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Clinton News-Record, 1974-10-24, Page 4Newspapers that once ran daily editions, saloons that closed only on Sundays, churches that were once filled to capacity - many are now boarded up but they never fail to move visitors, giving them an inkling of the glamorous "Days of '98" in the Klondike, Each year an in- creasing number of tourists enter the Yukon and head for the "City of Gold" to walk its wooden sidewalks, try their luck in Diamond Tooth Gertie's gambling hall, applaud the can- can girls or pan the gravel of "the creeks". Dawson City. Klondike, Yukon - all were magic words at the turn of the century. They have not lost that magic. From our early files . • • • • • • V. Arhafkornaled 1924 THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1881 4111111 11. THE CONTON NEW ERA Established. 18(35 Matobart Canadian Community Nottfileseor Aitoottatitm Maghbart Offlarto Wieky fwelitiaar Maealailan Ail'IVS PAP( Pubilahad *very thuriday at Clinton,. Ontario .00001101;\ 44/ E Ge diter Jame. E. Fitzgerild jt,/ neral Aflariager, Vr J. Howard Aitken ' ,3 $,-/r Hue OP NOON coutns' suattaiatioN CANAIM 110.00 (LOA. $11a0 sissi.s COPY ,tse -THE HOW Of MADAM IN tANA0A" Seeded Class Mall registration no. 0011 Jack Scott Column Lost 'room We .pay such a terrible price for progress don't we? The new trains, for instance. You'll have read a good deal I expect, about the new equipment, the speedier schedules. As I write this now„ aboard one of them,. "the Dominion," pilling ;westbound from Regina, I'm 'hound to say there's Nast .,,provement all around. But I knew, almost as soon as I'd swung aboard, that something was missing. When I wearied of the scenery and decided to make my way to the smoking room it came to 'me suddenly what it was that had gone. The smoking room, itself! Swept away by progress! Outmoded! A thing Of the cherished past! Gone! , 'I approached one of those grizzled, stern-faced, absolutely dependable types you seem to find only on railroads. He, him- self, looked a little odd in the familiar old shiny blue serge with the brass buttons, so out of character now in ' these sleek aluminum cars with their pastel interiors. "No smoking room?" I bleated. "Two cars to the rear for the lounge," he said. The disgust in his voice was barely disguised, "The lounge," he said, "and the ladies." We shook our heads sadly at the death of a great Canadian institution. Well, you know how it used to be. The smoking room was the last of the all male retreats. They've wormed their way into Our saloons, our barber shops, our bowling alleys, our poker games, indeed every place that was once sacred to masculinity. Now, this. The smoking room was not merely a convenience and a • pleasant hideaway. It was a way of life, the last frontier of the brass spitoon and good, strong, man-to-man walk. God .knows how much the country depended on it to keep on an even keel for in there, in that atmosphere of tobacco smoke and dark varnish and the faint, astringent fragrance of after- shave lotion and the country rolling by outside the window (arid in reverse in the big mirrors over the washbasins) the men of Canada soberly debated the sweep of destiny. The price of wheat, the cost of living, the inadequacy of pen- sions, the record of governments, the advisability of increased immigration - well, you could name any subject under the sun. Sooner or later it was hound to come up. The smoking room brought out the statesman in a man and, oftentimes, too, the philosopher in him. A man standing in his undershirt swaying at the wash basin might turn around and, using his razor for gestures, would speak at great length about the decline of moral values or faith healing or the effect of atom bomb testing on. the weather in Prince Albert and the others would nod approvingly. Sometimes the conductor himself would honor the little gathering With his vast wisdom, expressed so laconically that everyone would lean forward, straining to catch his words, although he might .only be talking of the record snowfall in Swift Current' in 1836, You won't hear that kind of talk in the lounge with the ladies. Let's face it. The ladies cut a man down to size. By just being there they destroy the old smoking room illusion of being raconteur, historian, prophet, wit. Certainly their presence has ended forever the symposiums on the strange Ways and working of womankind: HoW the boys of today are going to learn about these things without the liberal education once available by sitting very quietly in a cor- ner of the leather smoking room seat while the travelling salesmen spun their yarns, I do not know. I expect the travelling salesmen, thus deprived of ,a captive audience, have all taken to air travel. The great smoking room stories have faded into murky legends. Another tradition has gone. Synod meets Monday The 101st meeting of. the Synod of Hamilton and London of the Presbyterian Church in Canada