Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-07-27, Page 44 —Clinton News-Record, Thursday, JUIY 27, 1972 Ignoring the obvious One would wonder if Crown Attorney John Cochrane has a hearing problem, In an article in the London Free Press recently, Mr. Cochrane answered people from Clinton who 'were critical of the laxity of Huron courts by saying that Clin- ton was the only place in the county which was unhappy with the courts. Where's your head been, Mr. Cochrane? Buried in the sand? Just about every council in urban municipalities in the county has made the same complaint at some time or another in the last 12 months. Council here in Blyth, for instance, has dealt with the subject several times. It was even discussed that a petition asking for an in- vestigation in the courts. Last week, Brussels village council sent a letter to the Attorney General asking for an investigation of the courts and the lack of support they give police in coping with rowdyism and vandalism. How loud and long do we have to shout for people in authority like Mr. Cochrane to hear? Maybe every citizen should go to court to see just how they operate. It would not only make the citizens more aware of judicial processes, but might make the courts • move a little faster, knowing that a cour- troom full of people was watching every move the court officials made.—The Blyth Standard. Assessment problems What impact the reassessment of properties across Ontario will have on municipal taxes remains to be seen. Assurances that increased assessments will be offset by reduced tax rates thereby holding taxes in balance are being greeted by some skepticism. There is no doubt that some changes in assessment procedures were necessary. There were variations from municipality to municipality but in the case of most towns and cities steps to correct these imbalances already had been taken when the province preemp- torarily stepped in and took over. Regardless of the outcome of the reassessment the increased costs of the government action are apparent in the army of assessment people that has been created across the province, in the ad- ditional enumeration and census that has been necessary and in the loss in time and money suffered by ratepayers and municipalities through continually changing procedures and the incon- veniences which centralizing has created. Municipal taxes are based on assessment and if the assessment is in- creased substantially then it follows taxes will rise unless the tax rates are changed. Tax rates are the responsibility of each municipality and councils would be less than human if they resisted the oppor- tunity to increase their revenues even if at the same time they reduce rates. The results in areas where reassessment is a fact have been so con- fused and created so many outcries that the government postponed implemen- tation until the reassessment program was completed. These cries probably are nothing compared to what can be expec- ted when the job is completed and the new assessments go into effect. — The Brussels Post. Big increases Increasing costs of goods and services are taken for granted these dpys, but when they becpme ,excessive they 'ffibt:tid be more closely. A case in point is the monumental hike being experienced by municipalities to have their annual audits prepared. Huron County Council learned last week their fee could double next year to $8,000 while Stephen were advised their costs would increase 40 percent to $1,750. Some increase is to be expected. The municipalities are involved in more complex transactions than they were and the auditing firms point out that the government now requires additional forms to be filled out. But surely, the work has not doubled in one single year! If it has, it's high time a review was made of the situation to determine if All the work is justified. If the increases continue at the present level, taxpayers will soon be paying as much to have someone check accounts as they do for the people who keep the accounts in the first place. The situation is even further compounded by the fact the provincial government also employs a myriad of inspectors who periodically check on road expenditures, pension deductions, unemployment insurance, etc. etc. And then, of course, there are those we hire to inspect the work of the inspectors. The merry-go-round is getting expensive.—Exeter Times-Advocate "Aren't you going to ask for a couple of parachutes as well?" The Outhouse and Other Schemes THE CLINTON NEW ERA Anialgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1865 1924 Established 1881 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 nuniber — 0817 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) "'Canada, $8.00 per year; U.S.A., $9.50 1 JAMES E. FITZGERALD—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 I've mentioned this before, but of recent years there seems to be a feverish desire to "get back to the land." There are many aspects of this, of course. There is the young people's determination to get away from it all: the pollution, the commercialism, the materialism — and five a simple life, close to nature, com- munal sharing, organic