Lac St.
Pierre so long as you stay on shore,” the
habitant warned the wood scow sailorman.
And you’ll not be mashed in a car accident
on holidays if you stay in your own back
yard when traffic is running like the mill
race of perdition. Of course, the right and
proper condition would be to have every
body drivng carefully. But that is a state
of affairs not to be looked for in a society
where everyone is free to make a fool and
a potential murderer of himself. While peo
ple find their supreme delight in just going
without regard for the purpose of their go
ing, our highways are bound to continue the
avenues to dusty death.
We devoutly hope for the day when
liquor and gasoline will not be mixed, but
that day is far off, even though coffins
may become the chief ornaments of our
highways. Of course, anyone has the right
to encounter the risks of furious, unlawful
car driving—but that does not take away
the risk, of so doing. There is a whole lot
of fine people who find a deal of enjoy
ment in a quiet day at home and these are
the folk who get under the nation’s work.
# # #
Her Opportunity
Britain has a way of thriving on crises.
Our confidence is that she will do so once
more. Of course, she has a way of stoning
her prophets of the hour. She allows her
great spirits to rule her from their urns.
While other people busy themselves in find
ing out what Englishmen should be doing,
we believe those sturdy Britons are getting
done something that most people don’t
know about. The Englishman delights to be
pushed about so long as he is steadily go
ing where he intended to, go. The Britisher
listens while others are talking but all the
while he is accomplishing some splendid
thing without noise and so quietly that the
rest of us fail utterly to see what is going
on.
Britains knows very well that if her
income is twenty shillings per week while
her expenditure is twenty-one shillings per
week that the result will be misery and
that her sun will go down in a sea of
clouds. While the other countries are talk
ing about this sort of thing, she steadily in
creases her output. Let no one mistake
those quiet islanders who so sturdily de
fended their homes and saved the world to
liberty. She has her spasms of achievement
that make all the world wonder. She has,
too, long eras of common sense. She falls,
to rise. She*is defeated, to fight again be
cause she is at heart fundamentally relig
ious, though she is not the plaster saint/
Just now, she is in a desperate state but
we’re not forgetting Magna Carta nor Dun
bar.
5{S # *
Glad To Hear Them w
The sound of the silo filling is mingling
once more with the roar of the aeroplane
and we are glad to hear the music thereof.
The tractor is busy in the fall wheat field#
making proclamation that another harvest
is on the way. Farmers Jiave a wholesome
fashion of believing that if the silo and
granary are filled, there will be livestock
to consume the fodder at a fair profit.
Farmers sow in the hope that reaping time
is sure to come, This is a phase of optim
ism at its best.
Exeter’s annual agricultural fall fair is,
of course, the event of the month to many
people. It will be held on September 21
and 22, which is Wednesday and Thursday
of next week. Exhibits and attractions pro
mise to be every bit as good as previous
years, All that is required now is a bright,
sunny afternoon, *
g.,. ... ............ .......... ... ................ ...
As the——-
«TIMES” Go By
ll_—- ---------------—-------------—.......... ..
50 YEARS AGO 25 YEARS AGO
(The Exeter Advocate 1899)
Everybody should patronize
Exeter’s' popular musical artists
in their concert to be given in
Centralia next Tuesday night.
The Davidson family kare hard to
beat in this line, and together
with the buns and honey and
the moderate charge of fifteen
cents we .bespeak for the Cen
tralia League a bumper house.
The Hon, Thomas Greenway,
of Crystal City, Manitoba, is
spending a few days with retla-
tives hereM the guest of Dr. Rol
lins.
The important announcement
is made by the Post Office De
partment that .on and after Oct.
1 the letter rate of one cent per
ounce will be abolished, and the
letter rate made uniformly two
cents per ounce for the whole of
Canada.
Mr, and Mrs. John Spackman,
after a successful season at
Grand Bend Park, at their
famous summer resort, returned
home last week.
This Is Our
Reprinted from the Ausable Valley Conservation Report, this is the
story of the development of the area served by The Times-Advocate.
This history is not only authoritive, but it also contains many interest
ing features never before published for public consumption. The nar
rative will be produced in a series.
