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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-04-13, Page 4on Now.s•Record, i*.hurSOPY, April 13, 1972 Editorial comment End of equal opportunity There are substantial grounds for the concern which members and officials of the HUron Hoard' of Education have expressed about the effect which Davis government economies will have on the quality of education in Huron. As was pointed out in a letter by Huron's Director of Education, John C. Cochrane, boards such as Huron, which economize and plan ahead are being penalized in that the ceilings imposed effectively prevent the standards in effect in counties where concern with cost has not been a factor. What the new Davis pol icy means of course • is a complete denial of the policy enunciated on the introduction of the county board system five years ago. The number one priority of that time to provide equal ity of educational opportunity no longer exists as far as Huron and similar counties are concerned. The basic problem is that the Davis government finds itself in a financial straight jacket as Mr. McKeough made evident in his budget. The rosy pre-election promises are coming home to roost and the dollar shortages denied last year now are admitted and used as reasons for substantial tax increases or as Mr, McKeough prefers to regard them—increased service charges. Unfortunately it is not the Davis government thatfaces the costs of its past financial management. These are costs whiCh Mr. Davis and Mr. McKeough have transferred to each of us in Huron Through increased municipal taxes, higher transportation costs and lowered educational opportunities. —FROM THE HURON EXPOSITOR Hang the cost Plans for the Olympic stadium and other Olympic faci Mies to be built for the 1976 Olympics at Montreal were unveiled last week and the cries again went up from Toronto that Montreal gets all the goodies. If you'll remember, Montreal beat out Toronto for the right to bid on the- Olympics for Canada then beat out the United States and several other countries for the right to host the Olympics. As soon as that victory was won, the doom and gloom boys who mastermind the media eminating from Toronto began to moan about how much it was going to cost the taxpayers of the country to fulfi 11 Jean Drapeau's wi Id visions. They point out how much it cost "the taxpayers" to finance Expo '67, which also was in Montreal. Somehow "the taxpayers" always gets translated into "Toronto taxpayers" as if no one else in Canada paid taxes. ltdoesn'ttake much imagination to figure out that the cries of the cost being too high would not be heard if Toronto was hosting the Olympics. It would take more imagination to picture Toronto ever hosting the Olympics because they just don't have the foresight in Toronto to plan such an occasion. And speaking of the taxpayer, it seems it was alright when the rest of us in Ontario helped pay for Ontario Place. The fact that we're also to help pay Toronto's subway bills doesn't seem to be protested by the Toronto media men either. So far there has been no evidence that the Federal Government is indeed going to offer financial help to Montreal to host the Olympics but it does seem that the federal government is going to have to help if the Olympics are to be a success. But so what if we do have to give some money? As someone recently pointed out, these are the Canadian Olympics, not just Montreal's. If they are impressive, we' will all share the spotlight in the rest of the world. If they fall flat we will all share in the ignominy. We have to pay for so many hai r- brained ideas every year (many of them in Toronto) that we might as wel I pay cheerfully for something that wi I I help give a good impression of our country around the world and give us good sports facilities besides. Many places he's he'd rather be • "Now about this big mistake you made in the government's favor — just what,- exactly, are you up to?" Clinton Yews-Record A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) second class mail registration number — 0817 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) Canada, $8.00 per year; U.S.A., $9.50 KEITH IN, AOULSION — Editor J. HOWARD AITKEN --- General Manager Published every ThurSday at the heart of Huron County' Clinton, Ontario Population 3,475 THE HOME OF RADAR IN CANADA As I write, the so-called first day of spring has long gone, but the only indication that winter is nearly over in these parts is that the curling season is drawing to a close. Outside the window the snowbanks look like the iceberg that sank the Titanic. Inside, the furnace thumps away like a bull moose that has just outrun a pack of wolves. And every four days, it seems, the oil delivery man wades through the drifts, inserts that solid gold nozzle in the side of the house, and whistling cheerfully, pumps another $30 worth of oil into the great guzzler. It is a time to try men's souls. It is a time of year when I curse my Irish forebears for not emigrating to New Zealand or South Africa or Jamaica. However, it happens every year, and there's always some little ray of spiritual or emotional sunlight to penetrate the late- winter blues, My little ray of sunshine (at four o'clock in the afternoon) is sleeping the sleep of the pure at heart. She's been in the sack since 7:$0 this morning, after sitting up all night talking to her crazy Mother, who