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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-06-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1989. PAGE 5. Double retirement The Roberts leave work behind but won't leave Belgrave friends Retiring couple John and Kay Roberts of Belgrave pose with the wicker furniture they received at their retirement party. The Roberts will stay in Belgravefor their retirement years after serving the community for 22 years. * The International Scenehl Jl— , ..i . 5S ... ,____________________.___________________•_______________________________________________________________________________________________ BY RAYMOND CANON I have been watching with a great deal of interest the efforts of our federal government to come to grips with the national debt, not to mention the efforts of a great many Canadians to complain in such a way that it is not hard to get the impression that it is not the debt reduction that they are complaining about; they would prefer that somebody else be saddled with carrying the burden that goes along with the reduction. First of all, let’s get a few things straight about the whole concept of national debt. All countries have them; it is part and parcel of doing business as a nation. When we ha^e wars as we did in 1914-1918, 1939-1945, the Korean War and the subsequent one in Vietnam, the participants find that they are impossible to finance out of exist­ ing revenues and so have to resort to borrowing. They make the same discovery when it comes to the trough of the business cycle and money has to be pumped into the economy so that the rate of unemployment does not balloon out of sight. The correct approach would be to either eliminate or reduce the deficit during the peak time of the business cycle when the economy can most afford to make up for past losses but, as most if not all governments will tell you, it is far harder to raise taxes than it is to deficit finance. Thus it is that we, as well as the Americans, have found ourselves with a big debt that has to be serviced. We also share with the Americans the inability to come to grips with this debt and have, as a result, let it drag on and on, getting worse each year. How do we, the Americans and the other nations, finance such a debt? There are two ways; we can either create more money or else we can sell bonds. We could even do a combination of both if we wanted to and this is normally the way. There is one thing about the creation of money which needs to be kept in mind. There is some­ thing called the quantity theory of money which dictates that, if you double the amount of money which you create, prices will go up by about the same amount. In short, it is inflationary and needs to be handled with caution. BY USA BOONSTOPPEL Retire: give up office or work; go away; withdraw; go to bed. These are the definitions of retirement as stated in the Collins Canadian English Dictionary. But the defini­ tion isn’t totally suitable to John Roberts and his wife Kay. True, Mr. Roberts is retiring from his office as minister of Knox United Church in Belgrave and Mrs. Roberts is retiring from her job as teacher at the Blyth Public School, but the Roberts aren’t going away and they aren’t going to withdraw. They are still going to be stalwart friends to the people in Belgrave. “They’re our friends,” said Mrs. Roberts about the people in the small community of Belgrave. It’s this emotional bond with this community that has kept the Ro­ berts from moving to another town. “We celebrate their happiness but we also share their sorrows,” said Mrs. Roberts. The Roberts first came to Bel­ grave 22 years ago from Wales when Mr. Roberts became the minister of Knox United Church in Belgrave and Calvin Brick United in East Wawanosh Township. One year later, Mrs. Roberts acquired a teaching position at Blyth Public School. From the beginning, the Roberts were active in the church. In 1969, they started a County Fayre which is now an annual fundraising event for the church. The couple was instrumental in starting a youth group at the church in Belgrave and worked with the youth for several years. They initiated holding a chicken barbecue at the 50th anniversary of Sunday School which has been a popular tradition ever since. Besides fulfilling his role as a minister in the Belgrave and East Wawanosh Church, Mr. Roberts was active in the Huron-Perth Presbytery. He served on the Presbytery for many years and served on the Pastoral Relations Committee and the Boundaries Advisory Committee. He also serv­ ed a term as chairman of the presbytery. Thus we are forced to rely more on the bond issues and, inasmuch as we can sell bonds to Canadian investors, the situation is not so bad. However, the unfortunate fact is that both we and the Americans are so much in debt that our domestic markets cannot handle it all. Because of this we have to turn to investors in other countries, such as Japan, Taiwan and Europe to buy some of the bonds. This means that both principal and interest flow out of our country, a flow which effectively reduces our stan­ dard of living. This reduction in our standard is an insidious one and it is not generally noticed by the rank and file. However, I can assure you that it does take place and it becomes compounded when we look at our other debt. (Yes, there is more than one.) There is a thing called the Current Account and this is a summary of how we fare as a nation on our international transactions. I hate to tell you this but currently we are running a yearly deficit in this account of just over $10 billion and this, too, has to be