foods grown with their own pink little materialistic hands, and so on. This usually ends in failure. Not because they don't mean well, but because they simply don't have a clue about the land. Most of them are the products of middle-class life, and when it comes to doing something, they can't do anything. They can't milk a cow, They Can't nail two boards together without making a hand sand- wich. They're used to staying up all night and sleeping all day, and the land doesn't go for that. And they don't realize that Among every group of people who live at close quarters, there is at least one coward, one rater who can't eat turnips, and one who should have been born a pig. These things lead to a certain Amount of disillusion. Oh, they have serious meetings, and they -i4et up committees, and they study their navels. But it usually winds up the same. Mervyn, who is a slight, ephemeral poet, winds up chop- ping all the firewood, along with his foot. George, the vital, hairy, press-on type, likes to sleep until 11 a.m. and complains for the rest of the day about the food. Sylvia, the frail and fragile folk- singer, carries eight buckets of water and feeds the pig (they always have one pig.) And Voluptua, strong as a hull, gets up late, demands coffee, strums her guitar, and complains about the bugs. Myrtle, who dropped! out of university because life was so "irrelevant", winds up doing all the dirty dishes. John, the third-year drop-out, from architecture, is given the job of building a backhouse, With compass and calipers, he lays it all out. He even digs the hole. He completes the building, the grand unveiling takes place,. and it is discovered that the hole is three feet wider than the structure. Peggy, the drop-out oceanographer, is put in charge of the water supply. There is a well, though slightly decrepit and full of frogs and snakes, With commendable courage, she dumps a quart of potassium cyanide in the well, It is not well done, and for the next month, they walk three miles to the nearest farmer's for fresh water. This is just a sample and I'm not knocking it. These people are learning something besides writing essays, demonstrating against practically everything, and smoking pot. Eventually, Cyril will discover that you can't milk a dry cow. Janice will learn that if you pick up a long- tailed sweet little kitten, you might get a shot of exotic per- fume. Good for them all. Then there's the other type of back-to-the-landers, They are new irhmigrants. Europeans who wouldn't have a hope of owning some land in the old country. They will buy prac- tically anything, as long as it's land. They form a syndicate of families, move in, work like dogs. They live in the city because that's where their skills are. But when they attack a piece of the land, they move. Everybody works. There's a stone mason or two, a carpenter, a roofer, a plumber, an elec- trician, and a farmer, They are used to the big- family, communal life. Within weeks, they have everything working, They'll have a cow that's not ' only milking, but producing a calf. They'll have a sow that's going to deliver six- then piglets, They'll have hens that are laying, Their women can produce a huge pot of something out of nothing. Kids happy, mosquito-scarred and everywhere, Bios them, And then there's. the third type, like a couple of colleagues of mine, A few weeks ago they bought 100 acres of — uh — land, Mind you, there was a How to be happy For many years Harry was sure that everyone was having a jolly good time but him, It made him unhappy. He felt that he was alone, unwanted, a misfit and that life was passing him by. It was awful. Whenever Harry drove in his car he would see other people in other cars smiling and chuckling as they passed him by. Often there would be beautiful, ash-blond girls sitting between dark, handsome men in the front seats of convertibles with the tops down. The girls would have their tousled, sun-flecked heads thrown back in laughter, showing their even, white teeth and .the men would be looking at them iideways' with grateful, possessive eyes. It made Harry feel a stranger on life's highway. At cocktail parties or other gatherings he would envy private little groups surrounding witty, debonair men, banging on each word and then exploding with merriment or sometimes nodding gravely with wonder at the speaker's wisdom. Everyone seemed clever or amusing or deep but Harry. He brooded a lot about it. Strolling the suburban streets at night he would look sadly into the picture windows of gracious homes and see, framed scenes of perfect snug togetherness. Often he saw Daddies carrying golden- haired tots off to becidy-by-lows. house on it, and a barn. One is a Doctor of Philosophy, whose thesis was on Wordsworth's Influence on 19th Century Political Thought. The other is a civil engineer, who is extremely uncivil when he has to do any engineering. He has been known to tear off a screen door when he couldn't get it to fit, and has been heard by reliable witnesses to attack the furnace with a shovel and ap- propriate language, when it wasn't working satisfactorily, They've both been working like maniacs. They