suffers from insomnia. , It's not that Kim disturbs the quiet, gentle routine of our daily life. She doesn't disturb it at all. She destroys it. As mentioned, she's a night- owl. Does her best work, writing essays and stuff, after midnight. And just like the Owl, she can sleep all day. Same with eating 4 She's never hungry when anyone else is, If dinner IS carefully planned for six-thirty. She is suddenly famished at five.thi rty and smashes tierSelf (Ma big mess of bacon and eggs Or spaghetti and sartlineS, leaving her mother and I looking ruefully at the roast. Or else she is not hungry at dinner- hour and will eat nothing but some celery, and then about eight-thirty is fainting and slaps up a vast concoction of fried bananas and mushrooms. These are minor things, of course, and she's a delight to have around the house. When she's here, at least I know why my socks are disappearing and I haven't a clean shirt to wear. The problem, you see, is that we ask her home for a weekend. She throws a clean blouse in a shoulder bag and heads home. But she hates the city so much that her weekend's turn into a six-day sojourn, and she has to wear somebody's clothes, and she and her mother can't abide each other's taste in garments, so she wears mine, which are so drab and nondescript that nobody could fight over them. As I said, these are trifles. But she's always in some kind of a hassle, and these are the things that produce the hours-long, all• night sessions with her old lady, While I lie blissfully, dreaming of the grand old days when she was a cuddly infant. She's Still pretty cuddly, by the way, NOM for the old man. And that's the sort of thing she and her Ma can talk about for six hours at a stretch, without either one drawing a full breath. They can talk about Don and The Wedding, This is not the title of a Russian novel about the Don River. Don is the other man in her life, and The Wedding is causing more confusion around here than anything since the day we discovered our tomcat was pregnant. The great 'event is schednled for May. Typically, Kim announced that they had chosen May 7 as the day. And typically, her mother, who never misses anything important like this, though I doubt if she knows the name of the prime minister, checked the calendar and discovered that May 7 is a Sunday. Not many people get married on Sunday, though I don't know why not. There isn't much else to do: I've had a lot of free advice about the wedding, Most people chuckle fiendishly as they tell me what it's going to cost. "Well, she's your only daughter, so you'll have to go the whole hog, eh?" Or, "Well, it only happens once and it'll cost you a bundle, but think of the loot she'll get." Consoling stuff like this. In the first place, I wouldn't care if I had 10 daughters. Well, maybe I would. But in the second place, I don't want her to get a lot of loot. We'd wind up storing it in our house for 10 years until she and her broke intended are making enough to afford more than an unfurnished room. Her mother promptly announced that she was not up to a big wedding with all the frills, the smartest decision she has made since she agreed to marry me. Her mother, that is. Next, I laid it on the line, Four choices. A small wedding, immediate family only, and atoll-- sized cheque. A slightly bigger deal, with a smallish reception, to include close friends, and a small cheque. A big splash, with a lot of people, and no cheque. Or a massive affair, with pomp and circumstance, ih a City hotel ballroom, with her Uncle and god- father, a well-to-do lawyer, paying the shot, if she could talk him into it. She chose No, 1. But we"ll see, We're far from Out of the woods yet. 10 YEARS AGO APRIL 12, 1962 Hope Garber, London, lent a professional touch to the highly successful fashion show held by the Kinette Club of Clinton, held in the large auditorium at Clinton District Collegiate Institute last week. Conveners in charge of the entire event were Mrs. Maitland Edgar and Mrs. William Fink, This year's Red and Blue Revue is to be held in the CDCI auditorium Thursday, April 12 and Friday, April 13 at 8:15 p.m, There are approximately 200 students taking part in the show under staff supervision. The theme of the show is "A Day at Western Fair." 15 YEARS AGO APRIL 11, 1957 The four-member cast of "First Dress Suit" brought home the bronze plaque, emblem of top placd in the Ontario Junior Farmers drama festival, held in Glielph on Tuesday night. Coached by Mrs. Elizabeth Sterling Haynes, Clinton, the young people are Misses Lois Jones, Ruth Brown, Stanley Johns and Ivan Mcelyrnont, • The moving of the drug store from the Bank of Montreal building, last week, means breaking of a tradition 100 years old. That particular location in Clinton has had a drug store since 1857. "A healthy goodwill between teachers and pupils exists in the township", Lloyd G. Queen, Toronto, remarked this week as. he paused in adjudicating the two- day music festival held in Londesboro, Mr. Queen remarked favourably on the quality of the music, as well, Mentioning particularly the excellent part singing in the senior classes. 