will be held in Drum- mond Hill Presbyterian Church, Niagara Palls, Ontario, commencing at 2 p.m, Monday, October 28, First business will be the election of a new Synod Moderator to succeed Rev. Pred A, Miller, who was chosen last year when the court met in his Church in Owen Sound, A new concept in the relationship bet, wee; Huron County Children's Aid Society and the public forms part Of the appeal of the local Society during' Children's Aid Week which closes this Coming, Sunday. It concerns teenagers and especially, teenage girls., in noting significant changes in ser- vice trends, OA. Heath, local director, states that the Society Presently would like to recruit one or two homes 'in the county which would be developed into small group settings of up to four teenagers 'each, the immediate need being, homes for teenaged girls. Mr. Heath feels that a small group setting of- ten is the only answer for youngsters who cannot accept the resentment they feel in exchanging their own parents for foster parents. Such children often reject both the values and kindness of traditional foster parents, Their anger with their own parents for Residents of the area and of the County of Huron as a whole are greatly indebted to Huron County Board of Education for arranging to provide needed information on the Metric System which will ultimately be adopted in Canada. An attempt in this direction is through the 'presentation of -a series of night school classes to assist the public in understanding the reasons for conver- sion to this system. An introduction to some of the =St commonly used metric measurements will be offered, with first sessions to be held, without, admission charge at 8 p.m. as follows: Tuesday, October 29--Central Huron Secondary School, Clinton Tuesday, October 29--South Huron District High School, Exeter. Wednesday, October 30-Goderich District High School, Goderich. Wednesday, October 30-F.E. -Madill Secondary SchoCI, Wingham. THE NEWS RECORD would like to of- fer hearty congratulations and thanks to the County Board for looking ahead in this way, and would trust that these preliminary classes within the next .week, Huron County' Board of Education points out that the metric system is the accepted system of measurement in more than 90 percent otoe countries of the world today. was beg-un in France', , during the Frencli Revolution. lii 1-790 a committee was appointed to establish a rational system of measurement to replace the many then in use and to overcome the lack of uniformity. From this committee the metre, litre, and gram came into existence. The metre was defined as one ten-millionth of the distance ,from the North Pole to the equator, the gram was the mass of a cubic centimetre of water and the litre . allegedly letting them down" affects all their relationships with adults. It is symptomatic 0' the times that although there has been a ,decrease of younger children in care and infants on adoption by the Society, the proportion of teenagers in care, compared with all other age groups has continued to rise to close to 50 per cent from a 30 percent average in 1969-- a very significant statistic, The Huron CAS, as well as others throughout Ontario, does not have the resources available to cope with the demands placed on the Society and its traditional foster care resources. Mr, Heath expresses satisfaction that, for- tunately, most of its foster ,homes have "stuck with us" during the time period when older children have been coming into care, but there has been no expan- sion of foster care resources to meet the demand. was a cubic decimetre. The use of the metric system• was made legal in USA in 1866, in Canada in • 1873 and-In Britain in 1897., However, all of these 'countries continued to use the imperial system until, very. recently. In 1970 the Federal Government of Canada issued a White Paper which declared "that adoption Of the metric system of measurement is ultimately inevitable - and desirable - for Canada" and concluded the' "the eventual adop- tion of the Metric system should be an objective of Canadian policy". In 1971; S.M. Gossage was appointed Chairman of, the Metric Commission in Ottawa which now has about fifty full-time mem- bers who are planning the co-ordination of metric conversion, The years 1977 and '78 are expected.to see the peak in industrial metrication. Conversion is likely to be completed in Canada by the end of 1980 except for a few long-term projects. • The Board of Education feels that if our teachers begin to introduce metric measurement to their classes now, 'then the complete conversion to the system will be more easily accomplished. Terms such as metre, litre, gram, hectare, , degree Celsius, newton, joule, and pascal will become as common as yard, pound, acre, etc. are at present., "IN& drove, ki10fer*,tAni holidays. . "Clinton to Goderich is 19 kilometres." "I would like half a kilogram of grapes, please." "He owns a 40 hectare farm in Morris