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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1972-11-02, Page 11Modern Living, Modern Wiring , They're insepar- able. We're ex- perts at installing more power for. your home, farm or business. Mechanical Contractors HENSALL 262-2114 The Election Is Over! Hallowe'en Is Over! Christmas Will Be Here Before You Realize It! OUR CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN STARTS NOW Our store is full of the merchandise you will want to select for the man on your list. SHOP EARLY-LAY AWAY A small Deposit Will Hold Your Purchase Until Christmas Thanks for shopping at Len McKnight &Sons Ihe (11.1.1-k ma card MEN'S WEAR CUARGLX MAIN ST. EXETER 235-2320 Nominations Notice is hereby given to the Municipal Electors of the Town of Exeter County of Huron that in compliance with The Municipal Elections Act, 1972, chapter 95, the period for nominations in the said Town of Exeter is the period from Thursday, November 9, 1972 until Monday, November 13, 1972 at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, (being the period between the twenty-fifth and twenty-first days before polling day) for the purpose of nominating fit and proper persons for the office(s) of MAYOR REEVE DEPUTY-REEVE COUNCILLORS (6) PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION (2) of which all Electors are hereby required to take notice and govern themselves accordingly, and if a greater number of candidates than required to fill the said offices, are nominated and make the required declarations, polls will be opened on the dates stated below for the purposes of taking the poll from 11 o'clock in the forenoon until 8 o'clock in the afternoon. ADVANCE POLL — FIRST DAY Monday, November 27 (being seven days before polling day) ADVANCE POLL — SECOND DAY Saturday, December 2 (being two days before polling day) POLLING DAY Monday, December 4 at the same time, if necessary, elections will be held to elect two members to the Huron County Board of Education, to be elected by public school supporters, and one trustee to the Huron and Perth counties combined Roman Catholic separate school board, to be elected by separate school supporters, and one member to the Huron County Board of Education, to be elected by separate school supporters. Given under my hand this "23rd day of October 1972 E. H. CARSCADDEN Returning Officer SECOND SECTION EXETER, ONTARIO, NOVEMBER Z 1972 PAGES 1A to 12A Rising energy costs cause Ontario Hydro rate jump AFRICAN ART — Among many other things, Sandra Asen brought several souvenirs and examples of African art from Nigeria. Here she is holding a fan given to her by the Sultan of Sokoto, one of the few remaining sultans in the country. The vase on the left is actually made from a plant called a calabash. It grows on a vine like a large melon. Then it is hollowed out and the designs are burned into it. The curio in the centre is a very old bronze casting and is called • the Oba of Benin. The large statue on the right is carved from solid ebony., T-A photo. Returns to Exeter after • eight years in Nigeria Mrs. John Asen, the former Sandra Latour, Exeter, is home for the first time in eight years, and for the first time, her three oldest children are getting to see their mother's homeland, one which is very different from their own. For the past seven years Mrs. Asen and her Nigerian husband have lived in Nigeria, where Mr. Asen is a Major in the Nigerian 4 Air Force. Their four children, Jennifer, 6, Renee, 5, Jonathon, three and a half, and Lorraine, one and a half were all born there, and understandable find Canada"very strange". "I bought them an ice-cream cone and they wanted to know • what to do with the container (the cone)," said Mrs. Asen. They also find it very cold here and Jennifer in particular, finds mitts very strange. At home, they eat European, as well as Nigerian food, so they don't find that part of Canadian life too different, "Of' course we eat a lot of rice," said Mrs. Asen, "and our food is much spicier and we use a lot of pepper", She said that the food is prepared basically the same, One major difference is that they have to buy the meat fresh. "We have to buy live chickens, feathers and all," said Mrs. Asen. The Asens live at the Airforce Headquarters in Lagos, and the life in general is much different than in Canada. She said the thing that struck • her most forceably was how little Exeter has changed in the last, eight ye.ars. There are some new houses, and a few more in- dustries, but basically it is just the same as when I left, said Mrs. Asen. This is very unlike Nigeria, where things can and do change practically over night. "Nigeria is a country in a hurry," she said. "It is really coming ahead for a country just out of a civil war". New industries spring up every day, and things are just con- e stantly changing. More slowly, but surely, the class system is also changing. Mrs, Asen