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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1963-01-03, Page 6- Page 6 Wingham Advance -Times, Thursday, Jan, 3, 1963 VR LVEF ( .. YgMiM 41.414."06 • I1 GUM Mon OARGErEx PQ'tll -PAK » ,»»wore .«,.a..roRooWAS W ..YWM 1040, tOU,M RM. .104 wq M* 440,010VCS .,® two.* rt. • on , r 'OXOM a. 10M.r04/111 LIm,rao McKibbo»s Pharmacy DIAL 357-1880 - WINGUA.M1i IRKED BY JERKY RIDES VEN HORT TRIPS IRING! CAR HARI TO CONTROL YOUR CAR "Uses Up" WHEEL BALANCE as FAST as Oil Filter Cartridges! Your engine wears fast without proper lubrication...and so does your Steenng without correct wheel balancing! Pre- vent costly steering and tire wear. tiave wheels checked with accurate a&AA equipment every time you change oil filters. It costa no more at the shop with ISEARSERVICE of lh.-HoppY Soar' Sight N 254 DRIVE IN FOR .A SCIENTIFIC: Wheel- Safety Chek SAFE STEERING STARTS. AT TOE "BEAR SIGH KEN'S Alignment Service Dial 357-1230 - Diagonal Rd. WINGHAM riallSIMISSIMMINIONSW Murray Gaunt, I.P.P. Gives Maiden Speech to House Murray Gaunt, M.P,P. for Huron -Bruce, delivered his maiden speech to the Legisla- ture on Tuesday, December 18. Mr. Gaunt charged the govern- ment with definite lack of in- terest in planning for the rural areas of Ontario, Mr, Gaunt has also been named to serve on ten commit- tees: Agriculture; Conservation - lands and forests; Education; Game and Fish; Health and Welfare; Labour; Labour Bills; Mining; Private Bills and Stand- ing Orders, The following is his speech made to the Legislature: Mr. Speaker, When this house has before it consideration of matters af- fecting agriculture, it is in- clined to dwell on prices and markets and distributive prac- tices and taxation, Like -wise, when this house has before it matters affecting industry it is inclined to follow much the same procedure. It is alto- gether proper that such proce- dure should be observed be- cause these are the questions of immediate concern and conten- tion. But I submit, Mr, Speaker, that, in so far as our less popu- lous areas are concerned, there is a matter which, while not as newsworthy as the more vis- ible problems is none the less of vital concern to all who live in this province and one which has long merited more atten- tion than it has received. While this subject touches on both agriculture and on in- dustry in the area I have the honour to represent it touches - it presses rather - on the lives of those who dwell there and, to the extent that the strength of all Ontario depends on the strength of all the parts, this �. L 4 THENEW KIND OF AUTO INSURANCE! '•Ar '�\�% Are you taking advantage of the latest thing in auto in - 1 surance — a new type of policy that provides "packaged" protection to give you a lot more value for a lot less cost? Our new Economy Auto Policy' does just that. Call us for details. Wit CONRON9 CI.U, INSURANCE AGENCY John Street - Wingham - Dia! 357-2636 S. A. SCOTT, Salesman subject is the concern of all Ontario and should be the im- mediate concern of this house. This subject is the erosion of opportunity for youth in our rural areas. When the area that is Huron - Bruce was settled between a hundred and a hundred and fifty years ago - settlement in pretty much the present pattern took about fifty years to es- tablish - it was already be- hind that area to the south known as the Huron Tract and behind the Lake area to the north. Wingham, now the centre of the riding, the largest town in the riding with a population of less than 3, 000 was not settled until a man on a raft, corning down river from Brussels, stuck on a sand bar and settled there. That was in 1859, Wingham's first industry was a grist mill to serve the settler farmers in the immediate vi- cinity, And as the land settled and the area grew in population, other industries grew up to serve it. They grew, not only in Wingham, but in Lucknow, in Brussels, in Blyth, in Mildmay, in Teeswater, in Ripley and in the smaller communities that grew to serve the farm com- munity during the last century. And then, beginning with the last generation and acceler- ating into today, began what I refer to as the population ero- sion. First young men and then young women began to leave the farms and to seek employ- ment -- in the Ford factory in Detroit, employment in Lon- don, in Kitchener, in Toronto and further afield. Coincidental with this exo- dus from the farm came the great developments in farm mechanization. The area of Huron -Bruce was at one time noted for its horses. Tomorrow, if the trend continues, horses will be explained to