Township." "This dress took 2.5 metres of crimplene, I used the 120' centimetres width material." "Tomorrow's going to be a scorcher. The weatherman says it will hit 35." you say? There's one law for the rich and one for the poor? Nonsense. It's the same law. The only difference is in the amount you steal, and the lawyers you can afford. If you steal big, and can afford a battery of lawyers, you get a light sen- tence. If you steal small, and try to defend your- self,' you get the works, We have equality of opportunity, Ask any of our people. Just ask a Metis or an Eskimo if he doesn't have the same opportunity as the white boy who has to fight his way through Up- per . Canada College, Trinity College, and Osgoode Hall law school. He'll tell you. Just be sure he doesn't have a beer bottle in his hand when you ask him. • - And we have peace in our land. Oh, there's the odd little fluster. Like the Mackenzie rebellion in Ontario and the Papineati rebellion in Quebec and the Riel rebellion in the west and some kook trying to put a half-nelson on the Russian head of state in Ottawa and a rabble of native people attacking the mounties in the same "place. But these are just' trouble-makers. Right? There's no queStion about it. In this glorious nation of ours, everybody is equal, The only rub is that, Ss George Orwell put it, some are more equal than others, Well, those are just a few of the things for which we should give thanks, Then there are all the mote tangible things. We have more oil and gas than we need, but by George, we've made sure the price is right, and thoseenergy- squandering Yanks can go cold and use 'candies, We have some of the finest wheat in the world coming out our ears, even though we don't seem to be able to get it into the boxcars and onto the ships to feed the hungry of the Third World. And how many nations in the world can brag that they have the Second-best hockey team in the world? That's part of our national heritage and I think we should all give thanks for it. There's only one rub in this glowing picture. Our inflation rate, believe it or not, isn't soaring quite as rapidly ea Some of the other countries in the *teat But don't worry about it, Airong them, our politicians, business leaders and union bosses will soon have that sorted, but, and we'll be up there with the best of them. Be honest mivv. Where 'would you rather live? In Europe, with all those people and pollution and culture and stuff? In the U.S., Where the Great gxorgisen it§ not taking piece'? In Australia, fall of Australians? ?Ain 4,-CLINTON NEWS AWED,. TfftIliSriok.Y, OOTOOFft :24, 1974 Ao Appeal in behalf of the teenagers coolleii meet irigs Dear Editor, The taxpayers of Clinton should be interested to, know that the special council meeting held this past Monday at 0:00 p.m. cost them $210 in salaries to Councillors, in addition to administrative costs. For every open meeting each councillor receives $25 (the Mayor $35), whether the meeting lasts five minutes or five hours. Monday's meeting was called solely for the purpose of dismissing Don McDonell as a constable, Council' could have passed this motion at the previous Tuesday's regular monthly .open meeting. Not only were they asked to do so on more than one oc- casion from the floor, but since they adjourned that open meeting to a committee of the whole before reconvening the same evening to open session to pass other motions, they had ample opportunity to consult the Municipal Act or the Police Act (I am sure they keep copies of these available). "They also had time to ask ad- vice of other individuals with sufficient knowledge and ex- perience as to proper legal procedure, notwithstanding the fact that the town's lawyer was then out, of town. Let the facts speak for them- selves. Yours very truly, Helen R. Tench, Public Accountant, Clinton. A Stop and give thanks I'd planned to write a column about Thanksgiving Day this year but the days went shooting by and suddenly it was past. However, I was undaunted, As the preachers and writers tell us every Christmas, there is no reason that peace on earth and goodwill toward men should be confined to a single day. Nor is .there any reason that we should give, thanks only on the second Monday in.October. So here goes, Did you stop and give thanks on that day? Or. did you just enjoy the long weekend, stuff your- self with turkey, and slump in front of the box to watch football? I hope you did better than that: at least went for a drive and gorged yourself on the fall panorama of colour, reason enough in it- self for a deep and fervent thanks. j started to think of all the things we Canadians have to be thankful for, and the list seemed to be endless. First of all, we should be grateful to be living in Canada, no matter how we squawk at income tax time, and gripe about the weather. Without getting misty-eyed or waving a flag about it, this is a grand country, Our society is far from perfect, and there are injustices, and