explained that in Nigeria, there is a very great difference between classes. "You are either very upper class or very lower class," she said. • 'Mere is no middle class". She said that the government was urging the development of a middle class, however, and was attempting to create middle income jobs. Because of her husband's position, Mrs, Asen is one of the upper class, She has a nanny for the children, as well as a cook and a steward. We just couldn't do this, even with a similar position, in Canada, she said. She added that being able to afford servants made her realize just how hard Canadian women work. "I just wouldn't think of getting up in the morning and scrubbing the floors," she said. She must, however, give all the instructions and make sure that her family's meals are planned at least one week in advance. It also means that she has much more leisure time than many Canadian women. The Asens live right on the ocean and every morning Mrs. Asen goes swimming in the Gulf of Guinea. She also belongs to several organizations including the Officers' Wives Association and the International Women's Club. The former caters mainly to the welfare of military wives and families. They donate money to orphanages and hold bazaars and pepper soup parties to raise money for their charities. The International Women's Club leans more toward the advancement of women and children, She said, however, that generally the educational system in Nigeria is very advanced, and that women have equal op- portunities. There are about five universities in the country, all open to women and it is very easy to get scholarships to attend the universities. Many students study abroad. Mrs. Asen also explained that in order to get a good job, or just about any job in Nigeria, you have to be very well educated. She said that because there are, as of yet, few lower class or in- dustrial jobs, there is great competition for the higher class jobs. Even for teaching, she explained, many don't stop with a B.A. but go on and get a Masters or Ph.D. English is the lingua franca or working language of the people and all educational instruction is in English. Mrs. Asen her self taught grade school for two years. Her children are fluent in three languages: English; Tiv, the language of her husband's tribe; and Hausa, the main language of West Africa. Another thing Mrs. Asen's position allows her is the privilege of travel. She has travelled extensively all over continental Europe and West Africa. It isn't unusual for her to take a short jaunt to England, or just about any other place she wishes, She has also been very actively A tax man asked if birth- control pills were deductible, replied, "Only if they don't work." concerned with welfare and rehabilitation since the end of the Biafran war. In fact, she was one of the first foreigners to get into Biafra when the war ended, with food and clothing supplies for the refugees. She said, "As in all wars, it is the poor who suffer", but em- phasized, that things were not as bad as they were made to seem. "Everything has been terribly distorted," she said. "I was there. I know. During the war, and since the end of the war, Nigeria has been completely misunderstood. It just didn't have enough propaganda on its side." She said that there has now been a complete reconciliation between Nigeria and the state of Biafra, and added that rehabilitation programs began the day the war ended. She said that Canadians have been doing an especially fine job in this respect, both in Biafra and Nigeria as a whole. "Canadians . are very well liked and are doing a great job," she said. "They project a very good image". She added that the Canadians she has met abroad are very nationalistic and plaster Canadian stickers all over everything. There are quite a few Canadians in Nigeria, with the embassies, and with the CUSO and CIDA programs, One of the particular areas of development in which Canadians have been very helpful is in electrical development and telecom- munications, "Canadians are well accepted because they are very friendly and very open," said Mrs. Asen. She said that there are ab- solutely no racial problems or discrimination in Nigeria, although being married to a Negro presented the same family problems there as it did here. She said her husband's family was as leery of their son marrying a white women as her family was of their daughter marrying a black man. But everything has worked out just fine, for both families. There are a few things she misses about Canada besides her family, such as snow at Christ- mas, and the convenience of packaged foods. "But I wouldn't like to come back," said Mrs. Asen. "Life in Nigeria is very exciting and rewarding, and I am going to stay there". Based on rising trends in energy costs, rate increases for all Ontario Hydro customers were announced today by Hydro Chairman George Gathercole, Interim wholesale rates to municipal