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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1993-12-08, Page 4Page 4 — Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, December 8, 1993 Published weekly by Signal -Star Publishing ittd at 619 Campbell Street Lucknow, Ont P.O. Box 400, Lucknow, Ontario NOG 2H0 528-2822: Fax (519) 528-3529 Established 1873 Thomas Thompson - Advertising Manager Pattivingston - General Manager/Editor Phyllis Matthews Helm - Front Office Subscription rates advance: Local &tegular $201:4 within 40 mi radius G S T incl Local Senior $170° within 40 mi radius G.S T incl Out -Of -Area (40 miles) - Regular $32.24 - Senior $29.24 G.S.T. incl. Foreign + U.S A 69669 Publications mail registration no. 0847 held at Lucknow, Ont. Changes of address, orders for subscriptions, and undeliverable copies (return postage guaranteed) are to be sent to Lucknow Sentinel at the above address. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged tor, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid at the applicable rates . NAFTA: plan and prepare today for tomorrow Canadians are deeply divided on the North American 'Free Trade Agreement, (NAFTA) among Canada, the United States and Mexico. The problem is one of vision. Critics are mainly concerned about today's economy and the immediate loss of jobs to Mexico while supporters argue that NAFTA is a crucial building block needed to construct jobs and security for Canadians in the future. It's time for Canadians to understand that the world is changing. Whether they like it or not, they are living in an international economy where citizens in every nation on earth must 'see things in a global context. Protectionism is dead. It won't save Canadians any more. The only way to ensure employment and prosperity for Canadians tomorrow, is to plan and prepare today. The bottom line benefit of the NAFTA is simple: when you put money in the hands of the poor in Mexico, you create more sales opportunities and job openings for Canadians. It won't happen overnight. Nobody promised it would happen overnight. But it will happen during the next 15 years when almost all tariffs among the three countries involved in the NAFTA are dropped. It will. happen when developing regions of Mexico require Canadian know-how and innovation to construct pipelines, install telecommunication networks, provide financial services, design health care infrastructures. Remember the horse -and -buggy advocates who said the automotive industry would wreck the North, American economy? Canadians must accept the inevitable. The Canadian assembly -line worker with the high school diploma who works for seven -and -a -half hours a day four or five days a week inserting Part A into' Slot B and. gets paid very well for doing it, has no place in the new world of the 21st century. Those jobs are already diminishing and by tomorrow they will be gone. This transformation wasn't caused by Brian Mulroney or the Progressive Conservative Party or Bill Clinton. It wasn't even caused by the NAFTA. It was inescapable in a world where men fly faster than sound, where light. travels through cement, where human life ban be cloned in a test tube. Fear can stifle progress. Faith can ignite it. _Canadians need to believe there's more to be gained by stepping out in confidence than hanging back in trepidation. - SJIC How the Japanese view Canada and its people The Japanese are watching. They are watching Canada. They are watching Ontario. They are interested in Canada and in Ontario. They have investments here. And according to Kenichi Ohmae who is the author of several books on global strategy, Ontario is pretty much on its own now. In the Japanese view, says Ohmae, Canadians ha•,'e shot themselves in the foot. They voted for regionalism in the recent federal election and must live • with the consequences. Now, with different political parties representing different regions of the country, Ontario should not count. on a working arrangement with any one of the other provinces. Rather, Ontario should be looking outside the country and beyond North America - to Asia, Latin America and Europe - for partnerships. He may be right, although it pains us to say so. But Kenichi Ohmae may see more clearly from a distance what Canadians cannot from here - that in Canada right now, it's every province for itself and may the best one win all the marbles. It's just one more symptom of a changing Canada that is less distinct and more divided. - SJK The .Sentinel Memoirs Fire destroys Ackert barn 70 years ago Dec. 6, 1923 Big blaze at Holyrood - The .biggest barn fire which ever occurred in Kinloss Township, was on Monday afternoon when the barn on Almer Ackert's farm, just west of Holyrood corner, was completely destroyed in a few hours. The bam was filled with the season's crop which was threshed about three weeks ago, everything, having been put in order for the wintering of 70 or 80 head of cattle. The barn was one of the best equipped in the