we are often badly served by our leaders, and, yes, the Americans own too much of us. But, these things are more than offset when we start piling things on the other side of the scale. What are some of the goodies? Well, first, there are the intangibles, There are very few places in this country where a person is afraid to walk alone, even at night. We have lots of air, some of it hot, some of it polluted, but most of it clear and clean. Nobody is literally starving in this country, though the old-age pensioners would give you an argument there. Nobody lives in fear of the boots in the hall, the pounding on the door, the secret police. Our only secret police are the mounties, and every time they try something secret, the papers find out, and spread it all over the front pages, chortling. To continue the list, we have equality of speech, liven the Prime Minister can Sweat in public plebe, such as the House of Centrnons, and get away with it. We have equality of welfare benefits. The old lady with $600,000 salted away in bonds gets,the settle old-age pension as the aid lady who has two herring salted away, What eoulld be more equal than that? We have equality hetetef the htic What's that Board provides valuable service Sugar and' Spice/By Bill Smiley a Centennial project for Clin- ton by Town Council. It would have a regulation size ice area 180 by 80 feet, dressing rooms and stands to accommodate 800 persons with standing room for up to 400 more. The Federal Building will cpntain quarters for the Post Office Department and the Department of National Revenue. The contractor said he hoped to break ground on the project within two weeks, with completion within one year. Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hamilton, Auburn, entertained neigh- bours to a smorgasbord dinner in honour of Mr. and Mrs. Gdorge Haggitt who moved to Zurich. William Straughan, Auburn doesn't have a mammoth or- chard ., in fact its just his back yard: But his orchard yields far more fruit than is grown on the same number of trees in an or- dinary orchard. One of his ap- ple trees produces five varieties of apples and a pear tree delivers five different varieties of pears. 25 YEARS AGO NOv. 3, 1949 At long laSt, the new Bayfield Bridge, over the Bayfield River on the Bluewater Highway is open for traffic. It is three years since the, programme commenced to construct the modern 200 foot 10 YEARS AGO $100,000 structure. -tifarlieet,"pulling and the A new arena, estimated to harvesting of turnips are the cost $160,000 was approved as order of the.day. Although the supply of home-grown turnips ' is much- smaller than in previous years. There are a number of fields of good quality turnips., Art Groves, well known local electrician, is the first person in town to have a television set in operation. He installed a table model at his home at Princess and Orange Sts. a few daysago, and it is giving reasonably good reception, which he expects to improve with the installation of a longer aerial. Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Lupul, well known residents of Seaforth, observed their 15th wedding anniversary at their home by entertaining at a din- ner party for friends and neigh- bours. 50 YEARS AGO ,Nov. 7, 1924 Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Coates have taken the apartment over Counter's Jewellery store. Mr. Ramras has moved from Albert St. to "The Wigwam", Huron St,,'the old Mountcastle home. Mr. and Mrs. John Aitken have insured the house recently vacated by Mrs. Long. 'This week the Bank of Mon- treal purchased the Molson's Bank, although the actual tran- shy will not take place until ;January 1. The sale, in no way will affect the local staff and H.R Sharpe will continue as manager. Murphy Lodge celebrated Israel Taylor, who has for some time conducted a shoe store in Clinton, has decided to retire from the retail business to engage in the manufacture of the same line of goods at Bram- pton where he will become a rnember of the Williams Com- pany. A. Brown, who purchased Mr. McGregor place in Bran- don-Hullett had a plowing bee which was quite successful, as the day was fine and about twenty neighbours turned out to help him. Mrs. Boie has taken up her abode in her dwelling on Station Street, Clinton, and is having the place improved. J.P. Tisdall is also having im- provement made around his residence. , Work is progressing on the Bayfield pier in spite of the fact that the timber comes rather slowly. However, it is expected the work will .be nearly com- pleted this fall. Harvey Fisher, late of the Hotel Clarendon staff, and Dick Grigg, have gone into win- ter quarters in the big Colborne swamp where they will shoot and trap until spring. :Guy fkix,. day 1,4 enjoyini, a .duck Auppei, This , was party and only members were present. George ;Jenkins purchased a number of feeder cattle when he was in the West recently. And they have now arrived in here. 75 YEARS AGO Nov. 2, 1899