commissions will rise by an average of 8 per cent, while the average increase to direct industrial customers will be 12 per cent. Both of these increases are effective January 1, 1973. To retail customers (cottages, farms and rural residences), the average increase is 10 per cent and is effective on bills payable February 5, 1973. There has been no increase in rates to Ontario Hydro direct industrial and rural customers in the last two years, whereas there was an increase of 8 per cent in the interim rates to municipal electric utilities effective last July 1. Mr. Gathercole cited inflation and resultant escalation in costs of equipment and supplies, in- terest rates, wages and salaries, fuels and anti-pollution measures as the causes for the raise. The Province's 350 municipal utilities, 91 large industrial customers served directly by On- tario Hyd) o and some 600,000 rural consumers are affected. Mr. Gathercole said the rate increases will not be sufficient alone to meet rising costs and that withdrawals will have to be made from the reserve fund. Generally speaking, this fund has been established to absorb the cost of such factors as variation in stream flows, major physical damage to plant, delays in bringing generating plants into service, and exchange risk on debts payable in foreign curren- cy. A year ago, Hydro advised its customers that in spite of inten- sive cost pressures, there would be a temporary deferment of a rate increase because of the state of the economy. With the im- provement in economic con- ditions, an interim increase of 8 per cent to municipal com- By GWYN WHILSMITH Junk is something you threw out two weeks ago which is now just the thing you need. Or better still: What's junk to the goose is gold to the gander. Have often wondered how many items get to the hospital rummage sale either by mistake or because of a hasty decision. Heard one year of a lady's brand new curling slacks somehow being put out with the rummage and snapped up before she could retrieve them.Bad luck for her but great for somebody else. Then there was the time a clerk hung up a fellow worker's coat on the sale rack, which the latter had hastily taken off and thrown on a table. Fortunately, she reclaimed it just before a sale was clinched. This year, my father thought missions was made on July 1. But no increase was made at that time to the large industrial customers, whose contracts run from January 1 to December 31st, or to rural customers, Mr. Gathercole said, "in re- cent years, after a long period of rate stability or decline, Dr. George Gathercole, chair- man of Ontario Hydro, took issue with those who criticized what appeared to be overstaffing as a result of the 17-week Canadian Union of Public Employees strike. "Just because we were able to operate with only the supervisory staff during the strike doesn't mean we would or could have continued," he told delegates at District 7, Ontario Municipal Electric Association, in London recently. "We were able to do it because Ontario Hydro is itself very capital intensive and automated. But, there were many things that didn't get done which will have to be done now." He noted that the Pickering Generating Station had had to be closed and that the com- missioning of the Bruce Heavy Water Station was postponed because of the strike, "It is in a way paradoxical that these adverse comments have prevented the supervisory per- sonnel from getting the praise they deserve," added Dr. Gathercole. "Many of these people worked eighteen-hour days and gave up holidays to keep the corporation -running." He also pointed out that government arbitration of the dispute could take from four to six months "although hopefully, he was doing everyone a good turn by sending to the sale an old china clock no longer running and tucked in the back of a closet for a decade or more. My sister heard about it just before the sale opened. "Oh, Dad, you didn't," she scolded him. "That clock is worth at least $25 . . . we've got to get it back." So off they scurried to the sale. There it was . . . still unsold. Not wearing her glasses she made out the price to be $1.50. Sighing with profound relief she dug into her purse for the correct change. "That's 15 cents," the cashier told my astonished sister, who had never been at a rummage sale before and didn't know about the prices. What a bargain . . . a 25 dollar clock for 15 cents! You can't beat that we told her. (Although, personally, I think she paid too much!) * Once Sis got her precious clock back she had a ball at the sale, "Look what I got for 25 cents," she bragged as she held up a pretty string of beads. "And I only paid 10 cents for this" (another piece of jewellery.) "What I can't understand," she went on to say as she laid out her other bargains for view, "is why all those women work so hard to put on that gigantic sale and ask such ridiculous prices," I explained to my uninformed relative