Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1975-10-23, Page 4• • • ...... . . . Needs straightening out The discussion over Exeter's parklands points up again how much difference exists between public and private business matters, Can you imagine a person acquiring a piece of property and not following through to acquire the proper survey and deeds for that property? It happens in public administration ap- parently as indicated by the recent discus- sion, although it must be emphasized that most of the transactions which have taken place were well before the time in which present members of council or RAP were involved. However, they are the people who are now responsible, and hopefully they will make an immediate attempt to straighten out some of the situations and secure the proper deeds for the properties in question. At the same time, it would be a benefit for those who are to follow, if they es- tablish a set of procedures that should be taken at the time of acquiring parklands from subdivision developers. These procedures would then act as a basis on which future town officials can proceed. Our response to now By ELMORE BOOMER Counsellor for Information South Huron For appointment phone: 235-0560 A weekend diary Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by .1. W. Eedy Publications Limited Editor — Bill Batten — Advertising Manager Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Plant Manager — Les Webb Composition Manager -- Dave Worby Business Manager — Dick Jong kind Phone 235-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number '0386 Paid in Advance Circulation March 31, 1975 5,249 SUBSCRIPTION' RATES; Canada $9.00 Per Year; USA $11.00 CAINEMERariMmil7=1,4 A?;k Notable achievement Congratulations are in order for the Exeter Kinsmen who marked their 25th an- niversary this week. While an anniversary of that number of years may not be noteworthy in some situations, it is in this particular case when consideration is given to the vast number of community projects which have been un- dertaken by the members of the service group over those years. Similar to most organizations, they've had good years and bad, but on the whole the community has been bettered to a great extent through the contributions made by the Kinsmen. The work of service clubs is often taken for granted and people tend to think the members are involved only from a social aspect. That is obviously one of the impor- tant components of the organization, but its main aim is to serve the community's greatest need and over the past 25 years the Kinsmen have lived up to that challenge in a creditable manner. Hopefully, the occasion of their an- niversary will provide them with an oppor- tunity to see what they have accomplished in the past and then take a look at the pre- sent needs and tackle some of the other requirements with renewed enthusiasm and dedication. The demand strengthens Despite two near misses on the life of President Ford, despite an alarming in- crease in crimes involving firearms, despite a wide clamor for more stringent gun control legislation, statistics just released indicate that the sale of rifles and shotguns in Canada increased almost 40 percent in 1975 over the previous year. The powerful lobbies of the outdoor groups and arms manufacturers seem still to be in a position of keeping our politicians from coming to grips with a trend to ownership of arms that is reaching epidemic proportions. It may be simplistic to state that without gun ownership, shootings would be drastically reduced but to the practical mind the remqvallof the cause of a problem goes a long way' towards its solution. There is simply no need for people to own firearms without strict registration and then only the type of weapon that hunters feel they must have. Ownership of handguns, automatic or semi-automatic weapons or a multiplicity of weapons should be banned in Canada except for the armed forces and legitimate police forces and even these should be tightened up. Perhaps some people would still get such weapons on the black market but the legitimate sources of supply would be dried up. Such manufacture of arms that is re- quired should be done under the strictest of supervision and the penalties for firearm infractions should be of the utmost severi- ty. There is simply no justification for the average Canadian to own any form of weapon and most of us would not miss this alleged infringement on our rights, as the gun lobby assertAf, The government, be it provincial of federal, that has the guts to ban ownership and control manufacture would, we suggest, have the support of the majority of Canadians. Contributed Here I am, Lord Here I am, Lord . • . Remember me? I'm the one who insisted on giving you a promissory note when I was desperate down and out I vowed I didn't care how high the payments were I said I'd pay them gladly, Lord, if only you would rescue me I was so grateful when with your generous hand you paid the price of all my debts so willingly I meant I keep my pledge I intended to make the payments But then ... I got sidetracked old friends beckoned me old ways seemed pleasant so I stuffed the promissory note away and tried to forget about it Then I'd see you coming down the street to meet me . and I'd dodge into a building as if I had important business there or slip across the street If suddenly, in a crowd, I'd come upon you face to face I'd pretend I didn't know you shift my guilty eyes