The Period Of Growth (1840-1875)
About one-fifth of the water-
shed was taken up by the begin
ning of 1840. Actually only a
small part of .this was under
cultivation. There are no docu
ments to confirm the dates of
commencement of farming opera
tion on each lot but Smith notes
that in 1846 only seven to twelve
per cent -of the land taken up
was cleared and cultivated, In
McGillivray for instance, the
Upper Canada Gazetter lists
11,3*82 acres as sold or leased,
but only 808 acres under .cultiva
tion (including pasture). This is
the lowest figure quoted, but
the other townships were not
much more settled. The picture,
then, that a traveller would see
would be-long stretches of wood
land, broken here and there by a
ten . or twelve acre clearing,
around a log house. Grain was
often threshed on open floors at
first and hay stored in stacks.
Where barns existed ,tliey were
often frame structures built later
than the houses and superficially
of better appearance. Mills were
not plentiful; three grist .mills
and eight or nine sawmills
served the needs of the settlers
in 1846, and some of these suf
fered from lack of water in the
summer. A traveller who passed
along the London 'Road in 1841
visited mills “twenty miles from
London” (apparently a rough
estimate of the distance to
Clandeboye) but stated that "at
this season of general drought
the supply was not sufficient for
the constant working of the
machinery.” Sir J. Alexander
notes that the little Ausable was
“teetotal dry” at the same point
in August 1843.
Taverns and inns were becom
ing more plentiful; “by the year
1842 the inns between .Goderich
and London numbered forty-two,
and so inadequate was even this
accomodation that at night eight
or ten travellers .would be lying
on the floor of one of < these
places, with bits of wood for pil
lows”. The number of jnns did
not make up for their quality;
•travellers constantly refer to
the poorly built walls, gaping
doors and windows, .and general
discomfort of the inns.
The 184 0*s brought a new in
flux of settlers,' but of a .differ
ent class. The® Canada Company
was not satisfied with the instal
ment system of sales; although
deeds were not issued until all
payments had been made, there
were legal difficulties in con
nection with jsettlers in arrears.
A man who had made two or
three payments and then fallen
behind could very reasonably
present a case for ^maintaining
his equity in the property, even
though his contract With the
company stated that the land
should revert .to it on repayment
of the instalments. The fact that
all the improvements he had
made enhanced the value of the
land added to the complications,
and increased the hostility of
settlers towards the company.
Aside from these considerations,
settlement was proceeding fairly
slowly, in this part because of
the scarcity of immigrants with
capital.
The Canada Company, there
fore, determined upon ,a system
of leases whereby poor immi
grants could lease land for ten
: years, with the option of con
verting the lease to a sale at any
time by paying the full price of
the lot, in this way, the com
pany’s continuing title to the
land would be incontestable, and
settlement would be speeded up
because of the attractiveness of
the system to men without much
capital. Modifications of the
scheme set up a graduated series
of rent payments, which includ
ed instalments on the purchase
of the land; if a settler fell be
hind, instalments already paid in
were to be applied against cur
rent rent. In 1S39, the first
leases were signed and the tempo
of settlement altered and quick
ened.
, Unfortunately for the com
pany, the new policy aroused
more opposition than ever. . Its
more educated opponents got
busy with pencil and paper, and
calculated that the rent pay
ments plus instalments , were
equivalent to rates of interest of
about 8 % pei’ cent on the pur
chase price. To this, the .company
replied that the value of land
was constantly rising, and that
the instalments were calculated
roughly to ensure the company
should not lose by leasing land
rather than holding it for sale.
The grievances of the settlers
with regard to , improvements
continued, since the leases stated
explicitily that the lessee forfeit
ed the land with all improve
ments if he .fell twenty days in
arrears.
It was under this system that
the bulk of the land in . the
Ausable Watershed was settled,
between 1840 and IS54; much
of the remaining land was taken
up in the late fifties. This growth
meant that little of the produce
of the area was exported until
the peak of settlement was nearly
reached. The new arrivals pro
vided a ready market for the
produce of older farms. In 1841,
a traveller states that “but little
surplus grain is at present avail
able for exportation, All that the
farmer can produce is brought up
by the incoming settlers. Lum
bering seems to have been on
the same basis until after 1869.
