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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1973-04-12, Page 4Editorial comment This is our land A recent seminar on land use held in Huron County, as well as developments . in Western Ontario communities over the past couple of years have pointed up a problem which is a new one for this country of vast open spaces. The actual purposes to which land is put and right of decision about these uses have been under deep and serious study. Quite appropriately we have all awakened to the fact that the fertile acres of our province have been squan- dered over the past century and that unless there is legal control over land use in future we will find ourselves living in a rural jungle, every bit as unattrac- tive and unproductive as the asphalt jungles of the big cities. Planning is the watchword. Planning boards and land use studies should have two basic purposes—to en- sure that productive agricultural land is not buried under buildings and pavements, ,and to guarantee that housing and industrial structures can be adequately serviced with water, elec- trical and sewer facilities. As long as the legally constituted planning boards and civil servants stick to these prime motives, land use plans are worthwhile. The great danger, however, lies in the human tendency to wield new-found power for the sake of itself, at which • time common sense departs and in- justice creeps in. Within recent years the Ontario gOver- nment and its municipal board have made it extremely difficult to separate small parcels of land from larger farm tracts. Even though a farmer owns his own land and he has a buyer with the money to purchase a few acres for A Canadian Creed? Dick Dixon, Clinton Postmaster, has brought a very interesting tidbit to our attention and we think it appropriate to pass it along to our readers. It's a think piece from "Update," a publication put out for staff members by the Ontario Postal Region. Called "My Creed", it goes as follows: "I do not choose to be a common man.. It is my right to be an uncommon .man. if I can. I seek opportunity more than security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take recreational purposes, neither of them is free to consummate a contract without the sanction of authorities in Toronto. Although such a law infringes deeply on the personal rights of the individual it must be approved where there is danger that the public interest will or may be af- fected, Strip housing, groups of half. a dozen one-family residences, have become: a real problem in some rural areas, particularly closer to the large cities. The sale of farm lands fringing on the lakes to cottage owners has, over the years, all but excluded the less af- fluent citizen from access to sandy beaches along the Great Lakes. The farmer who sells off slices of his land to small property owners is a problem which might become troublesome in a few year's time. However, a new phenomenon of even more serious proportions arises because of the restrictive nature of the legislation. The city man who craves a spot in the open countryside and is not short of funds can buy one or two hun- dred acres and simply neglect the big portion of his holdings while he luxuriates on the few acres which was all he wanted in the first place. Such uninterested owners of agricultural properties have driven a good many legitimate farmers out of some rural areas in a broad belt around Toronto, for example. _ Like all other laws which deeply affect the personal rights of the taxpayer, the rules for land ownership must be applied with a great degree of common sense or they will prove more objectionable than the ills they were formulated to erase. (from the Wingham Advance-Times) the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and succeed. I refuse to bargain incentive for dollars. I prefer the challenge of life and the thrill of fulfillment to the calm of Utopia. I will not trade my freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before my master nor bend to any threat.. It iemy heritage to stand'erect, proud, and unaffeid, tO act'and think for myself, enjoy the fruits of my creations, and face the world boldly, and say, this I have done. This I feel is what it means to be a Canadian." • They think Bill's a rich tourist "How are you making out on the new 'easier-than-it-looks' tax form, dear?" • THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1865 1924 Established 1881 Clinton News-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 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 NEWS-RCQRD, THURSDAY, APftig. 