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Times-Advocate, 1979-09-06, Page 4Mainstream Canada The Interest Rate Treadmill ve CNA Page 4 The paradoxical standards of our society are nowhere more evident than the situation concerning a chain letter currently circulating throughout the province. The names on the list include several area residents. The letter states it is legal, but On- tario's solicitor general and the provin- cial police have declared it is very much illegal and have commenced an in- vestigation in an attempt to nab those responsible for instituting the letter. Basically, it is nothing more than a get-rich scheme on which many people are prepared to gamble a few dollars. They do the same thing every day at the legalized parimutuels at Ontario's race tracks or at the countless number of stands where they can purchase lottery tickets. In fact, a chain letter may be a better risk factor than a lottery, so perhaps the participants are not gambl- There is increasing public concern about vandalism in Exeter. Police Chief Thomas Powers has said vandalism is not on the rise but it moves from place to place, so that those affected may think there is a crime wave. He said his men drive it out of one area, and vandals go to another. Whether it is on the increase or not is debatable. However, all will agree that something should be done to stop senseless damage to property. Police administration might vary procedure for night patrol, For example, parking a cruiser and checking buildings on foot would provide double exposure. Vandals are likely to stay out of the im- mediate area of a cruiser. An officer on foot can hear better and see behind buildings better than one in a car with the windows rolled up. A change of manning might be in order. Perhaps nighttime calls for heavier coverage than the day from a standpoint of prevention. When police have driven vandals out . ... .. — times Established 1473 Advocate Established 18111 • Imes - dvocate • • ,! ftwilo Lo.ba.16. SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W.Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235-1331 at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $30.00 '77;77- Same name and problem Times-Advocate, September 6, 1979 Double standards ing quite as heavily on getting some return on their money. There have to be losers, of course, and sooner or later the people joining in the scheme will be un- able to find buyers for the chain and their 900 investment will go down the drain. This is not to suggest that law breaking should be condoned, or dis- missing the fact that laws are instituted to protect people from unscrupulous schemes. However, the entire area of gambl- ing in this province is wide open to ques- tion in view of the government's heavy involvement in it. While they are looking at the im- plications of chain letters, they should also take a look at their own moral stan- dards in which they spend thousands of dollars in encouraging people to gamble on lotteries. Is it really a double standard? Amalgamated 1924 "They call themselves a newspaper? There isn't a single juicy, sordid line about Margaret Trudeau." By SYD FLETCHER He poked his head through the doorway. I recognized the square jaw and the stern eyes; a chill ran up and down my spine. Sounds melodramatic, eh? But to a beginning teacher looking for a permanent contract the inspector was a very im- portant person. They've tried to downplay the word inspector lately; now they're called superintendents. The fellow at the back of the room had a reputation that made young teachers. tremble. I was no exception. I had heard of the time he had gone into a junior classroom inFebruary,picked up a Science notebook out of a child's desk and fingered it, testing the written-on pages for thickness, then turned abruptly to the teacher and caustically remarked; "Not very much done for this time of the year," I think that he had served in the army, for he was great for every boot being lined tip in military fashion, for wanting letter perfect at- tendance registers, and above all, for classrooms which had lots of fresh air. I was in a state of real dread about this last point for not one of my classroom win- dows would open or close without a crowbar and hammer, vigorously applied. But none of those things frightened me now for I had heard that he was to be in the area this week and I was ready for him. I felt sure that I had covered enough in every subject and could pass the thickness test, and I had drilled my class daily in proper procedure in placing boots outside doors. My register was wonderfully neat and best of all, though the kids had complained bitterly, I pried one window open every morning and let the breezes blow. In he came, and sat at the back corner, his unblinking eye noting the open window, with satisfaction I hoped. It was a music lesson, one subject in which I felt reasonably confident of the proper steps. It ran smoothly as I went through the recognized scales and in- tervals which I knew he couldn't fault me for, Than I tackled a new song and the kids responded really well. They seemed to sense my nervousness and were not letting me down.As t was finishing the lesson I saw him looking at the clock as if he were going to leave early. Inwardly I drew a deep sigh of relief. "All right," I said, without thinking, "What would you like to sing? Something we've learned before." As soon as I said it I knew I had put my foot in mouth, As one person they said, "Pishie in Exeter (N.H.) News Letter 4 44 the sea," their faces lighting up. "Er, no, I don't think..."I stuttered. "Aw, come on, sir." Their spontaneous cries had me trapped and they knew it, so reluctantly I started it off. They had never sung so lustily and clearly before, right from the fish who swims without a bathing suit through the