25 YEARS AGO APRIL 10, 1947 A bridge building and repair suggest, would show that the one primary essential of these relations, consumer confidence, has gone to pieces. A friend tells me of a typical incident, the kind of thing that happens to most of us with monotonous regularity. His oil furnace went on the Fritz. He consulted the yellow pages of his directory, found the name of a firm that's widely advertised, telephoned them with a cry of "Help!" Did the firm rush out a repair man on a white charger? It did not, The voice at the other end sighed and enquired, "What kind of furnace is it?" saidiourirtend, feeling something close, te ,shame, "WS just an old-style pot-burner." "Sorry," said the voice, "We don't handle 'em." He got the same brush-off from four' other large firms, finally being rescued by an obliging neighbour who just happened to have a talent for fixing old furnaces. Somewhat the same experience can be heard over and over again, involving not only service people gang from Stratford is busily engaged this week replacing 22 wooden supporting piles carried away by the pressure of rushing water and ice from underneath the CNR bridge over the rampaging 13ayfield river on the London- Clinton line, about a mile south of Clinton. Mrs. Hannah Glazier and her son, Percy who reside on a farm in Hullett, east of Clinton, were forced to take to the second storey of the house, the water of the Maitland having caused the water • to rise to a height of four feet downstairs. They were 'evacuated by boat on Monday. Decisions on adoption of daylight saving time in Clinton this year were shelved—at least temporarily—by Clinton town council when a recorded division produced a 4-4 deadlock on the matter, 40 YEARS AGO APRIL 14, 1932 Miss Marjorie Mathers, assistant matron of the Huron County Home, has resigned her position. Miss Martine, Dashwood, has been appointed in her place. The remains of the late Mayor S. S. Cooper lay in state at his apartments, Normandie Block, from Tuesday until Friday afternoon, teat week, during which time many friends from town and community called to pay a last tribute. On Friday afternoon, the funeral took place...at the Ontario Street Church, conducted by the Rev, F, G. Farrill, minister of the church. Interment was made in Clinton Cemetery, The Jackson Circus Company, a travelling company with a few animals, gave an eXhibition in the town hall yesterday evening. An important change took place in Clinton this week when the Sank of Montreal purchased and took over the McTaggart Bank, a but dealers in all manner of goods. An acquaintance who purchased the most expensive washing machine on the market has had trouble with it constantly. He gets the most grudging and delayed kind of service. Why is this? Is it simply that business is so good that a large furnace outfit isn't interested in doinga small job for a customer who is a potential purchaser of new equipment (which, he vows, will never he bought from that firm)? Is the washing machine retailer so disinterested in maintaining the good name of the product he handles that he'll let a faulty machine ruin its reputation in a neighbourhood? Or is it simply that the whole concept of dealing with the individual has been replaced by the image of the customer as simply a blob in computerized statistics? What I don't know about business, I admit; would fill a 12- foot shelf of books. And yet I'm convinced that those old-fashioned and private bank carried on by Major M. D. McTaggart. 55 YEARS AGO APRIL 12, 1917 Thursday last was the fourteenth Huron Spring Stock Show day in Clinton, It wasn't a pleasant day, Indeed the "Oldest Inhabitant" can hardly remember when we did have nice weather for the show, Such a trifle as had weather never by any means spoils the Show, however. People come in spite of weather. The Hydro-Electric department has announced a substantial reduction in the cost of power and lighting for Clinton, to take effect from April 1. The Clinton Board of Trade has appointed a committee to enlist every willing, patriotic man to do something towards helping to increase the food production in this vicinity. If the farmers will accept such help as we can give them, it is our plain duty to go out and help, 75 YEARS AGO APRIL 9, 1897 The regular meeting (of town council) was held on Monday night, A communication was read from the City Clerk of Toronto. Nowimeodonok THE CLINTON NEW ERA Established 1865 seemingly out-of-date considerations loom large in the public's spending, that there's a kind of word-of-mouth recommendation that's every bit as valuable as full-page advertisements. I think that if I were in business, big or small, I'd try to have 'a passionate devotion to the task of keeping every customer satisfied, to keep him as a life- long client and a walking advertisement for whatever it is I might be selling rather than a one- shot deal. There are such people. There is a television repair man in our own neck of the woods who started from nothing and now has his own thriving shop simply because he appears to have taken the customer's satisfaction as a call of destiny. There is a certain department store that swung into action over a broken six-dollar tea-potas if the lady who bought it (my wife) were Pl'incess Grace. But they are the exceptions in this day when the customer seems hardly ever right. Concerning exemptions, it was ordered to be laid on the table. A communication from Geo. Cook, asking for sidewalk, etc., on Joseph St., was referred to the street committee. Warden Cox of Porter's Hill has purchased from Mr. G. F. Emerson an exceedingly fine Cabinet Grand Upright piano. This is the instrument that was used recently at the Oddfellows' concert and