HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1952-05-29, Page 2the TIMES-ADVOCATE, EXETER, ONTARIO, THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 29, 1952
This journal shall always fight
for progress, reform and public
welfare, never be afraid to at
tack wrong, never belong to any
political party, never be satisfied
with merely printing news.
THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 29, 1952
i
i council is presently preparing a
Highway -No. 83 to indicate to
traveller-, >m that road where the business
section, if the town is. That’s a good idea
which ‘in be expanded to greater advanI
The tourist season is fast approaching’
tnd people from all over Canada and the
United States will soon be travelling- hither
•uni yon to see the beauty spots of every
where.
Driving through a town and seeing a
'ovelv, well-kept park or public playground
k one of the most pleasant experiences of
»ravel.
tage
It would be nice to we attractive muni
cipal sign-* at either end of town proudly
announcing that this is Exeter. At present
the inly people interested in telling the
publi - what town they’re coming to i.*» the ;
department of highways which has erected
two littD black and white signs which say
iur population is 2,(516 (a generous fig- ;
ure 1 j
Perhaps the council could secure the
cooperation of service clubs and organize- ’
tions tn Hie district to erect a sign which s
will tell the travelling public we’re proud
of our home town. •
Tourists driving down our main drag j
wouldn’t have the slightest idea that we !
have two lovely new schools and three use- [
fill parks. ;
Signs indicating their whereabouts |
would give the town publicity as well as >
making it easier for tourists to find them. I
It pays to advertise. 1
* * * * >
I
Oinie Member Speaks His Mmd ,
(The Winnipeg Tribune) ’
If a few more Members of Parliament !
were to follow the example of Ross Thatch- |
er, M P. for Moose Jaw, there would be a i
great deal more economy on the part of •
the Ottawa Government than there is at
present.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr. Thatch
er outlined savings in three categories
which he claimed would amount to $315
millions this year. Mr. Thatcher described
his three categories as petty savings, major
savings that could be effected through
changes in Government policy, and ^savings (
in defence spending. •
Few Canadians will approve all the ,
savings advocated by the Member for i
Moose Jaw. One of the suggestions—re- I
storation of a means test in Old Age Pen- ;
slows—would almost certainly be rejected ;
by the great majority. ;
On the other hand, his proposal to do [
away with double indemnities by reforming (
Parliamentary procedure, his proposal to >
cut down some of the flow of publicity •
coming from Government offices, and to I
trim down the corps of Government econo- |
mists, would probably be given overwhelm- j
Ing approval. I
But the most important thing about >
Mr. Thatcher’s chapter-and-verse speech on ;
possible Government economies is the fact ;
that it showed that at least one M.P. was ■
doing i little homework and was interested
enough to examine estimates of spending
departments carefullly, This is something
that ill Members of Parliament should be i
doing
The reaction of the Government to ■
Mr. Thatcher’s proposed economics was in- ■
teresting. To his suggestion that $20 mil- 1
lions might be saved by deferring certain .
public works, James Sinclair, Parliamentary ’
assistant to the Minister of Finance, \
snapped: “The Moose Jaw Post Office t
should be the first one.” Moose Jaw is in I
Mr. Thatcher’s constituency. |
This peevish statement is a typical s
“politics first” reaction to any serious sug- *
gestion that Government Departments i
should cut down their expenditures. j
» * * *
'Do you know what civilization is?"
asks a socialogist. “Well, not exactly, In
fact, we’re not even certain where it is,”
answers The Kingston Whig-Standard, with }
an eye on actualities. j
Exeter has one of the best potential
beauty spots of any town or city in Can-
id i. It just has to be developed.
With some imagination and careful
planning the urea around the Ausable River
between the dam and the highway bridge
can be one of the attractions of “Scenic
Ontario".
The two channels of water could be
controlled by stone and cement walls to
allow the construction of a lawn, decorated
with flower plots, shrubbery and trees.
Foot paths and public benches, water foun
tains and bird houses could add to its
beauty. The possibilities are limitless.
Situated along a main highway, such
1 park could not fail to attract the tourist
or the motorist passing by, Coupled with
the advantages of Riverview Park as a pic
nic grounds, it would be a natural haven
for the recreation and enjoyment of our
local residents as well.
Highway No. 4 is not one of the scen
ic routes of Ontario but certainly a park
here would make it more pleasant. Another
park could be established at the highway
bridge just north of Lucan. The principal
drawback is the mess of junk and garbage
lying on the side of the hill east of the
highway. What an unfortunate eyesore in
an otherwise attractive valley I
The township of Biddulph should take
-.teps immediately to ban the dumping of
refuse along the hill.