mosquito who flies around in everybody's nightie to the little English sparrow who sits upon a steeple and spits upon all the people. I could see it all on his report. Something about lack of moral standards and maybe a note about poor hygiene teaching, all in large black letters. As the children streamed out I busied myself at the desk, hoping he would go out and leave me to my misery and the want-ads, but he didn't. "I'd like to talk to you for a minute," he said. He was still wedged in the student's desk at the back of the room. I hurried back. He stood up and offered me his hand, "A good lesson, son," he said, the granite face almost cracking into a smile. "I especially enjoyed that last song. Reminds me of some learned at camp as a boy. Kids really like that stuff, don't they." It was a statement of a fact, not a question. Fortunately, I could only nod rny amazement, but had the wit leftto say good-bye. Perhaps inspectors, er, superin- tendents, were human after all. It was rather facetiously suggested a few weeks ago that Mayor Derry Boyle would prefer to be the top politician in Exeter's namesake in England, given the fact the Lord Mayor is chauffeured to civic events in a Rolls Royce. That information was gleaned from Tom Rookes, a visitor from Exeter (the one over there) who made a recent visit to this community where he and his wife were hosted by our Mayor and his wife. It may be difficult to ascertain what Derry told Tom about this community and our fair province and country, but there are strong indications that itwas something extra powerful. Tuesday of this week, while trying to get the newspaper to bed, the writer was called to the telephone and it was none other that Tom Rookes. That wasn't so surprising, because in the past few weeks there h4ve been a couple of other calls from Exeter, England, and it was assumed that Tom was still trying to glean more informa- tion from us about this community for the newspapers over there. Well, that wasn't the case at all. It seems that Tom and his wife were so enthralled with their visit to Ontario that as soon as they returned home, they made a decision to move to this province on a permanent basis. However, that isn't as easy as it may sound, Tom advises that getting ap- proval to move to Canada is a difficult task for an Englishman these days and about 60 percent of the applications are turned down. The main reason for calling yours tru- ly, was to have an advertisement placed If you have never been involved in municipalpolitics,you should have a go. Run for anything from dogcatcher to mayor.,Ifyoullose,itwill be good for your ego. If you win, it will be good for your humility. I speak, as always, from personal ex- perience. For two years I served on a town council. It was illuminating, if not very enlightening. I was elected, of course, by acclama- tion. As was everybody else on the coun- cil. So keen were the citizens to serve that some years, on nomination eve, we had to go down to the pub, drag a cou- ple of characters out, and guide their hands while they signed up. When I was elected. I was present as a reporter. There were only five other peo- ple in the council chambers, so it was decided that I would be elected as the necessary sixth. Since I had already serv- ed on the executives of various mori- bund organizations which had died forthwith, I agreed. It didn't die as I'd hoped. The next year we were all re- elected. By accloamation. It was pretty heady stuff, at first. As a partner in a printing plant, and a newspaperman, I was immediately ap- pointed Chairman of the Printing, Advertising, and Public Relations Com- mittee of council. This meant that our firm automatically received the contract for the town's printing and advertising, which we already had. The public relations part meant that I had to stop suggesting in the paper that the town council was made up of nitwits, nincom- poops and nerds. Another chap, with a pretty good heating and plumbing business, was named Chairman of the Interior Municipal Modification Committee, Heating and plumbing. A third, who had a tractor, a back- hoe and a snowplow, was appointed Chairman of the Public Works Depart- ment. He immediately introduced a by- law raising the rates per hour' of such equipment, It passed, four to two, The in this newspaper seeking employment for he and his wife. Tom has been in the carpet and fur- niture business for 30 years, while his wife is a clerk (after three attempts at trying to determine what a "clerk" is) and a typist. Normally, this newspaper does not run advertisements in regular columns, but this case is so unusual it warrants some preferential treatment. So, if you happen to know of any job openings in the field for the Rookes, or of anything you think may be of interest to them, give the editor a call and he'll pass along the information. While Tom says that financially they can move to Canada and find a job at their leisure when they arrive, he expects he'd have an easier time if he could show immigration officials that either he or his wife had employment awaiting them upon their arrival. The story has another aspect of course and that is that we in this com- munity and country too seldom stop to think about all that we enjoy, Sometimes it takes a visitor such as Tom to bring that home more forcefully. He visited here for only a couple of weeks and immediately recognized what On- tario residents have going for them and he's anxious to get back and make it a permanent home. "You can imagine our impression of your country," he said in explaining his reason for wanting to come back. One of the deciding factors is the cost of living here, believe it or not. He claims it's half of that in our England namesake. They're already paying '3.50 per opposition was from another councillor, a retired farmer, who also