that those 'ridiculous prices' brought in a profit to the tune of between 2000 and 3000 dollars for the hospital auxiliary each year. She was flabbergasted. Well, it is pretty hard to believe so called junk or rum- mage can be turned into such a profitable and worthy business. And I would take a bet that there is still enough unused stuff lying around in Exeter homes, which if people took the time to gather it up and send it to the right places, would make the semi-annual hospital sales look like peanuts. * * Like our Hospital Auxiliary, Goodwill Industries Association know that re-cycled junk is a geld mine, spiralling inflation has begun to effect electric costs and rates. Interest rates on borrowed capital, wages and salaries and the price of property, supplies and materials have been rising faster than savings resulting from rising consumption per customer and other economy sooner." The process, while slow, was necessary: the government and many private citizens were beginning to worry about the effects of a prolonged strike through the winter. "Those in agriculture were es- pecially worried," said Dr. Gathercole. "These people are very automated themselves, and therefore very dependent on hydro-electric power," Later in the meeting, Dr. Robert Hay, of Kingston, past president of the OMEA and a member of the Advisory Com- mittee on Energy, said Ontario may feel the pinch of a lack of energy as early as 1975. "We have been spending energy like a prodigal son or a drunken sailor—with reckless abandon," he told the delegates. Ontario is an isolated but in- tense user of energy, but like the rest of the world, has taken an unlimited supply of resources for granted. "The rate of discovery of new sources of gas and oil is no longer meeting the rate of use. What we have now will only last about 20 years," said Dr. Hay. The only solution would be the extensive development and use of the CANDU nuclear reactor, which employs natural uranium in the fission process. "Of course,there will be problems, but the system works. measures. "Because Hydro has to operate at cost, rate increases in recent years have had to follow the upward trend in cost of most other goods and services and wages and salaries. For exam- ple, between 1961 and 1971, the average cost per kilowatt-hour to municipal residential customers rose 18.6 per cent, but during the same period the consumer price index jumped 33.4 per cent and the average Ontario wage and salary increased 75.9 per cent." To meet the increasing demand for power, he said Hydro is forced to build more thermal generating plants. Here Hydro is faced not only with rising fuel prices but also costly anti- pollution control measures. "Inflation is the industry's most grievous problem. However, an analysis of prices of other energy sources also reveals a sharp upward trend. And taking into account its long history of rate stability, we believe elec- tricity will continue to be a remarkable bargain," said Mr. Gathercole. r. THEY TASTE GOOD No, this is not Peter Rabbit, it's Mrs. Joe Overholt at Saturday night's Hallowe'en costume ball at the Pineridge Chalet. T-A photo, Says small-staff hydro could not have coped la Last year, in London, their sales from donated castoffs netted them well over $150,000. This money, made entirely from discards is ensuring dozens of handicapped people the chance of becoming useful, happy citizens. As executive-director Philip Gandon said when he spoke in Exeter a few weeks ago, "We recycle cast-off people with the sale of somebody else's recycled castoffs." And never belittle the value of a rag. According to Mr, Gandon, the rag business is Big Business in Canada. Goodwill Industries clear$1,000 per month from the sale of rags alone. Buyers vie for rags that have been neatly packaged into 500 pound bales. Mr. Gandon cited an instance where he drove to Toronto to strike a bargain with a purchaser who agreed to give him 1/4 cent per pound more than they had been getting. This meant an extra $1,000 in the coffers of Goodwill over a period of a year. Of course it's not just the money that's important. Baling and handling the rags gives full time employment to two han- dicapped men and part time work to several others. So, if you missed getting your trash out for the rummage sale or have found some other items you forgot to put out (Goodwill will take anything) why not load them in the car and take them into London the next time you go. They can be deposited in one of the 22 Goodwill boxes found around the city (there's one in the Mall). Or, if you don't want to be bothered doing that, phone Guenther-Tuckey Transport which has been delivering boxes to the Salvation Army, Children's Aid ) Goodwill and other charitable organizations, free of charge, since Benson Tuckey founded the company years ago. There's just no excuse left for us to hoard our out-grown or unused articles. Remember, there's gold in that there junk.