HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-05-03, Page 5HELEN GOWING
Helen Gowing honoured
for 15 years of service
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1989. PAGE 5.
Letters to the editor
Thanks for the hearing
BY LISA BOONSTOPPEL
Mrs. Helen Gowing was presen
ted a Volunteer Service Award for
her 15 years of work to the Blyth
Centre for the Arts (operator of the
Blyth Festival) as a member of
their Board of Directors.
“I was surprised I won the
award," said Mrs. Gowing who
was nominated by Linda Lentz,
official fundraiser for the centre.
Mrs. Gowing was instrumental
in opening the Centre 15 years ago.
The Board of Trade for the Blyth
businesses, of which she was
president started a venture to clean
up Blyth Memorial Hall and put it
in use.
"The Centre is certainly a lot
greater than I ever imagined it"
Family and Children’s
Services elects board
The 1989 Annual Meeting of
Family and Children’s Services of
Huron County was held on Wed
nesday, April 26, 1989 at the
corporation offices in Goderich.
Family and Children’s Services is
operated by the Children’s Aid
Society and is responsible for the
protection of children under 16 who
live in Huron County.
The Board of Directors, elected
annually, consists of 15 people.
Four people are appointed by the
County of Huron, which provides
20 per cent of the funding of the
$1.4 million budget. These appoin
tees are Warden David Johnston,
W. L. Mickle, Albert Wasson, and
George Cantelon.
The following people were elect
ed to the Board by the member
ship: Dorothy Coultes, Marian
Doucette, Tom Flynn, Murray
Hord, Roberta Kloss, Mary Mof
fatt, Michael Park, Suzy Symes,
Dr. Bruce Thomasson, Norm Tait,
Paul Zurbrigg.
Minutes of the last annual meet
ing were approved. The financial
report was presented by auditor
says Mrs. Gowing who had origin
ally planned to get the centre back
in use for the community.
Mrs. Gowing is involved in the
fundraising for the theatre and also
sits on the building committee of
the board.
She says she has enjoyed her 15
years of volunteer service to the
Hall which was built as a memor
ial to the soldiers who died in the
First World War.
"Tve enjoyed the people I’ve
worked with very much, she says.
The award was presented by the
Ministry of Citizenship and the
Ministry of Culture and Communi
cations on April 20 in Owen Sound.
Also receiving an award was Don
McCaffery of Exeter, a volunteer
for five years with the Festival.
Eugene Bender. Reports of the
Executive Director and the Presi
dent were presented and are
available on request from the office
at 524-7356 or 1-800-265-5198.
Burglar
bungles
Continued from page 1
in time to witness two men fleeing
the scene on foot. Shortly after,
Betty Maillot noticed two men
trying to steal a van belonging to
Gary Courtney of Blyth. She noti
fied Mr. Courtney who ran outside
and chased the subjects. Another
neighbour, Ruth Stewart notified
the police.
While Mr. Courtney was able to
apprehend one of the perpetrators
the other managed to escape. Mr.
Courtney explained that all of the
stolen merchandise had been
dropped with the exception of a
leather jacket worn by the thief.
Constable Graf of the Goderich
OPP is currently conducting an
investigation to discover the identi
ty of the second suspect.
THE EDITOR,
Last Friday 1 felt like I had
missed out on a very important
opportunity. I’ll tell you why!
The night before, Thursday,
April 27, I went to a meeting in
Walton Hall. The hall was filled
with landowners from Grey, Mor
ris, East Wawanosh, Hullett and
Colborne townships. A lot of these
landowners were farmers. They all
had one thing in common. They all
own land adjacent to the abandon
ed Goderich-to-Guelph C.P.R. line
along its length through Huron
County. They had all come to voice
their concerns about the future use
of this railroad property.
Two gentlemen from the Inter-
ministerial committee, a group that
will eventually decide on a future
use for this land, had come to hear
adjacent landowners concerns.
These two gentlemen were Mr.
Cikiah Thomas who is the secretary
of the Interministerial Committee
and represents the Ministry of
Transportation and Mr. Tonu
Tosine, who represents the Mini
stry of Agriculture and Food.
I wanted to get up and thank the
United Groundhog’s Day Commit
tee, especially Mrs. Jeanne Kirkby
whose patience and diligent efforts
played a major role in arranging
the meeting.
1 wanted to thank Emerson
Mitchell, Arnold Egli, Barry
Hoegy, Joyce Bean and Don Sower-
by for conducting a tour to give Mr.
Thomas and Mr. Tosine a first
hand look at the C.P.R. property
across Huron County.
I also wanted to thank the
| The International
Scene
French in 30 days?
How about
30 months
BY RAYMOND CANON
I have in front of me a little ad
which encourages rne to "Speak
French like a Diplomat." While 1
am at it, I can also learn how to
speak Spanish, German, and
Italian like diplomats too. What I
have to do is to enroll in the course
which the institute in question
happens to be offering. All I can
ask is where this institute was
when I was young and having to
grapple with another language
about every other year. I would
have been happy then to be content
with speaking a number of langu
ages like a diplomat’s son or
daughter.
Perhaps diplomats have changed
since I was displaying my wares in
the Dept, of External Affairs. Most
of the ones I worked for had trouble
getting beyond their native tongue
and there were only a few of us who
could be considered to be bilingual
by any stretch of the imagination
Whatever the reasons, Canadians
seem to have a bad reputation for
languages; this is perhaps some
thing that is endemic in the entire
English speaking world but that is
perhaps due partly to the fact that
it is generally expected that other
people will learn English and that
is that. What a pity!