tore all the shingles off the side of the old log house and apparently put them on the roof, They have to walk only three-quarters of a mile to get to the homestead. Their -only real problem now is to build a bridge across a stream, for access to the property, .and then a half-mile road to the farm-house. I would . cross a bridge built by my civil engineer friend only with water-wings, And I would drive up a road built by the Doctor only with a .helicopter. However, it takes all kinds, And I did promise to come up and cook for them for a few clays. They are living on beans, out of the can. Perhaps a good steak and a salad might drive them on to greater and 'Worse efforts, while I sit on the porch, with gin and tonic, directing some of their more incredible efforts. Once he saw a man kiss his,wife on the back of her neck by firelight. It made him feel he had no group identity. ' Down at the office everyone but Harry seemed to know exactly what they were doing. The younger men were all brisk, aggressive, bold, ambitious, confident, climbing up the ladder and as relaxed as Dean Martin, Indeed, they all looked like Dean Martin. The older men were all executive, decisive, kindly, judicial, had low handicaps at their golf clubs and distinguished „greying hair at the temples, YA*9l tr11014cli014 be that oriented.! 1 In the city each passerby seemed to be striding directly to some importapt destination to close crucial deals or bound for some romantic rendezvous. It was as if they all had some high purpose that Harry did not have. In the country everyone seemed blissfully content, sitting on crooked fences, nibbling on sticks of straw or placidly feeding their 10 YEARS AGO JULY 26,1962 Clinton lost the third game of the WOAA Peewee "B" baseball league finals last Thursday to Goderich 8-6. Clinton won first game 8-6, then lost the next two games for their only two defeats of the season. According to John Lavis, the contract has been let for the construction of an office building at the corner of King and Mary Streets (opposite the Clinton I.G.A. Store), which will house the offices of the Ontario Department of Agriculture in Huron. Contractor is C.A. McDowell and Co. Ltd., Centralia, who was the lowest of seven tenders. Mr. Levis expects that work will begin during the first week in August. 15 YEARS AGO JULY 25, 1957 For fun and frolic next Wednesday night, the Community Centre grounds at Bayfield promises to be the place. That is the night of the Bayfield Lions Club annual frolic, and there are lots of prizes for everyone, It's just ten years since the Bayfield Lions Club received their charter and this is the tenth frolic. Proceedings begin at seven o'clock, When two league teams will playa ball game. Then there is a bingo game, games of chance, a presentation of music by the RCAF Station Clinton trumpet band, free merry-go-round rides for the children, etc., etc., etc. Fireworks will close the evening. 25 YEARS AGO JULY 24, 1947 Miss Edna Ball, 17 year old daughter ofMr. and Mrs, Leslie Ball, was rescued from drowning in the Maitland River at Forester's Falls, by the quick thinking of Dr. J.A. Addison and R.J. Carter, She and Phyllis Herman and Helen Ball, Were bathing when the incident occurred. Mies Herman pulled geese and White Leghorns in splendid serenity. It got so that Harry felt uncomfortable in either place and began to spend long periods watching cartoons on, television. Finally Harry could stand it no longer. He determined to discover what it was that he lacked in the way of a philosophy or good grooming or oral hygeine that denied him happiness. He went out into the world. He shouldered his way into private groups. He asked rude, direct questions. He pried and he poked into everyone's affairs. He was a regular busybody. Presently ft came to Harry that not everyone was having a jolly good time after all. He found that many of the laughing people were simply expressing a nervous reaction. He learned that many lovely girls who throw hack their heads in convertibles are simply vain and vapid. He quickly discovered that people who are listened to at cocktail parties are bores or boobs. Helen to shore, but Edna was carried downstream to a spot where Dr. Addison and Glenn Lockhart were fishing. With the help of Mr. Carter, the girl was saved. Plans are going ahead smoothly for Clinton's 50-unit housing project, and lots were selected this week for the new homes. 