had a tractor and a threshing-machine, which he thought could be converted to plowing snow. His brother-in-law voted with him, But these moments of power and glory soon faded. The conflict of interest became apparent, and there was no way out for a man of honour except to resign. It took me only two years to reach that conclusion. You may think that a fair time, but it's not easy to walk away from a '75.00 a year stipend. The mayor made '150.00. As a reporter, I had been more in- terested in the conflicts than the in- terests. I had delightedly heard, and printed, one councillor call another councillor a "gibbering old baboon." And watched the victim of the pe- jorative, a stripling of '78, invite the name-caller outside, stripping off his jacket during the exchange. It was thirty-four below outside. Well, as you can see, as a member of that august body, the Town Council, I couldn't print that sort of thing. I had to report that the two councillors "had a difference of opinion." When I wrote that phrase and had to omit that one of the councillors was obviously in his cups, I knew I had to quit. All of this is a preamble to a thickish document I got in the mail the other day, It is a new by-law printed and despersed (at what enormous cost I shudder) by our local town council. There are 39 numbered pages of legal in- anities, and about an equal number of pages of maps of the town, equally un- intelligible. As I said, the mailman delivered it, regardless of the expense; A dozen kids could have covered the town in two hours, or stuffed them in the sewer. Despite my wide experience as a municipal councillor,or perhaps because of it, this by-law completely baffles me. The first thirteen pages are definitions. They tell us what is a 16t, a gallon for gasoline! By the way, Tom and his wife can supply references if required and they plan to arrive in Canada around the middle of October. Perhaps he'll bring along a Rolls Royce for Derry? The Mayor over there has already decided to discontinue its use due to the high cost and short supply of energy. That would sure look good sitting out in front of the rec centre for 20 hours a day come this hockey season ... to say nothing of the impression our neighbours would haveof Exeter if Derry pulled up to their arenas to be assisted out by his chauffeur. Area mothers will be heaving a sigh of relief this week as they watch their offspring trudge off to school to start another term. No doubt readers, and particularly secondary school teachers, will be a little dismayed at the enrolment projections in the near future. It is expected the enrolment in the five secondary schools in Huron could drop by as much as 1,000 in the next five years. That will be close to 70 teaching positions unless the teachers can whittle down the teacher-pupil ratio. While taxpayers may see some savings as the number of students decline, it is an employment loss that will not only be felt by teachers but by the community as a whole in the loss of supply services, etc. yard (front) and a yard (rear), a garage, a building. They also inform the ig- norant citizenry what a school is, a per- son, a restaurant, a motel, a boarding- house. All alphabetically. There was not mention of "brothel" under the B's. The by-law tells how high our fence or hedges can be. It tells us how high our houses can be. How many square metres of floor space we must have if we decide to ask Auntie Mabel, crippled with arthritis, to share our dwelling. How many parking places we need for each establishment. Again no mention of either brothels or bootleggers. For most of the document, the by-law dwells in metres, squared and decimal- ed. I know very few people over thirty who would know a metre from a maskinonge. Somebody on council must have cornered the market on metre sticks. Then this baffling by-law moves into "hectares". What the heck is a hectare? To me, its an ancient French (Canadian) piece of land about as accurate as an acre, which nobody understands either, Here's and example: "RM2 uses are permitted as specified to a maximum of 550 persons per hectare." Is it a square mile? Is it a "Hlacre" wit' an accent? This is crazy. When I was a coun- cillor, we could knock off three or four by-laws in a meeting, and everybody un- derstood them. "Moved and seconded that there shall be no loitering in the cemetery, except by those who are among the dead, not the quick." That sort of thing. The big fat by-law is for the birds. Or the lawyers. Not for us old municipal politicians. Remember what I suggested at the beginning of this column? Forget it, Otherwise you might end up in a "Detached dwelling unit", which allows "3.2 persons perunit standard," Not two. Not four. 3.2 By W. Roger Worth Like donkeys on tread- mills, the powerful mandarins at the Bank of Canada — the country's central bank—can't get away from the idea that they have to imitate their U.S. counterparts when it comes to raising interest rates, no matter how much it hurts Canadian business and consumers. For years, Canada's central bankers have taken a monkey see, monkey do attitude,. raising this country's interest rates by more than four per- centage points in the last 17 months to stay ahead of their U.S. counterparts. Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The result: consumers are paying more and more inter- est on loans, thousands of small and medium sized busi- nesses are in financial diffi- culties or can't find enough money to expand, and the rising rate of bankruptcies continues unabated. While costlier money is an important item in con- sumer budgets, it's crucial for the smaller firms that created a majority of the new 55 Years Ago Service last Sunday morning was taken by E. Aldworth, L. Statham, B. Tuckey and H Dignan of Main St. Church, Exeter, They were accompanied by W.G. Medd. Several from town at- tended the fowl supper at the Grand Bend Methodist Church Monday. They were Rev. Clysdale, E.J. Christie, Misses E. Huston, F. Follick, E. Follick and W. Martin. The annual Crediton school fair took place on Thursday October 2 and was the best held in its history. Rev. W.E. Donnelly, Exeter will give a lecture in the Evangelical Church on Friday evening, taking for his subject, "Scraps." 