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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1980-07-02, Page 61:111.0 1; ile:114,1e, • 11,0 Dlf BOO Trottio ,•Ic!daitr Ra •Orno4: Om 538 2.0 • - Q the ,Hwort•ttraiee Boundarf Published WCdoesday °The sepoy—Town" FAtidgislied 1873 • .fi,VSPAFtpts, cowl SHARON J DIETZ Editor, ANTHONY N. JOHNSTONE • Advertising and Generall Manager - PAT LIVINGSTON - Office Manager MERLE ELLIOTT - Typesetter Business and Editorial Office Telephone 528-2822 Mailing Adress.P,O. Box 400, Lueknow, NOG 2H0 Second class mail registration number -0847 Subscription rate, $12 per year in advance Senior Citizens rate, $10 per year in advance U.S.A. and Foreign, $21.50 per year In advance Sr. Cit, U.S.A. and Foreign, $19.50 per year in advance farmers in a complicated scheme ' running the country these days, The that is already out of, date now that, interest rates have drbppell. And wouldn't you know, the daily Press in Some . big cities jumped on the 'bandwagon - by decrying the government aid as just another subsidy poured into the agricultural nothing" about farming not care. TheY don't realize how vital a viable • agricultural sector is' to the economic and physical health of,-this Cduntry. In 1978, Canadians spent $5,25 • billion for imported feeds, almost ' equal to the $3.8 billion paid for imported petroleum products in the same yea Agricutture gets" sold down the r. river during trade talks. Hew else concern for agriculture in Ontario as can you explain that our self- in some other parts of this country. Alberta has set aside $75 million to help in an interest subsidy, program for . young farmers..British • Columbia,, SaSkatCheWan, Quebec lights and the building of the tennis and . Manitoba have substantital courts, Who, but the children, get the. . credit assistance iirograms mouth. Hew many of ,those same papers' took a stand` against -that whopping $210-million loan to the sick Chrysler Corporation? And the • $75-million loan to the Ford Motor Company? Just my luck, too, now that Chrysler is on the verge of bankruptcy to own - a Chrysler •Corporation car, a 1'979 Plymouth Volare. Certainly, there is not as much To-olittie-faTaTe; The Ontario eovernMent, in. response to plea6 frorn farmers, is going to cough up $25 million to help sufficiency in peaches, for instanee, has fallen from 41 to 19 per cent in 10 years? Tomato self-sufficiency has, fallen from 74 to 43 per, cent in the. same decade. It's because the present tariffs on imported fruits and vegetables are • insufficient to insure adequate. production in Canada. an imported $331 million in meats last - year and, most of it could have been grown in Canada. 'The poor. potato' vision. and -regulat ion in production.,But this tradition is fast. . becoming a relic of the, past because more and more urbanites are House of. Commons and the -various provincial legislatures are lousy With bright young laWyers, car dealers, doctors, teachers, professors and purely professional politicians. They neither,.know To the editor: The Kinsmen Club of Lucknow would like to offer a note of ex- planation, a rebuttal, if you like, to the. editorial entitled, "Nothing for - Kids" which appeared in last week's. Sentinel, We apologize if we have failed you in this respect. Our main reason for not holding children's events was a lack of manpower. As. Summerfest - has grown bigger, our membership has been thinned out over the dif- ferent events. = a ,.•- I mentioned the main reason,. but _there were ethers. A chairman looked into the possibility of holding a Soap Box Derby again this year. The- interest-wasn 't- there.--This-w a s also evident in the number of entries in the Bed Races. We •have had to drop_themirlway because we have such a difficult time getting one to come in, as their profits were never large enough compared to how they might fare elsewhere. Another factor there was the string of complaints we endured as to the midway "ripping off" the kids. Our hands were tied as the midway 'set and controlled their own prices. Free swimming or roller skating was mentioned but neither facility was open and again manpower would have hurt us. Let's then lank back priot to the Summerfest weekend. In December the club directed their bar proceeds of $250 from the Christmas Bash Dance to Crippled Children. December was also the month we hold our annual Santa Claus Day. February was the -.Heritage Day-. Poster Contest. Five cash prizes were given to the top entries from the school children. In March we held a skate-a-thon for the kids. Before accusing of us of using the kids to make money, please keep in mind that they, were given .all the free food, pop and skating time they wanted. Some of the children did not have any sponsors while still others have' never turned in their pledges. We simply appreciate those who did. In May the Kinsmen"nd Kinette clubs donated slightly over $500 to the fight ° against the children's diseaSe, Cystic Fibrosis. On top of these points I feel the irony of the story is that everything KinSmen do is for the kids. Com- munity betterment is our goal and we have tried, to do this through the installation of arena boards_, showers for the arena, ball park best of advantage of these projectS, pOgralP s' ProjectS such as these, take funds Because Ontario has become an urban-oriented society, farmers are and to, get...money we must organiZe left_ sutlsing..the hind teat again. and work profitable functions. The Nobody, it seems, has been able o tennis courts were originally taken On as a three year project. Club • generate the clout in cabinet that growers have been driven. to, their knees throUgh imports. The tariff - , .. Bill Stewart ' had when he was attitude changed, as we , felt we „ . • duty for '.Canada is 37.5 cents a weren't serving the' community by' • apt mister. ' hundredweight, about half the duty Alberta is still, thank the paying the high interest rates to the Almighty, a farmer-oriented charged on potato imports by the - bank and failing to bring in n United States. new province. Young men can get loans of up to $250,000 from that govern- ment at six per cent interest for the first five years and :12 per cent thereafter. Quebec also guarantees an interest rate of five per cent with no principal repayment for the first 10 months. - I'm not-sure of statistics here installed a children's playground in .It those big boys. Too many dollars in advertising is at stake. In the meantime, farmers haVe to 'make out with less and less at the farm gate and less help from senior governments. Editor's note: The editorial in no way intended to leave the impression that the Lucknow District Kinsmen Club never does, anything for children. Indeed the Kinsmen club is one of the most active service clubs regarding projects for children and the community's children benefit from alinost every project the Kinsmen club co-ordinates. The editorial attempted to point out there were no activities for children at this year's, Summerfest and traditionally Summerfest has included activities for children. We appreciate the club's efforts to provide an event for children at this year's Summerfest and hopefully some of your ideas will materialize for next year's Surnmerfest. raise money to pay for_the tennis but I think the Ontario governinent But you won't find the daily press _courts During the year w_e_have also ds_onirabout-ttpei,c-ent-ot-its- shouting for restrictions_agaixist__ projects, • while up with the tennis court payments. An all out effort to pay the debt was started and we proudl state that the tennis cdttrts are now'paid for, in one year rather than three. No-door to door carwasS-was-done or even suggested as a means to Is it any wonder farmers :are crying? And with all this;they haveto•fight four or five huge food chains which control-90 per cent of the food sold across Canada. A closer, more - precise monitoring of the-policies -of these chains is obviously essential. the park next to the tennis courts. In-Closing, we are a service club' not whabysitter. Kin Sumrnerfest '80 was very successful in that we not only paid off the tennis courts and can now lookto a future project, but in that we also gave over $1,000. to the Lucknow District Community Centre. If some pebple felt it was not up to their expectations, we again apologize, however, just wait until next year. We aregoing to do the impossible! We're going to please all of the people all otthe time. get n agrlcu ure.. Why, too, is there an outcry every time the governments, whether provincial or federal, decide to hold out a 'carrot to • farmers? This country has a tradition of super- Rod McDonagh, President, Luc know. and District Kinsmen Club. Who and when? *Mei 5,