Although few documents exist,
Lizars’ testimony indicates that
the company found it extremely
difficult to sell lumber outside
the tract. The transactions of
the Agricultural Boards for 1858
also mention that little lumber
was produced in Huron County,
After 1860, some lumber began
to be exported, notably barrel
staves from Stephen township,
and a small quantity of cherry-
wood, but it was not till a later
period that the sawmills of the
area reached their greatest act
ivity. Much of the timber felled
in clearing was burned and part
of it made into potash, “which
seems to have been produced in
about the usual quantity. The
total value of exports from Gode
rich In 1’850' was only £5,203,
and even allowing for an equal
amount going put via London, it
seems that the district cannot
have been important as an ex
porting area.
The good times of the 1850’s
came to the Ausable Watershed
as they did to the rest of On
tario. Farming became extremely
profitable, and .there was a rush
to take up land. Most of the re-
mainihg lots in Adelaide, Lobo
and London Townships were
taken up, and .the Huron Tract
experienced a great increase in
Population. By 1854, the price
of land was, about 19s 6d per
acre, and hundreds of ten-year
leases were being converted to
sales annually. In the years from
1852 to 1856, the Canada Com
pany took in more than the total
price they had originally paid
for the whole Huron Tract, It Is
a curious fact that, just during
these years, company opponents
charged that land was being
withheld from sale to the detri
ment of the Huron District, be
(The Exeter Times 1924)
Months of preparation, much
thought and patient toil went
into the making of the fifth
‘Hurondale school fair, which
was held on Friday afternoon,
September 12, The judges .for
the lvestock, fruit and vegetables
were Harry Strang, Harold Hern,
Horace Delbridge, Gordon Cud-
more and Ernest Pym, The
judges of the flowers, cooking
and sewing were Mrs. (Dr.)
Graham and Mrs. Wickwire.
At an organization .meeting of
the temperance forces of Hensail
held in the Methodist church *on
Tuesday evening a full organiza
tion was effected. .Everything is
in readiness to carry on a cam
paign for sustaining the O.T.A.
on October 28.
Dr. H. G. Fletcher is opening
an office in the residence of Mr.
A. Camm, M'ain St. on or about
September 2'0'.
Mrs. Ed. Johns and children,
of Elimville, left on Tuesday for
Saskatoon where they .will visit
Mrs, Johns’ parents and other
relatives.
cause the company had .come to
prefer the Crown Lands north of
the Huron Tract, which were
opened for sale in 1855 because
they preferred an outright pur
chase, and many leased farms
did revert to the company for
arrears, but is seems that settle
ment in the -Huron Tract was not
in such languishing condition as
has frequently been assumed.
These conversions of leases con
tinued, although in diminishing
volume, well into the depression
years after 1857.
The boom in farmland had
other effects. The1' *185 0’s were
the years of railroad expansion
in .Ontario, and with the easy
money then available, several
schemes ’were put forward to
bring railways to the Huron Dis
trict. Steel had been laid as .far
as London by 1853, and promot
ers were anxious to extend lines
into the rapidly .developing west
ern districts; the railways them
selves encouraged development
to insure their own profits. A
line from Sarnia through Strath-
roy to Komoka was chartered in
1852 to serve the southern town
ships of the watershed, and
gradually pushed its way along
its surveyed route. The Buffalo
and Goderich line was completed
in 185S. Both these lines were
outside the watershed, to the
north and south, but provided
arteries for it. The Grand Trunk
line from Guelph to Sarnia,
finished in 1859, ran straight
across the watershed, bringing
with it the usual skyrocketing of
land values along the right of
way, the shifts of population
centres and the laying out of
new towns, .which occurred all
through Canada with the coming
of a railwa. The communication
system of the watershed was not
completed until 1873-76, when
the London, Huron and Bruce
Railway was constructed from
London to Clinton.
Population doubled in the
decade 1850-60, and there was a
further rise in the sixties. As
the rate of growth slowed, pro-
due® became available for ex
port; small industries grew up to
serve the local market, and later
to ship their products outside
the watershed. The timber trade,
small in the early sixties, began
to increase in Importance. At the
same time, the log houses of the
of the farmers were being re
placed by frame structures, and
even by brick in some instances.
