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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1974-06-13, Page 4Editorial Comment The benevolent provider Possibly as many as 25 Percent of all Ontario or Quebec farmers cannot make a decent living off their land the United Church says. Let's look at a typical farmer on a 150- acre farm between Peterborough and Port Hope. This is a century farm and he is the fourth generation to work it. Up until five years ago, he would have had trouble getting $30,000 for the acreage and all the buildings on it --- a pitiful record for years and generations of saving and scratching. He buys approximately 50 young heifers at an average price of $200 and will try to sell them as springers (near calving) in 16 to 18 months. Two or three of the animals will have died by then, some others won't get in calf and yet others will not thrive. At any rate, he will. have difficulties realizing $400 for the animals he sells, even at the present firm market. FroM this maximum gross profit of $9,500 or so, he will have to take off as much as $4,500 for high protein feed which is not grown on his fields, seed, fertilizer, minerals, salt, fuel for the trac- tor, wear and tear plus repairs on equip- ment, casual labor during haying and crop time. .There will have to be some custom work done; taxes, interest, finance charges on car, truck and equip:-• , ment. All in all, in good times, he may net $5,000 for more than a year's work. Being an ambitious man with a young family to raise and educate, he also works full time at an outside job, His day begind in the barn at 6 a.m., he returns there after work and usually comes into • the house 'at 9 or later, Why does our friend do it? No one really knows except that he may not stick with it much longer because people from the city keep offering more money for his land, and one day when he is more tired than usual and, the offer is high enough, he will decide to sell. Another farmer in the same circum- stances but living in the Temiscamingue area of Quebec is not so fortunate since he has had his 'farm listed for more than a year at $10,000 asked, without an offer. . Canadians have paid a lower percen- tage of their income for food than any other nation, but this era is over. From now on, either directly or through sub- sidies, the consumer will have to pay more for his fare. The farmer has resigned from his role as the benevolent provider for Canada's gigantic barbecue. Rehabilitating rehabilitation Everyone agrees that Canadian prisons do not reform nor do they rehabilitate. Those who do benefit from the present system are judges, lawyers, wardens, guards, civil servants working in the departments of correction, the police and the plethora of social workers in and out of the jailhouse walls. It is time we quit sending our lawbreakers .to a finishing school for criminals which our prisons have proven themselves time and time again to be. Let's keep them in the community. Surely the real function of judges, lawyers and police should be to save people .from, jail. Maybe we should depend less -on the adversary system and experiment, except in .cases of violence, with a procedure similar to the one successfully applied in family courts. The only way to teach anyone to behave as a responsible member of the group is to keep him in the group. Supervision for varying periods of time, according to the nature of the crime, would allow a more wholesome adjust- ment to society than a session behind bars. Such a scheme would make greater demands on the community and could not succeed without the support and help of all citizens and institutions. It is time to recognize that the wrongdoer. has needs which are not being met. Rather than jail ... which tends to worsen his maladjustment ... he needs to, feel that he is respected. He should be forced to take a trade for which he is suited, given psychiatric help where it is warranted, and guided to a more interesting and rewarding life. Society wants to be protected against violence. But the truly violent make up only a fraction of those serving jail sen- tences. The really dangerous ones could be held in about two good sized prisons - one in the east and one in the west. Highly trained professionals could staff these institutions where inmates would stay for as long as it takes for them to change. Let's keep our problem , people at home with their families. Let's help them to work out their problems just as Childrert's Aid Societies help families with their problems. Let's see that we provide creative work for them to do so that they can pay taxes and generally become good citizens. With supportive help they will realize that it is easier to conform than to swim against the current. The medieval system of jails has failed.. So let's try something else. (from the United Church) Sugar and SpicC/By Bill Smiley Exposed navels and my bad back The Jack Scott Column - 0111 MI •• "Sorry fellas, your kettle's been recalled." Best of times Disgusted From our early files • 0 • • • • 0 