30 Years Ago An open house for the new Bank of Montreal building of Dashwood will be held this Saturday. The new county bridge at Elimville on the St. Marys road was officially opened last Saturday when Mrs. William Morley, the former Leona Pym, cut the tape just after her wedding. Frances Taylor is at- tending normal school at London. A former Grand Bend pastor Rev. Stephen James Mathers, BD, MA, has been appointed principal of Alma College, St, Thomas. 20 Years Ago The third annual reunion of the descendants of Mr. Sylvanus and the late Mrs. Cann of Hayfield, formerly of Exeter was held at Queen's Park, Stratford, last Sunday with 42 in at- tendance. Dear Editor;. Family and Children's Services of Huron County is pleased with the success of our new community program FACES 1979. (Family and Children's Excursion Services) The number 'of children involved has substantially increased from 90 in the summer of 1978 to 214 children involved with FACES 1979. An Experience '79' Grant allowed the Agency to hire Pauline Hall and Margaret Foran as program co- ordinators, Margaret, with the assistance of volunteers involved 75 children in a variety of special activity day camps, throughout the r cou . Sixty-nine children par cipated in the Week-long overnight camps with Pauline, In addition, another seventy children were sent to other organized camps in- cluding a one-parent family camp, jobs in the country last year. A smaller entrepreneur that borrowed $100,000 to expand 17 months ago, for example, would have planned on paying about $10,000 per year in interest. The cost of that loan is now running about $14,000 per year. Simply put, Canada does not have to play follow the leader with the U.S. on interest rates, no matter what this country's mandarins may claim. Holding the line on inter- est rate increases might mean a one cent — two cent decline in the Canadian dollar, compared to the U.S. curren- cy, with a resulting one per- centage point increase in the country's rate of inflation. But Canada's inflation rate is now less than 10%, com- pared to 13% in the U.S. This country is also much better off than the U.S. from an energy point of view, one of the very real difficulties in America. Simply put, Canadians should not have to pay the price 'in higher interest rates and reduced job creation be- cause of a problem in the U.S. It's time the Ottawa mandarins started treating Canada as the separate entity that it is. South Huron Hospital board announced at a special meeting Friday night that it was preparing plans for an addition to relieve congestion of the present quarters. SHDHS graduates of '59 have won more scholarships and bursaries than any other class in the school's history. Principal H. L. Sturgis reported to the board Tuesday evening. Mr. and Mrs. William E. Lee celebrated their golden wedding anniversary by holding open house for their many friends and relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Ross Ballantyne returned home from their honeymoon Tuesday and on Saturday were treated to a rousing shivaree. 15 Years Ago Approval of the Federal government has been given for the new $660,415 vocational addition to SHDHS, a lab, a carpentry shop, an auto shop, drafting room, and an addition to the cafeteria. Tenders will be called in November, Official opening of the new bridge and highway im- provement at Grand Bend was held last weekend, The $552,000 project included a new bridge, widening High- way 21 and installing traffic lights at the corner. Robert S. Hetherington, Q.C., has been appointed Huron County Court Judge, he will succeed Frank Fingland, Clinton who was forced to resign due to ill health. Mr. Hetherington has been Mayor of Wingham for the past three years. Harvey Stringer, 27 RR 2, Hensall, was acquitted on a charge of criminal negligence by a Supreme Court jury in Goderich Wednesday afternoon. Special thanks is ex- pressed to the twenty volunteers who actively participated in both programs. Their time and commitment to the children and the program contributed greatly to the summers' success. We would also like to thank our volunteer drivers. The support demonstrated from the community for the FACS summer program was greatly appreciated. Donations to the Special Benefits Summer Camp Fund totalled $3,947. This funding made the entire program possible. We Would like to express our gratitude to Bluewater Centre for the use of their tents and stoves and ex- pecially to Jim Hayter's Chev Olds Ltd. for the use of their van, Yours very truly, John V. Penn Director of a certain area by stepped-up patrol, officers should continue to be in evidence in that area to keep out trou- ble. Citizens who note or hear anything suspicious should call police right away, not wait to see if they hear a noise again. Maybe people getting up in the night should glance out their windows at neighbour's houses on their way to kitchen or bathroom. Apathy on the part of townspeople will not help matters. Parents should be more strict about the hours their older children keep and where they are allowed to go after dark. They should make sure teenagers know that civilization would collapse if everyone became irresponsible and destructive of other people's security and property. ' If everyone makes an effort to solve the problem, vandalism might leave town. BATTN AROUND with the editor They were impressed • • I Perspectives cfs';',R2lb?ipmcieysPice Municipal politics