However, I digress. It seems to
me that any ad, not matter how
well intentioned, that claims to
township councils’ representatives
for supporting the landowners’
concerns.
But 1 didn’t move from my seat
or utter a word.
1 wanted to tell Mr. Thomas and
Mr. Tosine about the problems we
have had dealing with the railway
in regards to fencing, crossings,
weeds, drainage and many other
nuisances and that 1 would rather
bear the expense of buying their
property than the frustration of
trying to persuade another owner
or agency to maintain it in a
satisfactory manner.
1 also wanted to tell Mr. Thomas
and Mr. Tosine that we cherish our
way of life and our privacy and that
we do not want these two important
aspects of farm life endangered by
apublic access through the middle
of our farms, front yards, back
yards, and laneways.
I wanted to mention that 1
Ratepayers Assoc, needed
THE EDITOR,
Governing is a difficult job to say
the least. Elected people should
never forget that governing is a
responsibility not a power. You are
elected to carry out the demands
placed upon you by the senior
levels of government and also (and
most important in my mind) re
sponsible to the residents who
elected you to act on their behalf.
Only by carefully considering the
decisions you have to make, can
you carry out your mandate. You
need to decide how to use the
scarce tax dollars in the most
EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT way
have you speaking a language like
a diplomat, or even like a janitor, in
30 days or so, is guilty of false
advertising and the writer should
be condemned to learn how to write
Chinese in one week. After 30
days, even if you are in an
immersion program, you should be
able to carry out simple conversa
tions but to expect anybody to
conduct a conversation in the
subtle nuances of the diplomatic
world is the height of folly. You
may get a passable accent in that
time; the rest you will not!
Let me give you a few examples.
Language is made up not only of a
number of complex grammatical
concepts but is shot full of idioms.
Both of these tax the ingenuity of
even a well educated person. Even
a language such as German which
has so many words in common with
English, drives English speaking
people up the wall when it comes to
word order; the two are at opposite
ends of the pole. He said that he to
the store on the corner quickly gone
had. Does that puzzle you? How
ever, that is precisely how the
Germans, be they members of the
diplomatic corps or not, would
phrase a simple statement of
reported speech. Try getting your
tongue around that in 30 days.
Then there are all the idioms! If
you accuse someone in French of
taking French leave, and translate
it literally into that language, you
will insult all the French speakers
in the room. Their way of saying it
is "partir a l’anglaise" or to leave
in English fashion. In other words
each nation accuses the other of
walking out. Don’t try to translate
the expression "deaf as a door
nail" literally into French. Even if
thought that people who are today
trespassing on C.P.R. private pro
perty and boasting about it would
probably not hesitate to trespass on
my property or yours as well.
1 wanted to point out that basic
freedoms like our way of life and
privacy are precious traditions that
are easily lost but very difficult or
impossible to regain.
As 1 have written, 1 wanted to say
these things, but having no talent
for public speaking 1 was unable to
utter a word. But 1 didn’t have to
worry because all my concerns and
others besides were capably cover
ed by other people and intently
listened to and carefully noted by
Mr. Thomas and Mr. Tosine.
Well, it’s time to tend my cattle,
again. I do that twice a day, 365
days a year. Lucky for me 1 am a bit
better at farming than speaking at
a meeting or writing.
A MORRIS TOWNSHIP FARMER.
to get the best use possible for
these funds. You are not governing
for the select few but for the whole
town.
Let’s all pull together to make
Brussels a POSITIVE town. We
have good appointed officials, let’s
give them a pat on the back for jobs
well done. Tell your concerns to the
elected and appointed officials.
They can only govern RESPONSI
BLY if they know we believe
they are answerable to us.
Perhaps it’s time for a Ratepay
ers Association. Give me a call and
we can discuss it.
R. E. SAUVE
BRUSSELS.
you by chance happen to know the
word for "doornail," it won’t do
you a bit of good. The French
expression is "deaf as a pot." To
ask a Frenchman if he is full after a
meal is to render the ultimate in
insults. He uses a totally different
word (rassasie).
Even a slip in gender can cause
you all sorts of problems. If you ask
for a glass and use the wrong
gender, what you really ask for is a
worm. The same type of slip will
get you a stove instead of a frying
pan. French is not alone in this. A
gender goof in German will some
dew instead of some rope.
Then again there are sometimes
comic overtones when a word in
one language looks quite a bit like a
word in another. There is the story
of a German who came to England
for the first time, went into a
restaurant and ordered a meal.
When it was slow in coming, he
called the waitress and informed
her, "Twenty minutes ago I was to
become a veal cutlet but I have not
yet it become." The German word
"bekommen" looks to a German
about the same as the English word
"become" if you change the k to a
c but the German word never
means "become," father it means
“get". Small wonder that all the
German got was a surprised look on
the face of the waitress.
All this is not to scare you from
learning any other language. On
the contrary go ahead but don’t
forget that there is no easy road to
the world of diplomats. Ads of this
sort are definitely misleading.
Just remember that, when a
Frenchman tells somebody that
they speak French like a Spanish
cow, this is by no means a
compliment. Just the opposite!