In 1840, there were only seven
frame houses in the portion of
the Huron Tract within the
Ausable Watershed; by 1870,
nearly every farm of ten years*
standing could boast of one. In
the villages brick buildings were
hot uncommon by 1860 and. by
18788 many of the .older farm
houses and barns were being re
placed by “handsome and com
modious white brick and taste
ful frame buildings” in an in
creasingly elaborate style.
Improved living conditions be
came general; cookstoves re
placed fire-places in the kitchens;
sewing machines, pumps and
hundreds of ther manufactured
articles began to be widely used.
Fraternal orders established
branches in the area, and the
schoolhouses, which were becom
ing a common .sight every four
or five miles, were used for their
meetings, as well as for other
social gatherings. Inns and
taverns were .now widely dis
tributed and some of the hotels
in the larger centres rated high
by the standards of the time for
both style and comfort. Churches
representing most denominations
cbuld now be found In the water-
15 YEARS AGO
(The Times-Advocate 1934)
Mr. B. W. F. Beavers, of tbwn,
has been appointed a Justice .of
Peace, according to an announce
ment made by Hon. A. W. Roe
buck, Attdrney-<General of On
tario, on Tuesday.
Mr. F. Rabethge, who for a
number of years has conducted
a jewellry business in Exeter has
this week moved his stock and
household effects to Campbell
ford where he has opened a. new
business.
The Bell Telephone Company
have a gang of men putting new
poles at the rear of the stores
throughout the business section
of the town. The wires leading
to the business places will be re
moved -from the main street and
brought into the buildings from
the rear.
Doug Harness and Richard
Pilon narrowly escaped injury
on Wednesday evening when a
bicycle on which they were rid
ing collided with the side of an
automobile. Fortunately they
were thrown clear of the wheel
as one of the wheels of the auto
passed over the bicycle.
1O YEARS AGO
(The Times-Advocate 1939)
Mr. Gordon Appleton and fam
ily have moved into their new
residence on Huron street, the
property of the late Mrs. Frank
GilL t,
Miss Margaret Melville is at
tending the Clinton School of
Commerce at Clinton.
Mr. S. B. Taylor has .been at
tracting great crowds at the
auction sale of his stock of
jewellry, china etc., being held
each afternoon and evening.
The Drumhead Service by the
members of Zone 10 of the Exe
ter Canadian Legion, B.E.S.L. on
Sunday afternoon. . attracted a
large crowd of visitors to Exe
ter. It was significant that it
was held on the very day that
the proclamation of Canada's
participation in the war was
signed,
The new Blue Sunoco Gas
Station south of Main St, church
is nearing completion. Mr. Thos.
Coates has moved his equipment
to the new building and associat
ed with him will be Charles
Mason and Bert Ellesmere.
shed. By the middle sixties, the
original frame churches were be
ginning to be replaced by brick
buildings, in many cases. As has
always been the case in Ontario,
the churches were probably the
most important centres of social
activity.
The area was becoming “civil
ized” and was losing the rawness
of backwoods* life. Life moved,
slowly by modern standards, but
it was far from being colourless
or dull. The district, like most
Of early Ontario, was sober and
law-abiding, compared to some
parts of the frontier in the
, United States, but there were
•occassional outbreaks; such as
tile burning of Brewster’s Mill
and the feuds along the London
Road. The inns and taverns did
not cater only to travellers, and
during much of this period, the
region was full of .construction
gangs working oh the railways
and the "Cut”* It .was at this
time that Lucan was known as
“tile wildest town in Ontario.”
In 1875, most of the district
was a prosperous farming area,
already well settled, and which
had emerged from the pioneer
stage. Industries producing for
an outside market were develop
ing in several. of the villages.
The shift from subsistence farm
ing and. grain-growing for export
to dairying and stock-raising had
already begun, but was not yet
causing anv appreciable decline
in rural population, while it was
increasing the importance of the
various villages. Settlement was
still going on in some areas and
the lumber business was active
and increasing. There seemed
every prospect of further de
velopment in the future.
(To bo continued next week)