was so highly spoken of. Mr, Cox is to be congratulated on securing so superior an instrument. Many of the farmers began plowing last week, but not much seeding has been done yet. Fall wheat is looking fine and has apparently stood the winter well. Those farmers who are changing places this year are making preparations for removal. A car doing 100 mph may be less dangerous than a car that isn't moving—on an expressway. A stopped car on a high speed road is a very serious hazard, the Ontario Safety League points out, If trouble develops on an expressway, first priority must be given to getting the car and passengers off the pavement. Letter to the Editor The Editor, ECHOES OF EASTER Throughout Christendom Easter is a gala festival, said to be the most important feast of the whole ecclesiastical calendar. Yet, how many people know what it is all about? Ask the average celebrators and they will say it commemorates the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after His crucifixion, If that is so, then what do the colored eggs and the candy rabbits, the fancy baskets and springtime fashions, have to do with Jesus? How many even know where the name "Easter" comes from? The dictionaries and the encyclopedias point out that "Easter" was the life and spring goddess of the devil-worshipping Druids of northern Europe. Other authorities show that this goddess of the Druids was the same as "Astarte" or "Ishtar", who was worshipped by the ancient Chaldeans, Babylonians and Plibenicians. The name "easter" and its more ancient form "Astarte", come from the root "Ash-tart" meaning "the woman that made towers". This woman obviously was Semiramus, the wife of Nimrod, who helped him build the tower of Babel: After her death she was deified as the "queen of heaven", and for many centuries before the days of Jesus all the primitive religions held a springtime festival in her honor. Then when Constantine the Great, that "great" religio-political schemer, united apostate Christianity with paganism to form a single catholic (universal) state religion in the fourth century A.D. such pagan festivals as Easter were made a part of the ecclesiastical calendar. The appendages attached to the festival as now celebrated are further proof of its rank paganism. If any will say that the multi-colored eggs and rabbits are harmless, meaningless ornaments added to amuse children, then why is it that all the ancient demon-worshippers, the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Hindus, Chinese and Japanese—none of which worshipped Jesus or His resurrection—why did all such attach deermystical significande to these Easter eggs and rabbits? Because, in their phallic "mysteries" and sex-worship the egg was a symbol of life and fertility. The rapidly multiplying rabbit was also a symbol of fertility and great reproduction. Says the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, "The rabbit is a pagan symbol and always has been an emblem of fertility." The wearing of new clothes and colorful ensembles is a hand-me-down of the pagans who believed that wearing a new bonnet on Easter brought happiness in love. In view of these facts what could be more reproaching, more dishonoring, or more blasphemous of Jesus and His beloved Father Jehovah God than to have this sexy pagan holiday associated with the resurrection of Jesus? Moreover, the Bible condemns in no uncertain terms this worship of Easter (Astarte), the "queen of heaven", called in the Hebrew Scriptures, Ashtaroth, Ashtoreh, Ashteroth, and Astaroth. Christ and His disciples were fully aware of how King Solomon fell into disfavor with God because he served and worshipped the goddess Easter. (1 Kings 11:5, 31; 2 Kings 23:13) They knew how Jehovah's wrath was kindled against the nation of Israel when Israel turned from pure worship and celebrated the Easter festival, (Judges 2:11-14; 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:3,4; 12:10) They knew how God by the mouth of His prophet Jeremiah condemned those that made cakes for the "queen of heaven", (Jer. 7:18; 44:17-27) Hence there is no record of the disciples of Jesus as ever celebrating Easter. Manifestly, Easter from its very origin and by its nature is not Christian, even in name, and its annual celebration by Please turn to Page 12 The fast sale I deplore those people who say,, "I don't want to tell you how to run your business, but.,.." and then proceed to tell you? exactly that. Still, it's a failing of most of us. Kibitzing is the cheapest vice. So, I don't want to tell you how to rim your business, gentlemen, but if I were dealing with the public in sales or services, I'd sure enough make an effort to get hack to that old-fashioned thing known as personal contact. What in the world ever . happened to that relationship in which a customer felt he could rely on a firm or an individual, that he was being catered to jealously as a valued client, that there was such a thing as reputation and integrity to be maintained over the long years? It seems to be gone. In its stead you find a public vaguely distrustful of the people with whom it does business, very often treated with something near contempt when it comes to emergency service that may not involve a fat price, at the mercy of a system that seems competitive only in window dressing. Even a cursory survey, I Arnalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD 1924 Established 1881