II
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TIMES"
Go By
Old World Sends Us
Good Neighbors
By MAUKELLAR McARTHUR
50 YEARS AGO
Horses owned by E. Bossen-
berry, Zurich; H. Bossenberry,
Grand Bend; Will Kuntz, Exeter,
and W. Witzel, ICliiva, won the
races at Grand Bend Monday.
Mr, Henry Eilber and Mr. M.
Y. McLean are the two can di
dates contesting the South Huron
riding for the provincial election.
H. Powell, W. Milyard, D.
Sanders and A. Evans won the
relay races at the Victoria Day
Celebration. J. Blair won the dog
race and John I-Iarton, the bi
cycle race.
Messrs. Crowley and Ogden,
who purchased Mr. William
Snell’s livery business, took pos
session on Monday.
Congratulations are due Mr.
H. J. Browning upon his success
in passing his first year medical
examination at Trinity College,
Toronto.
General Science in the second
year; Mr. Harry M. Greb for
mathematics and physics; Mr.
Walter H. Johns for public
speaking and Mr. Lome S, Tie
man for English.
More Money For M.P.s?
(Goderich Signal-Star)
According to report, Federal M.P.s
want their salaries increased. The use of
tile word “salaries” in this connection is
significant. M.P.s used to receive an in
demnity, a modest recompense, for their
contribution to public business; but now
that this recompense over the years has
grown to larger proportions the word “sal
aries” has come intp use in describing it.
Possibly the average members earns his
$6,000 a year ($2,000 of it exempt from in
come tax); but some are above the average
in attendance and usefulness as members,
and some are definitely below the average.
When there is an extra session in the
year, a nice $4,000 is added, making $10,-
000. This is what irks the poor taxpayer
who stays at home and puts up the" money.
Anyone who sees Hansard must be disgust
ed with the waste of time in long speeches,
repetitions, protracted and unnecessary dis
cussion's on points of order, and so on, that
occupy so much of its pages. Members are
allowed forty minutes per speech. Some
speak far too often, and those who can talk
sense for forty minutes at a time are not
many. We must say that the members from
Huron are not among these time-wasters.
Mr. Cardiff in the House confines himself
almost solely to questions and interjections
and Mr. McLean probably is waiting until
he has been longer in the House before ex
ploding in a speech. (Both of course serve
on committees whose proceedings Hansard
does not report.)
If speeches were limited to twenty
minutes they would be better speeches and
time would be saved. Then the sessions
would be shorter, the members would have
more time to attend to their own affairs at
home, and the present salary would be
ample.
Taxpayers will not take kindly to an
increase in the amount when so much of
the members’ time is wasted in senseless
gabble or in listening to it.
25 YEARS AGO
A large crowd attended the
corner stone laying ceremony at
the United Church of Grand
Bend. Rev. J. W. Collings is the
pastor. The corner stone for the
Young People’s Society was laid
by Mr. H. W. Houston, Exeter;
the Sunday School by Mr. W. G.
Medd, M.L.A., the W.M.S. and
Ladies’ Aid by Rev. S. A. and
Mrs. Carriere and for the Trustee
Board by Mr. Thomas McMillan.
It is estimated 1,500' were pres
ent.
Captain and Mrs. Whitfield, of
the Salvation Army, have re
linquished their command in
Exeter, owing to Captain Whit
field’s ill health.
At the recent examinations jn
connection with the University
of Western Ontario, former stu
dents of Exeter (High School
carried off a number of scholar
ships and prizes. Mr. Carl G.
Morlock won the scholarship for
15 YEARS AGO
Mr, Roy Tash and staff of the
Associated Screen News of Mont
real are at the Masse family
home shooting pictures of the
family. Promoter Frank Del-
bridge has arranged that these
pictures will first be shown in
Exeter,
Winners of the Coronation
Contest were Earl Whiting, of
Usborne; Janette Scott, Crom
arty; Mrs. L. Hamacher, Dash
wood; Mrs. C. Hoggnian, Credi-
ton; Mrs. Sarah Ferguson, of
Exeter; and Bert Gardiner Kirk
ton.
Messrs. W i 11 i a m Dunsford,
Harold Keiler, Brynley Cousins,
and Ewalt Gritzka motored to
Niagara. Falls and Buffalo over
the weekend and witnessed the
illumination of the Falls.
1O YEARS AGO
Players on the Exeter team in
the opening ball game of the
season this week were Dinney,
Moore, F. Creech, J. Creech,
Ryckman, Nicol, Carscadden, Mc
Donald and D. Pryde.
Students attending the Wester
velt Business College in London
are Arthur Hern, Misses Jean
Brock, Margaret Allison, Flor
ence Southcott, Alta Harvey and
Cogueline Simmons,
Mr. E. C. Beacom, public
school inspector for South
Huron, has been notified by the
Department of Education of Ills
transfer to Stratford,
W. J- Routley was appointed
road superintendent of Usborne
Township.