4—CLINTON NEWS-RECORD, THURSDAY. JUNE 13, 1974 Every year I look forward eagerly to the last part of May and the first part of June. Once again the world is green, the days are longer, it is no longer brass monkey weather, the trout season is open, the golf links beckon. Best of all, end of term is nearing, holidays looming, and I'll be able to forget those juvenile friends for two golden months, What more could a man want? And yet, every year at this time I am frustrated as a frog who thinks he's a butter- fly. There are a number of villains in this particular tragedy, Meetings proliferate. Every time I should be listening to the solid crack of a drive or the lovely clunk of a golf ball going into the cup, I seem to be sitting at a meeting, listening to some utterly inane suggestion that yet another committee be formed to look into nothing or other, Warm weather? Yeah, that's nice. But it makes the students toltish,ito say the least. And in these days of permissive school dress, it can be totally con. fusiftg, There you are, trying to teach the elements of a unified, coherent, and emphatic paragraph. And spraWled right in front of you is a young woman, physically, at least, veritable Daisy Mae, in a backless, bra-less ,halter and a pair of shorts so short and 'so tight they look as though they've been put on with a paint roller. Blank-eyed, she is completely lost to the beauties of com- munication via the printed word. Her thoughts are fixed on a different kind of com- munication, the kind she's going to share with Joe, when he picks her up after supper. The only part of her that is paying any attention whatever to her English teacher is her exposed navel, which stares at you unwinkingly. End of term approaching? Great, But what is this vast pile of paper beside my desk? Three sets of term tests, two sets of creative writing, two sets of fresh endings for a play. I've tried staring at them malevolently. I've tried spilling coffee on them. I tried dumping the ashtray on them, acciden- tally. But they merely smouldered, like me. They won't go away, They have to be marked. Not conductive to trout fishing. Well, you'll say, these are minor things. If Smiley was organized, he could cope with these irritations, and still enjoy his late spring, True, But I haven't in- troduced you to the real beast ,on the roster. This is the estate, Every fall, I get the place cleaned up. Last fall we put out ninety plastic bags ()f leaves. got a guy to put on the storm windows, not because Pm lazy, or can afford it, but because I'm too chicken to climb a forty-foot ladder, with a forty. pound window, in a forty-mile wind. And this spring we've put out alroady forty hags of leaves, loft over from last fall, plus another twenty bags of acorns and twigs 'and. there are still thirty bags stacked against the side of the house. I simply haven't time to do this work. Besides, I have this bad back, which gets sore every spring, 'for some reason. It's almost impossible to hire kids to do the work. They want more than it would have cost me to have somebody rubbed out, in the Chicago of the 1920's. , So this spring, the Old Bat- tleaxe, urged on by friends and me, took a whack at it. Her previous help with the "yard" has been confined to, "Bill, when are you going, to get this place cleaned up? What will the neighbours think?" I'd hate to tell you what I tell her the neighbours can think, if they want to, Anyway, after about five days of raking and stuffing bags, she burst out with, "Dearie me, Bill," (or words to that effect), "this isn't a backyard. It's THE LAND," -She felt like a pioneer, trying to clear enotigh to live on. I had rid myself of my old power mower, in a fit of gentle rage, when I couldn't start it, You can't, hire a kid with a ' power mower. So I bought a new one, I got one of my students to run it, only by threatening that I'd fail his year if he didn't. The lawn is tut, There are only eight flower-beds left to rake and dig. And the storm windows are still on, This is the time of the year when it would be very nice to be 12 again. That is the age of the boy and girl who get a lift with me i most mornings and probably would be very stir- " prised indeed to know how much I envy them. There have been tests each day this week, it seems, and the summer holidays are just across the horizon and—oh!