from your searching, sorry ones Occasionally I'd meet you walking with a friend of mine Then I'd acknowledge you with a curt nod and hurry on embarrassed Everywhere I went, Lord, You'd be there Everywhere I turned I'd see your presence For me there could be no escape So here I am, Lord, ready not just to make the payments but give my all Take it, Lord, Take me Forgive me, Lord, Use me You bought me, Lord, I'm yours Thank you, Lord, I am at peace A "While you were in the fridge, you missed a triple- play, a bases loaded home run, and an error . . . which was letting me get your chair" Some confusing times ahead A tale of tattered teeth One of my recurring dreams is that all my teeth are crumbling, and breaking off like toast. It's a terrible nightmare and I always wake up sweating, jam some fingers into my mouth and groan with relief when I find the teeth are still there, and with pain because I have bitten my fingers. Today I feel that I'm having a daymare, rather than a night- mare. Last night a dinner, one of my front teeth came away in the midst of a glorious dish of curried chicken. I love curried chicken, and this time my wife had ex- celled herself, whatever that means, but I am not keen on curried chicken with teeth in it, even when they are my own. However, this incident did not alarm me, unduly or otherwise. It was only my peg tooth. Every couple of months it comes un- screwed or whatever, I carefully comb it out of the soup or spaghetti, trot down to the dentist with it clutched in my hand; he dusts it off, pops it back in, cements it in place and I'm back in business, stuffing my guts. But this morning, munching my matins (in this case a ripe yellow pear that tasted, as so much fruit does nowadays, like wet cardboard), I crunched on something hard. Now I know that pears do not have either bones or stones.They have pips. And I knew that this particular pear did not even have a pip, because my loving wife, knowing I was one tooth short from the night before, had disembowelled it. Right, another front tooth broken off, just beside the missing peg. There was no pain in either case. Just a sense of horror and self-disgust, as I have in the nightmare. It's bad enought to pull a filling when eating toffee, or to snap off a bit of molar when you crunch down on an un- suspected beef-bone, or even to have an aching tooth yanked. But to have one break off when eating an over-ripe pear . . . Yeeeccch! I still wasn't plunged into the depths. Some people go for years with no hair on their heads (and plant articles in magazines suggesting baldies are more virile). Others go all their lives with no brains to speak of. I reckoned I could get through the day without two teeth. And I did. But by noon, the tip of my tongue was raw, and shredded, from thrusting it into that jagged crevice (crevasse?). But I was coping. And I knew that if I hustled down to my friendly dentist, he would squeeze me in somehow,andpatch me up somehow. I should have known better. From my air force days I know that disasters always comes in threes. Right in the middle of a brilliant lesson on the use of four- letter words in Victorian literature (such as "legs"), rammed a red-hot needle into a tooth in my lower jaw-bone, four teeth and two spaces from the missing ones. I almost screamed aloud, I screamed silently.The needle was removed, Two minutes later, that red-hot needle plunged into the tooth directly above (I have two teeth on that side, upper and lower, and they are fairly friendly with each other, because there is nobody else around.) This time I couldn't help it. I emitted, "Huh", as though someone were driving a stake through my heart. I sagged into my chair, white and shaken. You can always depend on students. They rally around when things are tough, despite their outward cycnicism, They're all heart inside that tough exterior. "I think the old sod's havenna hardatak. Wuddell we do?" "Jeez, I hope he hazzen godour tests marked yet, I thinked I failed mine," "Maybe he's just godda bad hangover. Slap him in the face a coupla times and he might come around." I came out of it, or course, and pretended I was enacting Heath- cliff's grief in Wuthering Heights, When they looked as though they didn't believe me, I curled back my bottom lip and snarled at them with my new gap-toothed look, They shut up. When everything cooled down, I realized that myback teeth were merely expressing sympathy for my lost front teeth. It made them lonelier than ever. But they didn't have to shriek their sympathy at such volume. My whole jaw has been aching for the remainder of this dark day, but the red-hot needle has cooled to a blunt instrument, As soon as I finish telling you this fascinating episode of a continued story called "One Man's Fangs," I'm going straight to the dentist, and have him rip every tattered remnant of bone out of my head, Then I am going up to the hospital and have the calcium chipped off my right footbone, my gall-bladder removed, just in case it ever acts up, a heart- pacer put in, and three or four pints of blood, in the event of anemia. I might even have my ears pierced, just for the hell of it. I don't trust the old carcass any more, If my teeth start crum- bling when I'm just a broth of a boy, who knows what bits and pieces may fall off when I'm 85, as I fully intend to be? Most of us will view the im- plementation of the new controls as something that was necessary to control someone else - big business or big labor, But