12, 1973 Any day now it will be cheaper to fly to Europe and back than it is to spend a couple of days in the city. Air fares are coming down as rapidly as city prices are taking off. This was borne home to me, as they say, during a recent brief visit to the Big Smoke. And I don't mean New York. Just an ordinary Canadian city in the true north, strong but far from free. Our relatives always .kindly invite us to stay with them, but we visit the bright lights so seldom that we throw caution to the wind, let ourselves go deliberately decadent, and plunge for the hotel room and all the extras. It used to be grand feeling: checking in at the hotel just like rich people; tossing the bell hop half a dollar as though you did it every day; walking into the luxurious room and turning up the heat and to hell with the fuel bill; picking up the phone to call room service; and loftily asking the Old Lady, "Wonder what the poor people are doing today?" But that semi-annual plunge is no longer into a warm bath of unaccustomed luxury and service. It's more like a dive off the town dock just after the ice has gone out of the bay. Not refreshing; just numbing. Things have changed. Now there's a car jockey to park your car. He can open the door with one hand and hold out the other like a professional beggar in Calcutta, Next is the doorman. If you have one small bag, he's right there, taking it from you with one hand, and holding .out the other. If you have four heavy bags, he's busy whistling up a cab for a blonde, You totter across the capacious lobby, and the bellhop relieves you of your bags just' before you collapse in front of the desk. There's one thing that hasn't changed: the, room clerk, He's as snotty as he was 20 years ago in every city and every country. You'd think he owned the place as he looks down his nose at your overcoat with the frayed cuffs and your big rub- ber boots which you wore from the country. And beware the poor in- nocent who doesn't have a reservation. He is the dessert for the meal of this particular type of hyena. Some day, when I am old enough and crotchety enough, and I haven't had any kicks for a long time, and I've driven a hundred miles, and a room clerk smirks at me, "Sorry, we haven't a thing," I'm going to pull a gun and shoot him right between his cold, mean little eyes. And I think a good lawyer, with an understanding jury, would get me off scot free. Next in the gauntlet is the bellboy. He doesn't lug your bags and sweat any more. He slings them onto a cart. Don't hand him, with a flourish, the old-time half-dollar. He's liable to hand it back, with a bigger flourish, and snarl, "Here, Mac, I think you need it more than I do." And he's probably right. He's no "boy." He's 38 years old and he owns three duplexes. Well, anyway, you've made it to the room. But don't check the room rates on the back of the door or you won't flop, you'll swoon. Holy Old Nelly! You must be in the wrong room, or they've given you the Trudeau suite. Shake your head, look around the room, make sure that lady isn't Margaret. Same old room you swear you paid $18.00 for last time. Same woman, and the price tag is $30.00. This is not the time to say, "Oh, well. In for a penny, in for a pound." You know what hap- pened to the pound. Your dollar is suffering the same shrinking sensations. Dazedly, you call room ser- vice, order some ice and if you're smart, you'll tell them you don't want it transported by air from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, (U.S.S.R.) even though it will take as long and cost as much. Don't order any glasses. They'll cost you more than a new pair at your favourite op- tometrist's. Drink out of your hands, as you did when you were a boy. -If your wife has a yen for something sweet when you get back from the theatre or whatever, don't call room ser- vice and order Frnch • pastry and coffee. Two sad little pieces of stale Christmas cake or something and a jug of coffee will set you back four bucks, plus tip. Take a chocolate bar with you instead. Don't go to the theatre in the first place. We took our daughter and her husband to a show. Four tickets, $48. New York wouldn't have the nerve. Don't eat out. Dinner for four, at a "moderate" restaurant, with one cocktail, can run from $25 to $50. Plus the inevitable you-know-what. The only result is a nagging feeling which may be either gastritis, or your pioneer an- cestors' ghosts haunting you in the stomach. - Final disillusion. I always spring for a shoe-shine. It seems a reasonable luxury, as it's one of the two or three times a year my brogues get a brush. Went for it this time. Halfway through, I realized the poor devil shining my shoes was retarded. I decided to help, in my small way. I had my quarter ready, but changed if for a fifty- cent piece. Gave it to him, feeling sort of warm inside. He pointed to a sign behind my head. It read, "Shoeshines, 50c." It was then I realized which of us was retarded, as I fished for another two bits. 10 YEARS AGO APRIL 11, 1963 Once again we Canadians have failed to come up with a decisive government, although there is still hope that the ser- vice vote to be counted on Mon- day will bring that about....If the rest of our countrymen were as consistent as those of us in Huron County, we could possibly eliminate such details as elections and for those Liberals who have shown their face around the riding, the question they are probably mumbling to themselves is....what do you have to do?....They've tried about every angle possible to replace venerable Elston Cardiff, but it has been of litte use.... Edgar Rathwell, gayfield, was elected president of Huron County Farmers' Union on Thursday night. He succeeds Ray Hanna. 