financed. Unlike the first one, all of this debt Mr. Roberts also held positions on the London Conference of United Churches on the Settlement Committee which had to do with “settling ministers into pastoral charges”, explained Mr. Roberts. He made a significant contribu­ tion to the Ventures in Mission of the United Church in Canada by publishing a paper called St. Paul’s Great Collection. It was a paper on the Early Churches for Ventures in Mission. “It gave a new Testament background and foundation for the Ventures in Mission Program,” said Mr. Roberts. He also served as a director of Information and Education on VIM. A love of music also entrenched Mr. Roberts in many activities. He formed and directed the male voice choir in the United Church in Belgrave for nine years. This directing experience provided him with the chance to direct the Gymanfu Ganu which is a Welsh hymn sing festival. It was held in Toronto at St. David’s Welsh United Church two years ago. As a teacher, Mrs. Roberts was also a busy woman. She taught grades one to three during the years at Blyth and was also the key teacher at the school for a number of years. She was also president of the Women’s Teachers’ Federa­ tion, North unit a few years ago. She was also active in the church as a member of the United Church Women of which she also served a term as president. After these busy years, the Roberts are looking forward to their retirement. Mr. Roberts preached his last sermon on June 24 and Mrs. Roberts last work day will be on Thursday. But the couple have many fond memories of their jobs, particularly the surprise parties they received throughout the years. The Belgrave church sprung a party on the couple for the 25th anniversary of Mr. Roberts ordination into the church. He was presented with a plaque commemorating the event. The couple really got a shock when a party was thrown for their 25th wedding anniversary. “We hadn’t heard a whisper about it,” There ’s good debt and there’s bad has to be paid for by borrowing foreign currency which means that this flow of money is added to the first one and serves to make the decline in our standard of living. We have at least a surplus in the goods we sell to other countries compared to what we buy from them; the Americans, for their part, are buying from other coun­ tries far more than they export. I should point out, however, that our surplus of trade has dropped to only about half of what it was about four years ago; this drop is chiefly responsible for the deficit in the current account; that and the fact that we spend as tourists far more in other countries than we earn by attracting foreign tourists. You may find all this grandstand­ ing by the politicians very amusing; you may even take some of it seriously. To me it is just grand- standing pure and simple. Regard­ less of how we go about it, we have to learn how to pay our way as a nation since it is something we seem to have forgotten how to do over the past 15 years. We might even learn to imitate the British; they paid off no less than $14 billion of their national debt this year. remembered Mrs. Roberts. “We were going to celebrate the occa­ sion with our family and we were so surprised.” Mrs. Roberts was honoured by a surprise party last week when her grade 3 class planned a good-bye party for their teacher. It isn’t surprising that the couple is looking forward to spending more time with their family and doing a bit of travelling. But, their hearts are with the people in Belgrave. They will stay here now, just as they’ve stayed for the past 22 years. “We could have gone to another place that offered a higher salary, but we wouldn’t have found the happiness we have here.” Mabel’s Grill Continued from page 4 and it all adds up, he said. Funny thing, said Ward. They talk about the inefficiency of our little villages and townships but who’s in the black? Us. And who’s got a big deficit? The province. WEDNESDAY: Well, Ward said, he figures the kiss of death has been put on any ambitions David Peterson had for the Liberal party leadership. “I mean,” Ward said, “is it really a great recommenda­ tion to the rest of Canada to have Robert Bourassa on your side?” Hank said he didn’t think so. That’s why he voted against Mul­ roney in the federal election. Ward said he could understand the temptation for Peterson though. The way things are going in Queen’s Park these days, who wouldn’t want to get out of the province. THURSDAY: Tim said he had to make sure he was home for work early tonight so he could be ready for his daughter’s grade 8 graduation. He said he figures by the time there’s the dress and the new shoes and the corsage and the hairdo, this graduation is going to set him back plenty. Seems to him his own wedding didn’t cost as much, he said. Funny thing, Hank said, back in his day when about half the kids quit school at the end of grade eight, they didn’t make a fuss about grade eight graduation at all. “Just handed you the report card and hustled you out the door so the teachers could get on with their holidays. Now, when everybody goes on to high school and a lot of them to college and university after that, they make a big deal out of it. Go figure it.” Just be thankful your kids are all grown, Julia said. Give it another 10 years the way things are going and you’ll have to take out a second mortgage to finance the kindergar­ ten graduation ceremony. Upcoming meetings Wednesday, June 28 - 4-H Achievement Program for “Let’s Landscape”, Auburn Hall, Auburn 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 3 - Central Huron 4-H Swine Club Meeting, Bergs- ma s, Londesboro 8:00 p.m.