if we cared to listen, Prime Minister Trudeau spoke to every Canadians when he said "in this struggle, we must accomplish nothing less than a wrenching adjustment of our expectations- an adjustment of our national lifestyle to our means". Obviously,legislation may work towards adjusting that lifestyle, but basically it is a personal matter which every Canadian must undertake. The basic ingredient of in- flation is greed, and if inflation is to be curtailed, that greed must also be curtailed. + + + There are many people, of course, who doubt that the price and wage controls will work effectively' and suggest that the government will have an almost inipqssible task of overseeing the 'noWeifer, it must "be remein- liWed that one person out of every seven working in Canada is employed by government, and if the controls are followed by provincial and municipal governments,• a large number of employees are under direct control of those in power. In addition, two dollars from every five dollars generated in Canada is collected as revenue by government—at the federal, provincial and municipal level. It becomes obvious then that the governments have sizeable controls over the spending of dollars, as employers and the nation's leading spenders. Canadians will be looking to 50 Years Ago A mouse caused some con- sternation'at James Street Church Sunday. In the morning it played around the feet of the choir members and in the evening it frolicked around the pews. It finally met its doom beneath the foot of one of the men. One of the oldest residents of Exeter and one who for many years was prominently identified with the business interests and had the welfare of the community at heart passed away on Thur- sday last in the person of Mr. Thomas Fitton, aged 88 years. A large crowd in James Street Church heard Dr. Albert Hollins, England famous blind composer on Wednesday evening. Jack rabbits are becoming so tame around Khiva that last week when Mr. Dave Lippert was cutting his buckwheat one jumped up on the binder and thought he would take a ride, but Dave thought he looked too good to let run so he soon had him captured. 25 Years Ago Rev, W. C. Parrot of Grand Valley will assume duties as pastor of Crediton, Brinsley and Shipka churches on November 19. Exeter Wolf Cubs netted over $75 from the sale of apples on Saturday. Privates Bob Nicol, Carl Sch- walm, and Lorne Lamont of Canada's special UN brigade are home for a week's leave, They will return to the camp at Wainwright just outside Calgary, Mr, and Mrs. B, M, Francis left on TueSday fat Mount Dora, Florida where they will spend the winter months, Mr. Alvin Walper, has pur- chased the dwelling of the late Clara Restemayer in the village of Dashwood, those governments for strong leadership and a determined resolve, to make the controls work, and work fairly. + + + At the local level, municipal councils will have to face the realization that the income of their ratepayers is under control, and therefore municipal spen- ding must be limited to coincide with those controls. It will require some long hours in budget debate, because no longer will elected officials be able to name the projects required and then set the mill rates accordingly. The mill rates will have to be given the major consideration and then the projects fitted into that mill rate on a priority basis. Obviously, people cannot af- ford to have their wages pegged at a certain level without their expenditures being pegged at a lever thardorresponds with those wages. • The entire situation is complex and will require considerable investigation by everyone to determine his exact position— whether he be a wage earner, employer, public servant or public administrator. The next few months will be trying times and troubled times as people attempt to understand the policies and their ramifications. But then, rampant inflation has had most people so upset and worried that at least they will now have new upsets and worries to consider. And as they say, a change is better than a rest! 15 Years Ago Area residents had their first taste of winter on Monday when they awoke to find the ground covered with snow. Construction work on the new office building at the corner of Main and Huron will start next week, Realtor John Burke said this week. Work started this week on the new 300-bed Ontario hospital at Goderich for which a $3,400,000 contract was let Thursday. For Halloween, the Hensall Kinsmen are sponsoring a party and parade as a reward for youngsters who are to collect for UNICEF. On a hunting trip to the Tim- mins area last week Bill Stanlake bagged a bull moose, The moose had a 48" antler spread, and Bill estimated the weight at over 1,000 pounds, 10 Years Ago A friendship which developed by mail during the past four years was strengthened last week with a visit to Exeter by a former resident of Exeter England, Miss Dinah Roberts who is presently working in Chicago USA, spent the Thanksgiving weekend here visiting her pen pal Muriel Wells. Miss Roberts intends to return to Exeter, England next September and has extended an invitation for Miss Wells to join her on the trip back to her home town. The last of the old steam locomotives pulled out of Exeter Station Saturday afternoon. Large crowds were on hand, mostly to take photographs, The population of Exeter is dropping rather than increasing as predicted in official studies, Council was informed Monday evening that the official population of Exeter