--to be involved once more in that sweet conflict! Whenever I drop them off at the school I find myself brooding all the way to my of- fice, remembering the agony of those last weeks and the wild, exultant anticipation a thin -layer below the ,,ageny.,p1,9thittg in. the, adult years, not 'everi'l,e final date with the dentist, cin equal that experience. Do you remember the long, shiny piece of foolscap paper and the mimeographed questions Miss Fowler passed out, walking solemnly from desk to desk? And the windows in the room wide so that you could almost taste the soft air of the early summer outside, patiently waiting for you? And that bright, insufferable 10 YEARS AGO June 11, 1964 Miss Marilyn Rathwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Rathwell of RR 2 Bayfield, recently graduated from a two-year home- economics course at Ryerson , Institute of Technology. Toronto. The Village of Bayfield has its own weekly newspaper as of this week - its first since 1895. The Bayfield Bulletin, printed at the Clinton News4tecord is edited and published by veteran newspaperman Art Elliott, Mr. and Mrs. Lorne Lawsons celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. Over 200 friends, neighbours and relatives gathered in the Londesboro Hall to spend the night dancing to Clarence Petrie and His Night Hawks, Mr. Grant Snell, RR 1 Lon- desboro has financially "adop- ted' Anthimos. Gioulis a -seven-year-old Greek boy through Foster Parents' Plan Montreal. Pamela Fisher, 15, was the lucky winner in the Tuckey Beverages, Exeter, contest which has been going on in this area since April 13, The first prize was all the goodies she could cram into shopping carts within three minutes, Before the whistle blew she had gathered $164.60 worth of groceries. Mr. and Mrs. William Talbot, Bayfield celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on Saturday et the Wildwood "restaurant. 25 YEARS AGO June 9, 1949 Huron County's tax rate was set at eight mills, art increase of two mills over last year, by county council meeting at schnook who always turned in his paper while you were still on the fourth question—the one asking you to name four literary greats of the Victorian Period? And the awful hush in the room, so oiiiet that the birds outside seemed to be shouting at the top of their voices and you found, with a shudder, that you could think of nothing but taking flight? That was fine country we were passing through. Two months of summer seemed forever, an eternity of freedom, when that great day came at last and you fled from the building with the report card—"Passed On 'Trial"---your passport to a happier 'plece. I remember spending several years one summer in the "el" behind the "bath house", as we called it then, of a certain beach. We would ride along Corn- wall Street on our bikes with stiff cardboard attached to the frame, by clothes pegs so that it made a splendid ratchet rhythm on the spokes. There'd always be a point about a block ‘ away from the beach when you'd first hear the babble of Goderich Tuesday afternoon in the regular June session. The drought which had plagued this district and a large portion of Ontario for nearly a month, came to an end. Tuesday evening with an electrical storm which cut off electric power for several hours, and which provided much-needed moisture for dying pasture and shrivelling crops. Congratulations to Donald Palmer, Holmesville, who was successful in passing his third year at Dental College with honors. Mr. and Mrs. Bert Gibbings were in Toronto on Friday last and attended the graduation exercises of the University of Toronto when their nephew, Robert Jervis, received his Bachelor of Arts degree. , The weather has been changeable lately. It has jum- ped from several degrees of frost early Wednesday morning to almost ninety in the shade at the end of the week. Some gar- dens have been damaged yet others never touched. A crowd of between 8,000 and 9,000 attended one of the finest Air Force Days ever put on. They came from all over Western Ontario for the day, 50 YEARS AGO June 19, 1924 Clinton decisively trounced Winghani in a baseball game here on Monday, Dr. J.C., Orandier, Mrs. W. Manning and Mrs. 4, Mason waiting on Huron County Council and were able to have the grant to -Clinton Public. Hospital substantially in- creased, Amos Castle has sold his house on Victoria St. to -1.4. Campbell, Fred G, Thompson has tom. plated his course in medicine at the University of Western On, the crowd and, louder, the shouts from the kids in the water. Then you'd stand up to pump. We used to lie in circles on our bellies in the fine, dusty sand, chin on hands, and play "Car." "Thinkin' of a car starts with "Stutz? Studebaker? Stanley Steamer? Singer?" "Yeah, Singer." (It was always the last one because, naturally, everyone cheated.) There were players there who couldn't remember the names of Tennyson, Browning, Arnold or Thackeray more than a minute and a half, but could recite the names of every automobile' -ever ''made, eluding the Grey Dort. We would draw our initials in spit on our skinny, tanned arms, sprinkle it with sand and shake our arms and the initial would be there until it dried grey in the sun. There are two smells that still take me back to that plot of sand. One is the pleasant smell of cocoa-butter which some of the lighter-skinned of the escaped convicts rubbed on tario, London. He will be senior intern at Victoria Hospital, London. Dr. J.W. Shaw has been in Ottawa attending a medical convention. The choir of Ontario St. Church presented B. Potter with a set of military brushes prior to his departure from town. He and Marion Gibbings sang a very lovely duet and Dr. F,G, Thomson sang a solo at the evening service. Mr. and Mrs. A.T. Cooper and J.A. Irwin have been elec- ted to the executive of Huron County Temperance Federation. Exeter has installed an elec- tric bell ringer for the fire alarm and many who have heard it think it would be an excellent thing for Clinton to adopt. Ernie Walton is visiting his sister, Mrs, Fraser of Windsor. 