15 YEARS AGO APRIL 10, 1958 Enumerators are already at work in the riding of Huron preparing the lists of eligible voters for the May 12 provin- cial by-election. Need for this by-election was brought about by the death of veteran member Thomas Pryde. Already four names have been put forward as possible Progressive Conser- vative Candidates. Both Dr, E.A. McMaster, Seaforth and Charles MacNaughton, Exeter seed and feed merchant have announced their intentions to accept the nomination if it is of- fered to them. William Dale, former reeve of Hullett Town- ship and George Feagan, for- mer reeve of Colborne Town- ship, both ex-wardens of Huron County are also rumoured to be potential candiates, There has been no report yet of activity by the Liberals of Huren, some awareness that sex ac- tivities were recognized by the adult world of authority as existing. It was bad, maybe, but it was real. If nothing else, the bare rudiments of a sex education might be picked up at home or at school through the dire war- nings and ponderous cautioning of your elders, in- cluding those who assured you you'd go crazy or stone cold dead if you fell in to temp- tation. As adults grew more enlightened, a rapid process during the post-war years, they discarded this Victorian role of preaching against sex and, in- stead, simply took no position whatever, on the assumption that this was the modern, in- tellient approach: The result was that what had been all strictures and censure became pretty much of a vacuum. The trouble with this was, and is, that nature abhors a vacuum, especially when filling it can make a fast buck. So we entered the era in which sex became a kind of marketable commodity and the child, as much as the adult, became the consumer. 25 YEARS AGO APRIL 8, 1948 Fred Parry has sold his Snack Bar to Mr. and Mrs. William Fleischauer who are operating the business, located on Huron Street near the main intersection. They have re- named the restaurant, "Ruby and Bill's Snack Bar". The largest fire to strike this district for a considerable time completely destroyed one of W.L. "Nick" Whyte's large hen houses in a blaze which lasted less than an hour Wednesday evening, together with about 6,000 laying hens, as well as equipment, causing a loss estimated by Mr, Whyte at $30,000. 40 YEARS AGO APRIL 13, 1933 A wet day dampened but failed to spoil Clinton's 28th Spring Stock Show, By great good luck the rain held up during the afternoon while the judging was taking place and the stock exhibit was of a very high order. J.M, Guardhouse, Weston, was again the judge of heavy horses while a former citizen, Dr. W.J.R. Fowler, Guelph, who certainly knows a good horse when he sees one, gave the decisions on light hor- ses. Some men were talking the other day about the length of time if was since the Clinton Spring Fair was started and one man expressed the opinion that it must be "well on to 20 years". Actually, this year's fair was the 28th. The first was held April 5, 1906 , and was reported a success, 55 YEARS AGO APRIL 10, 1918 The manager of Molson's Bank, H.R. Sharp and T. From itty-bitty moppets to puberty and beyond our kids today are exposed as they never have been before to commer, cialized • sex. The songs on their personal radio stations are slyly filled with suggestive meanings more often than not driven home by lads whoe public relations men establish them as sex symbols. The situations in motion pic- tures, the gossip in the movie and love magazines they read, the whole cockeyed mythology of the day is so rooted in physical love that no one is sur- prised any more when a small girl, admiring a small boy, in- nocently announces the ultimate accolade: "He's sexy." What' is wrong with this em- phasis in. the world of children is that it puts sex out of focus. It permits little or no in- telligent, responsible counter- balance from parent or school to get equal time, as it were, with the kind of accelerated sex instruction they get from the mass media. The real problem, in ,my view, is not so much in the precocious sex activities of youth. It is in what the social workers tell us is an appalling increase in recent years of abor- Mason who assisted him, had a busy morning on Saturday last whpn 32 young pigs were given out to the members of the Molson's Bank Pig Club. It would be hard to say which were the most excited, the children or the pigs. The Bank is supplying the pigs to the children at cost and will buy them back about October at the market price. The bank is to be commended for doing their bit to increase production. While handling express at the depot one day last week Henry Sloman took a tumble from a truck and splintered the bone in his left wrist, Although obliged to carry the wounded member in a sling, Henry is still holding down his job. J. Schoenhals has had a 50 h.p. electric motor placed in the flour mill, owing to the high cost of fuel. The connections are being made this week. 75 YEARS AGO APRIL 8, 1898 The arrangements for the celebration of the Queen's Bir- thday are progressing very favorably. J.P. Doherty has already secured several big at- tractions, such as balloon tions, unmarried teen-aged mothers and pathetic children shot-gunned into ridiculously early marriage by pregnancy. These statistics make it clear that the modern child does not know the score at all, that the compulsive forces that intrigue and tempt the normal child are not being met with the sort of mature advice or information that once, however negative, served as a guide or a brake. What