for 1965 is now 3151, down five from 1964, and down 90 from the 1963 total of 3241, Saturday — very busy and satisfying. With help from a friend and the rest of the family, a basement office for my use was finished, It was a project of long standing and its completion is a cause for celebration. Sunday morning found myself and my family at Thames Road United Church. It was an an- niversary occasion at which I was speaker. Information South Huron was emphasized at various times during the service. I was able to present certain biblical truths freely and we were warmed by the worshipful at- mosphere and enthusiastic response, • Dinner was at the manse with as much talking as eating. There was a fire warming the living room, and the people in it, from an open hearth. Home to Goderich. We rested in various ways, I read Satur- day's paper. I was distressed by the practice of banning in South Africa. No words of a banned person can be reported in the press. This results in such people dropping out of sight and being forgotten. An African leader, Robert Sobukwe, spent a number of years in prison, After his release he was banned, Although he qualified as an attorney no words spoken or written by him could appear in the newspapers' court reports. And now a little magazine — a toast to the ideal of freedom — is published within South Africa. It is called Bandwagon — a pun on the word "banned". It reports, at certain risk, the secretive ways of South Africa's police. People are incarcerated without relatives or friends knowing of their whereabouts, They can appear just as strangely and without logical reason at their homes, effectively silenced by a banning order, Sunday night. A discussion group at Elimville United Church zeroed in on mental health. There We went for a boat ride with the farmer down the road. "I've been running, boats on this river so long, I know where every sand- bar is," he boasted. Just then the boat ran aground, "There," he said, "that's one of them now." were a variety of questions asked and opinions tested. One such suggestion caught some of us off guard. Christ met demon possession by exorcism. Can we do the same with people who are mentally ill? This is not just faith and confidence cen- tered in the self. It is a drawing on a power outside of the person, a much greater power than is natural to men, Your opinion please! I sat beside Madelyn De Jonge • who spoke of her presentation concerning mental health to the Women's Institute at Elimville on October 7. "Concern centered on family break-down, drugs and, alcohol," she reported. Success rates in the counselling efforts of Information South Huron became a topic of interest. Mrs. De Jonge found this hard to answer specifically. Indeed who can judge such things easily. Here is an uncertainty we have to accept. Our congratulations go to these two vital congregations in our district, My time with these good people was crowned with the gift of a book by John Vanier. On Monday we were at work again at Goderich Psychiatric Hospital. From one of the in- house papers we gleaned the fact that there had been no reported strikes by Mississauga rattle snakes in Ontario this summer. The Lions Club of Zurich welcomed me into their midst on Monday night, Mr, Vince Doyle introduced me as speaker and spoke of his concern regarding community and mental health. It was easy to speak to these en- thusiastic men. Again Infor- mation South Huron was highlighted. The night ended with coffee at Epp Homes east of Exeter. Alvin, Marg and Laura and sometimes myself reparteed about various subjects. "There are no set answers to dealing with children. You have to find each child and relate in- dividually," With this and other wisdoms reverberating. I left before I drank too Much coffee, ("I can't stand people who drink more than four cups _of coffee in a day!") Home to bed and a night- cap chapter from Chaim Potok, Special Note — Mr, Boomer will be attending a conference in Toronto next week and will thus be unavailable Tuesday, 'October 28. Well, it has happened! Canadians are being subjected to price and wage controls. Ironically, it is being enacted by a government which was elected with a strong majority because many Canadians did not- agree with Progressive Con- servative leader Robert Stanfield that we should have price and wage controls. While few people may be smiling at the prospect of such severe action, Mr. Stanfield. can obviously be excused if he is going about with an "I told you so" look on his face these days. At this point of time, few area residents are aware of what the new legislation will actually mean to them, and certainly they are in the same boat as most Canadians. Another aspect that is equally unclear is whether the new ,controls will really work to halt our rampant inflation. However, the general con- sensus appears to be 'that anything is worth a try, Basically, Canadians are fed u with -the daily - increases they `,have been facing' in' thevirigrke "place and the almost continual irritating interruptions they have encountered through,strikes across the nation. As a nation, and as individuals, we were living beyond our means, Wage demands were getting utterly ridiculous and the gap between the "haves" and "have nots" was widening to unacceptable proportions, While many will decry the action taken by the government, they have no others to blame but themselves, because it was becoming apparent that greed was leading us to economic chaos.