75 YEARS AGO June 15, 1899 J. and McL. Fair sold to Mr. THE CLINTON NEW EsUiblishml 1865 ANA laimtbdt, Canadian Community Natspapoor Pumotiation to keep from being burned to a crisp, The other was the fragrance of fish and chips. You Could get a paper plate filled with lovely, greasy chips for a nickel and a great crusty hunk of crisp-fried fish for another, and I can remember standing at the counter (the cement floor cold on the bare feet, the counter wet and aromatic with spilled vinegar) and hearing the hiss of the chips going into the fat.' And then to come out again into the hot sun, sinking your teeth ten- tatively into the first hot railway tie of fried potato. Looking back on it now, the sun. not only seemed to shine more brightly, but, time itself was a different commodity, the days stretching long and slow as if they were reluctant to leave. The autumn and the shadow of the school and Miss Fowler (or, no, now it would be Miss Carmichael) never came between you and the sun until that day when—it seemed un- believable—you faced the final week. Yes, it would be nice to be twelve again, to be twelve again for just two months. , 0 S.A. Smith and shipped yester- day fifty eight head of prime ex- port cattle which weighed 78,890 pounds. At five cents a pound, it can be seen at a glance that the Messrs. Fair realized a good round sum. Mrs. .John Riley has pur- chased the old Saint John property on the 4th-concession. He will use it as a stock farm. Mrs. Dr. Bryant, children and maid have arrived from their home at St. Louis and are now at their pretty lakeside residence on Essex Street in Goderich, Mr, Aikenhead has discon- tinued the culture of bees since Dr. Aikenhead removed to one of the Carolinas. The winters are so severe the old gentleman gave them up. Mr. and Mrs. Tebbutt left on Tuesday to visit relatives in Kingston, Gananoque and Toronto. G. Duncan McLean's old Bell house at the Kippen Mills is being repaired for the first, time since it was built in 1835. Dear Editor: I am thoroughly disgusted' with the response of this com- munity to the pre-school playground, Creative Won- derland, proposed for this sum- mer. For the past two weeks there has been a. notice in this paper announcing the registration dates for the program. Many people showed interest in the playground earlier but the number of people who respon- ded on the registration days clearly shows that any interest has disappeared. We have enough staff and equipment for 150 children. During the two registration days there was .a grand total of 30 children registered. Unless more children are registered the program will be cancelled. The first five girls have done' a lot of hard work in preparing for the playground. The plan- ning has been going on since January. That is a lot of work to throw out the window but we will have to if the response does not improve. This pre-school playground is sponsored by the federal gover- nment, consequently it costs the parents of • pre-schoolers nothing to send their children. Therefore there is no excuse for the small number of children registered. By Monday June 17, if there are not close to 150 children registered there will be NO program. We will try to hold another registration on Saturday, June 15, from 9-12 a.m. and 1-4 p.m. at the arena. If there is no response during the morning we will not hold it in the after- noon. Yours truly, Donna Duns Lee more Nola Marilyn Holmes Marilyn Cleave Winnifred Bradley Photos Dear Editor, The 'Huron Historic .Jail Board is busy preparing for its first season. Part of this preparation in- cludes putting together a display of the works of the for- mer Goderich photographer, Mr. R. Sallows. If any reader happens to have any of Mr. Sallow's photos in his possession, we would appreciate it very much if they would allow one of our members to come to their home to photograph their original in order that a copy can be used in this display. Kindly phone me at 524-9924 or write to me at the address below if you can help—it will be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Joan Van den Broeck, 175 Wellington St.. S., Goderich, Ontario. liewe-llsoord readers sie en- couraged to express their opinions In letters to the editor, however, such opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions al the terws-Ilsoord. Pseudonym* may be used by letter writers. but no letter wile be published unless It can be verified by owns. VIAIRMINO THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1881 HUB CiP, HuOoti tOUNtY ERA Arnolomuted 1924 Published every Thursday at Clinton, Ontario Editor .v a enteral Manager, Howard Aitken Sitoild Class Mail reglettatian no. 01117 itOtSI or *AIMS IN CarAtis- alitst60, *Made Wog* wet Atiattalati•it