is needed, of course, is a much more active role by parent and teacher in infor- ming children in the facts, the realities and--yes--the beauty of physical love, to give instruc- tion, to initiate free discussion on every aspectof sex, in- cluding contraception, so that it will not be left entirely to the merchants of lewdness. A child with that sort of background, as the Toronto psychologists have said, could not be harmed by pornograph in the selected, classic sense that I'm sure they had in mind- -that is, the library of ribald erotica, the Rabelaisian literature of love's delights-- and might find, indeed, an ef- fective antidote for the kind of insidious poison they absorb now in massive doses. ascension and aerial sword exercises, and is now negotiating for one of the best bands in the Province. Thomas McNeill has been employing some of his spare moments in trying to see how ' fine he can write, and he has certainly succeeded in putting a lot of matter within a small space. He has written out two lengthy addresses in full, on the face of a post card. The ad- dresses contain 2,126 words, in 64 lines, and are all legible to the naked eye. Mr. McNeill has also written the Lord's Prayer, quite legibly, in a space the size of the ordinary ten cent piece. Mr. J. Ransford, who spent the past week in New York, says that people in this country have no idea of the intensity of the war feeling that prevails there among all classes; go into a restaurant, hotel, street car or other public place, and nothing else is spol(en of, and to an out- sider, the amusing part of it is the . pompous and self- important way in which the Americans declare their ability to "whip anything under heaven." we get letters bear Editor; On behalf of the Women's Auxiliary to the Clinton Public Hospital I would once again like to thank the News-Record for the excellent coverage so. readily given to our, monthly meetings and any other func- tions which were held during the year. The work of the Auxiliary is always so clearly defined in the News-Record and it gives many people an insight into the ex- cellent work which is being carried out by the members on behalf of the patients and the hospital in general. Yours very_ truly Helen E. Shearing Corresponding Secretary, Women's Auxiliary to the Clinton Public Hospital Dear Editor: After reading March 29th issue of letters to the editor I am prompted to write again. II Pet. 2. verse 1 "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruc- tion. Verse 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways: by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of; V. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you; whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. V. 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; V. 10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presump- tuous are they. Selfwilled. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. V. 12 But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things that they un- derstand not: and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; V. 13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you: V. 14. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls; and heart they have exercised with covetous prac- tices; cursed children V. 17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. V. 18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through lusts of the flesh, through much wanton- ness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. V. 19 While they promise. them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. V. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. V. 22 But it is hap- pened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. W. Switzer Bayfield (Editor's note: All signed letters to the editor are always .welcomed, however, since the arguments over the meaning of the bible are as old as the bible itself, should future letters arrive discussing the tran- slation or meaning of the bible and using extensive quotes, we will find it necessary to ask those writers to continue their discussion either through private correspondence or in a meeting somewhere.) The child's view I would like to read the full text by that Toronto committee of child psychologists, so briefly reported in the papers, before seconding the ,motion. A sampling of pornographic literature doesn't do a healthy child any harm--that, in essence, appears to be the con- clusion of this group of experts. The only thing that surprised me about that point of view, allowing for the brevity of CP's report, is that they didn't make it stronger by suggesting that some selected reading of that sort might, in fact, do a whale of a lot of positive good. I daresay that if the full report were available it would show that these men and women are disturbed, as ,I am, at the overProteCtie aVittide' of, thege • tirnee'i hy jiarents, an'd the' piiblighers 'Or juvenile"' literature. They all seem determined to pussy-foot around the subject of sex. In doing so, they complete a conspiracy of silence that must be both confounding and harmful to any child who has put aside his alphabetical blocks to speculate on other pursuits. It used to be that the climate of prudery and stern Christian morality gave a child at least