province, even to a Delco lighting plant. Sixty-five head of cattle were in the basement, most of them in single stalls, but by quick work these were all gotten out. Four pigs were burned. We understand that the contents of the barn were well insured, but there will be considerable loss on the building, which, like all other farm barns, had greatly outgrown in value the amount of insurance carried. The help of neighbors who soon gathered about was effective in getting the cattle out. It was only by the most strenuous efforts that the implement shed, the dwelling and the Methodist Church building were saved. These buildings were many times ignited, and a number of men were. severely burned and had their clothing on fire in their efforts to prevent a conflagration. 50 years ago Dec. 9, 1943 oncert off due to flu - The Lucknow Public School concert has been indefinitely postponed due to the flu. There were some 44 pupils absent from school the first of the week, which made it practically impossible to carry on concert rehearsals, with the possibility also that others might be ill by the night of the concert. A Sunday school supper that was being considered in the United Church is being postponed until after Christmas. Rural school attendance has dropped un some localities to a point where the school was closed. Black gold arrives - A car of Mack gold ar- rived at Ripley recently - 65 tons of it.. A variety of vehicles were on hand before daybreak and before the noon hour, the fuel hungry folk of that community had "gobbled up" every pound of it. 25 years ago Dec.11, 1968 hitechurch post office to close - While no official word has been received by Postmaster Doris Willis of Whitechurch all indications presently point to the closing . of the Whitechurch post office by the end of this year. Whitechurch has close to 50 boxholders who depend on the post office for their mail service and these people, with a few exceptions would be served on R.R. 3, Wingham if present plans go ahead.' Douglas Point announcement - Ontario Hydro will build a 3,000,000 kilowatt nuclear power station on a 2,300 acre site adjacent to Douglas Point, Canada's first full-scale nuclear power plant, midway between Port Elgin and Kincardine. The station's four 750,000 kilowatt units will be powered by nuclear reactors using heavy water and natural uranium - the Canadian concept. Cain House ZION SCHOOL 1914 - Back row, from the left: Myrtle Ritchie, Ada Heim, Verna Stroud, Lizzie Helm, 'teacher Mary Culbert. Third row Eva Gardiner,•Gertle Stroud, Margaret Webster, Edna Ritchie, Pearl Beaton, Jane Rltchle, Essle Ritchie.. Third row, Harry Hackett, Camian Beaton, Alf ---Andrew,-F-red-Ritchie,-Wat:.Webste Ahrin Beaton, Bill Webster. Fourth row, seated, Mac Webster, Beverley Beaton, Carl Gibson, Ewart Webster, Marsf>Il-GIbn,-Blll-Stroud; -Melvin-Webster: (courtesy Mel Webster) The legend of Robert .Service by Marsha Boulton WHITEHORSE, YUKON, 1906 - - What Canadian poet claimed to have been shot at while writing one of his most famous ballads? Robert Service was a bank teller in Whitehorse when he was invited to prepare a reading for a church concert. It was a rowdy Klondike Saturday night when he thought of the line: "A bunch of the boys were whooping it up." After returning to his apartment above the bank office, Service says in his autobiography, "Ploughman of the Moon," he crept downstairs to the quiet of his teller's cage and commenced work. A sleeping guard awoke and assumed the midnight author was a burglar. "Fortunately, he was a poor shot or `The Shooting of Dan McGrew' might never have been written," wrote Service, "With the sensation TH of a bullet whizzing past my head, and a detonation ringing in my ears, the ballad was achieved." More than 50 years later, Service finally admitted the story was pare hokum. Service emigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1894 with $15 in his pocket and'1+isions of becoming a cowboy. He tramped about and took all manner of odd jobs, before he began a career in banking which led him to the Yukon. His fust book of verse, "Songs of a Sourdough," was an accidental success. Service had intended to print a slim volume of Iris poems as a souvenir for his frieiids, and his father forwarded the material to a publisher of hymn books in New York for printing. The book sold itself when pressmen were discovered laughing. and reciting Service's verse, including the classic "Cremation of Sam McGee." The book sold over two million copies and made Ser- vice one of the best-known and wealthiest writers in Canada. In -1908, Service was transferred to Dawson city and he settled in a rustic cabin, which is now a museum. He wrote his first novel here, "The Trail of '98." When it was finished he decide to deliver it personally to `his publisher in New York. "We expected you to arrive in mukluks and a parka driving a dog team down Fifth Avenue," exclaimed the publisher, who was surprised to find Service rather unassuming in appearance. Far from •turn to page 6