News From Our
NEIGHBORS
(In “Saturi
(Maekellar McArthur farms
and writes, following the tradi
tion of his famous father, the
late Peter McArthur. The 100-
year-old McArthur homestead is
in Middlesex county, 28 miles
southwest of London, Ontario.
When we came back three
years ago to the old family farm
after twelve years of city life,
the neighbors would often say to
me, “You must see many
changes,” The changes were easy
to see—the pew machines—com
bines, corn-pickers, forage har
vesters and hay-balers —roaring
up and down the once quiet
roads and fields and looking
more like prehistoric monsters
than farm implements. The faster
tempo of life in the old neigh
borhood could be felt as the
tractors throbbed over the fields
while the few remaining horses
fattened beyond all recognition
in the pastures. In town on
Saturday nights it was easy to
hear an indication of a change
which may have an effect even
more far-reaching than new farm
methods and new machinery.
Many of the groups of men and
women standing on the sidewalk
talked together in mid-European
languages or, to their Canadian
neighbors, in broken English,
The new machinery interests
me only mildly—our farm is too
small for it; the faster tempo
not at all. But the changes being
brought about by the influx oi
a people different in language,
customs and traditions from any
I knew while farming before,
does interest me greatly. It gives
me what public speakers so
hopefully try to give their list
eners—•“food for thou g h t”—
something to mull over in my
mind as I go about my farm
work.
In conversation the neighbors
often mention “Steve or Joe or
Johnny,” as much or more than
the once predominant Scottish
names, Donald, Alex, Duncan and
so on, sons and grandsons of
John Archie, Red Malcolm or
Big Pete, the pioneers who
cleared the land and settled this
district in Southwestern Ontario.
When the neighbors speak of
Steve or Joe they speak of them,
not as so many once did, as
“those damn foreigners who are
ruining the country,” but as one
good neighbor speaks of another
-—“Joe’s a good worker,” “Steve
is a good fellow.” The neighbors
even use words and phrases with
their own imitation of the Slovak
accent. They can’t help it. The
new “Ing-a-leesh” invites it even
though it gives their typically
rural Western Ontario accent,
with its traces of Highland Scot
tish, a startling effect. It made
me wonder if my good old
neighbors had gone slightly daft
when I first heard one say to
another, “I be go to town;
mebbe you come too?” and the
answer, “W e 11, mebbe I be
come,” in slightly gutteral tones.
The old neighbors chuckle at
many of the “sayings” of their
new neighbors and now often
friends. It is laughter without
malice, just as we laughed at
the anecdotes of our own people,
who spoke a mixture of Gaelic
and English. “Ingaleesh” gives a
new and 'fun-provoking twist to
commonplace words and phrases
that is often irresistible. For
instance last summer we were
working together at a stook
threshing, loading and hauling
in a neighbor's wheat. Joe’s
wagon wag loaded; Steve was at
the far end of the field, a long
city block away with his wagon
almost loaded. There were still
14 big shocks to pitch on and
then the job would be done. We
wondered if Steve's load would
clear the field. Joe yelled at him,
“You gonna take it?”
We saw Steve look around
Slowly as he sized up the situa
tion. Then his reply drifted soft-
ay Night”)
ly down the wind, “Well, mebbe
I gonna take it.” And of course,
he took it all. As four of us old
neighbors shouldered our forks
and headed for a well-earned
supper, we repeated the few
words and chuckled over them.
Now when a similar situation
arises we may not answer, “I
guess so,” but “Well, mebbe I
gonna take it.”
It was just as funny to us and
far fresher in our minds than the
anecdote that was handed down
to us from early days about one
of my uncles when he was going
to public school. The teacher
noticed little Mary crying.
“Why are you crying, Mary?”
she asked.
“Duncan 'peuched' me," sob
bed Mary. (There’s a Gaelic
word for pinched that sounds
like “pencil"---the proper spell
ing I can’t imagine).
“Duncan,” demanded the
teacher severely, “why did you
Pinch Mary?”
“She 'peuched me first,” said
my uncle-to-be, and settled the
matter.
As I think it over and occas-
sionally talk with my new neigh
bors myseif, it all adds up to the
fact that the old neighbors have
accepted the new. They are
learning to work and live to
gether to give the community
new color and interest. The men
and women who came among us
as immigrants have earned their
place in our neighborhood
through their hard work and
frugality, just as our Highland
forefathers did a century or more
ago. Today they have well-tilled
and modernly-equipped farms.