40 YEARS AGO JULY 28, 1932 J.T. McKnight and son have moved into the location formerly occupied by Morrish Clothing Co. Pork sausage was being offered at ten cents a pound; chuck roasts of beef cost 12 cents a pound; lard also for nine cents a pound and pickled pork hocks for seven cents a pound at Connell and Tyndall's meat markets. Work shirts for men cost anywhere from 49 cents to $1.00, either plain blue, khaki or plaid at Plumsteel Bros. 55 YEARS AGO JULY 6, 1917 Dr. Strang has tendered his resignation at GOderich Collegiate Institute, after having taught there for 46 years. Oldsters cannot remember such a wet summer in the past 50 years. He learned that suburban cottage dwellers were haunted by instalment payments, teething children, irritability through a loss of regularity and were brooding six hours per day about inflation, He ascertained that the young men in his office were plotting to usurp their elders, thus suffering traumatic guilt complexes, and the older men were plagued by over-40 insecurity, obesity and a general lassitude from wondering what it was all about. He found that hurrying city .dweller,s were rushing to get things done so that they might scurry safely home to forget by watching cartoons on television and that country people were neurotic about the weather, wasps, feed prices, mortgages and a general lack of cultural values. In no time at all, in fact, Harry had discovered to his satisfaction that almost everyone was miserable and it was thus, at long last, that Harry found perfect happiness. When Hogtown (Toronto) took the credit of $150 given the Red Cross by the Clinton Knitting Company, the situation was investigated by a Mr, Libby, and after a correspondence lasting since last fall, the wrong was righted. A garden party was given on the grounds of Mr. Madden to raise money for the Red Cross. 75 YEARS AGO JULY 28, 1987 Yesterday the News-Record was favored with a look through the tents of the Libby Glass Blowers, who will be on the Clinton Market Square for a few days this week, They are from the Great World's Fair at Chicago and in every respect originals. People who come to Bayfield for health and strength are not as a rule disappointed. Heaven's pure air, wafted as it is from the crystal waters of Old Lake Huron, stimulates the system so perfectly that the huge black bass and other palatable varieties of fresh water fish captured with hook and line by the visitors cannot be resisted, Mr. Harry Bartliff of Seaforth Sundayed in town, Letter to the Edit° Dear Editor: This is a "Thank-You Letter to all the individuals an organizations that make ,Bayfie the wonderful place it is:- to th people with the lovely flowe gardens for the enjoyment the, give to the strollers; to the Lion Club for all their "good works' and for the Fun Frolic; to th Pioneer Park Association for lh peaceful place it maintains for th public to see the lake and watc the sunsets; to Council for its efforts to "Keep Hayfield Beautiul"; to the Community Centre Committee for the roller skating and ice skating activities (visit some Wed., Fri. or Sat. night to watch graceful energy); and to the churches of Bayfield for the bells they ring! I have heard so many people comment about the thrill they get from hearing the church bells on Sunday morning because there are so few places left where this sound is heard. And a special "Thank you" to the Atkinson family for giving and to the Anglican Church for accepting the melodious chimes that drift over Bayfield like a benediction three times a day. This is the Pioneer Park Associations 25th Anniversary year, and if the group is seeking a project I would like to suggest that it purchase a sizeable piece of land either on the river (near the flats) or part of the swamp on Jane Street, Change is inevitable, but wouldn't it be a good idea to keep some part of Bayfield unchanged? If Pioneer Park Association did purchase another property my suggestion is that it just hold it, not develop it. These comments are from a sum maerrs.resident of Bayfield for 30 ye Mrs. Don Lance Bayfield Constance BY MARY McILWAIN Mr. and Mrs. Leo Sanders, Jennifer andJeffery of Brussels. Mr. and Mrs. Marris Bos, and Sharon visited on Friday evening with Mr. and Mrs, John Wammes, John and Mary and also with Mr. and Mrs. F. Wammes who are visiting from Holland. Miss Elizabeth. Lawson spent a few days holidays with Mr. and Mrs. George Twiner, Barry and Bonnie of Tuckersmith. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Van der Molan, Paul, Mark and Margie of Oakville spent the weekend with Mrs. W,L. Whyte, Tom and Bill, Mr, and Mrs. Ken Thompson and Joan spent the past week at 'their cottage at Birch Beach. Mr. and Mrs. Jim Preszcator, Billy and Debbie spent the weekend camping at Elliott's Pine Lake. A number from the community attended the open air church service held at the Seaforth Lions Park on Sunday by the Lonclesboro United Church. Bob Stoner, Ken Scott and Elaine Vincent provided the music, and Rev. Mervyn Penfound of Sask. preached the sermon, (former resident of Londesboro). Diane Preszcator is spending this week with her aunt and uncle Mr. and Mrs. Allan Pfaff and family of Crediton. Mr, and Mrs. John Wammes. John and Mary, Mr. and Mrs, Marris Bos, Steven and Sharon, Mr. and Mrs.F. Wammes of Holland attended the Wammes Picnic held on Sunday at the Pinery. Mrs. Doug Baker and family of Hamilton, Mrs, Shirley Weber of Ripley were Monday visitors with Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson, Jim, Sharon and Bob. Bible School is being held this week at the Kinburn Community Church, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Riley spent a few days the past week visiting with Mr. and Mrs. Bob Woods, Debbie and,, Michele at their cottage. Lack of patience or loss of temper should never lead to temporary disregard for the skill necessary for job safety, St. John Ambulance warns.