They drive shiny, big new auto
mobiles. The good years have
been kind to them. Now they
are remodelling their houses and.
painting their barns, something
the rest of us have ibeen going
to do for years but never quite
got around to.
Several factors have contribut
ed to bring about this change in
our community. Actually Steve,
Joe, Paul and their wives were
here before we moved away to
the city. They were day laborers
in the sugar beet and tobacco
fields, doing what the neighbors
then said was "work no white
man would do.” But Steve and
Mary, Joe and Annie, kept at
their back-breaking toil, seldom
looking up to see us driving by
in our cars. They worked un
heard-of hours, lived frugally'
and saved continuously to attain
objective the neighbors didn’t
quite suspect. First thing anyone
knew the former beeworkers,
often with a toddler at their
knees and a baby in arms, eased
the kinks out of their backs and
showed themselves as “white” as
the next man. They began to use
their savings to ibuy the often
run-down farms, cleared by the
almost forgotten toil of those
mighty men of an earlier day,
Big Pete, Red Malcolm and their
sons, the fruit of whose labors
is being garnered now.
We buried the last of their
generation in our neighborhood
last spring, a bachelor well up
in his eighties, a life-long neigh
bor and friend of us all. He had
retained all the old-time courtesy
of his generation and had a fine
sense of humor as well. Not long
before he died he said to me as
we excused ourselves from the
table at a neighbor's threshing,
“Did you know that I went to
school with your father?” Ididn’t
know. TTis eyes twinkled as he
looked back in his mind over 70
years. “Many’s the fight we had,
too.” “And who won?” I asked.
“Och,” he replied, “we both did
and always went home the best
of friends.”
As we so often say when a
neighbor passes on, he’ll be
missed. He was a good neighbor,
as were all of his day. We don’t
—Please turn to Page 3
<fje Cxeter ®imt£b$fotoocate
Times Established 1873 Amalgamated 1924 Advocate Established 1881
Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario
An Independent Newspaper devoted to the Interests of the Town of Exeter and District
Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa
Member at the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association
Member of the Ontario-Quebec Division of the OWN A
Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation
Paid-in-Advance Circulation as of September 30, 1951 — 2,493
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Canada, in advance, $3.00 a year *** United States, in advance, $1.00 a year
Single Copies Each
J, MeXvin Southcott * Publishers - Robert Southcott
Meters Installed
Merchants heard the rattle
and roar of the pneumatic drill
on Thursday and Friday last, the
signal that the much-debated
parking meters had at last ar
rived on the downtown side
walks. A crew of workmen drill
ed the respective holes in the
sidewalks, others placed and ce
mented the pipes and oh these
pipes parking meter heads were
installed. The meter posts put
many old timers back in the
horse and buggy days when
hitching posts were just about
as numerous as the meters on
Queen >St.
(St, Marys Journal Argus)
Taxes Up In Smoke •
There was a beach party re
cently—perhaps two! And judg
ing from the bottles which were
left oil shore to get smashed and
cut the feet of bathers, it evi
dently was no children’s celebra
tion. Or was it, perchance, a
party of so-called adults who
have never never growfl up to
responsibility?
Bayfielders like to see people
come from other points and en
joy themselves; but they also
like to think that their tempor
ary guests, so to speak, will
respect the privilege add treat
our property as they would their
own.If there is anything which
makes us see “red" it is to have
some of our hard-earned tax
money go up in smoke,
And that is what happened
about two weeks ago when visit
ors took 12 lifts of the steps at
the end of Bayfield Terrace for
a bonfire over which to cook
w e i n e r s, roast marshmallows,
and make merry. The trustees
have had the steps repaired.
(Clinton News-Record)
To Build New Road
The Township of Bosanquet,
with the expected help of the
Province of Ontario, is to build
a new road along Ipperwash
Beach. This new road will be
built back of the cottages from
the Casino to the Ipperwash
Military Camp road. It became
necessary due to the high waters
of the Great Lakes flooding the
beach which has always been
used for the road. This new
thoroughfare will make the
beach safer for bathers as it
will lessen the traffic on the
beach even when the waters re
cede to their normal level.
(Parkhill Gazette)
Milk To Japan
Interest was centered this week
on the huge 23 ton boiler that
came from an American firm to
Stacey Bros, in town. It was
transported >by truck from Se-
bringville and, coming as >a com
plete unit, was set in ready for
piping. It was required on ac
count of the large amount of
milk coming into the plant.
At present around 130,000
pounds of milk is coming into
the local factory daily.
•Citizens have been aware, too,
of the manufacture by this firm
of skim milk powder but they
may not know that a recent ship
ment of this product, 35,000
pounds, was made recently to
Japan and in the first week in
June 70,000 pounds will be ship
ped. (Mitchell Advocate)
LAFF OF THE -WEEK