children by means of pictures. Today the farms are larger, the people fewer, the oppor- tunities less, We, on the farms, desperately seeking some hold- • ing back of the clock, are in- clined to point fingers at verti- cal integration in agriculture, at the inadequacy of agricul- tural products price floors, at the inequalities of taxation, particularly in the field of ad- vanced education. I am not pressing on these points today, not because I am in any sense withdrawing from these issues, but because today I am reaching further and dig - That's Very Good Flossie, in Spite of the Old Hay! By supplying a high level of Vita. min A, Shur -Gain Dairy Supplement "A" promotes increased rumen bac-- feria activity. The result . . . coarse, woody, low qualify roughage is trans- formed into more valuable feed for milk production and body mainten, once. Shur -Gain Dairy Supplement "A" also supplies 32% protein; proper vitamin and mineral fevers; medium to high energy value ... everything required to balance your groins for increased milk production. FREE! There's an easy to read "Concentrate" folder waiting for' you at our mill. Wingham Feed Mill DIAL, 357-3060 WINGHAM, ONT. ging deeper in an attempt to alleviate a worsening situation. This starvation of opportun- ity which expels our young people from the farms is more than a social phenomenon to note in passing. It is much more than that. It is a shrink- ing of the small farm family circle and all that circle means in religious good, in social good and in economic good. It is a negation of the aspirations which brought our forebears to clear and to plough and to set- tle with the thought that there would be plenty for those who followed after, But this shrinkage of popu- lation does not affect only the farm home and the family cir- cle. In one way or another it af- fects everyone who works or lives in Ontario. Every young man or young woman who leaves the farm to go to the city takes with him a customer of the merchants in the nearby town, The customer shrinkage, when projected to hundreds or thousands, means fewer and less prosperous mer- chants, fewer shop workers, eventually smaller town popu- lation. And, as the towns shrink, so does their attraction for new industry. It is a vicious circle of aban- donment with the economic barometer steadily plummeting. The farms get larger and emp- tier; the towns get quieter and less prosperous. The area withers. This, Mr. Speaker, benefits nobody. fit, And yet, practically no[h- ing is being done to remedy the situation. Nor have any steps been taken that warrant hope for the future. Take my own area. Take Huron -Bruce as an example. No one of my generation has seen the slightest effort to plan. Hydro has been made available as it has in most of our settled communities. Roads have been surfaced, providing a little niggling local employment. But hydro lighting what? Roads leading whither? There has been no planning for the future. There has been no enquiry as to where the future might lead. There has been no governmen- tal interest in whether this area dwindled or prospered. The hard fact of the matter is that the rural areas of On- tario have not evolved with evolution because it has been to the interest of the govern- ment of Ontario to keep the people of t hese areas as hewers of wood and drawers of water. Great sums are being spent and much publicity has been given to job retraining. This is to the interest of industry and to the other monied classes the government serves. But what has been done in like measure for the Ontario farmer and for the resident - worker or small business man of the small towns? Nothing - positively, unequivocally noth- ing! What should be done? What steps should be taken by local residents, by local mer- chants? What steps should be taken by the government of Ontario? The answers to these questions are controversial but somewhere, somehow, action must be undertaken because the passing of the buck has left us woefully little time in which to reverse our downward trend. It must be obvious to all who study this important problem that the first requirement in amending a condition that is rapidly becoming intolerant is adequate information =- region- al information. A survey is needed to mea- sure the fall off in opportunity and the same survey could read- ily he employed to reveal aven- ue. of new opportunity. The making of such a survey is surely a government obligation and one that should be under- taken immediately. This has been done before and done One Moment Please by Rev, G, L. Fish Wingham, Ontario Intended for last week. Christmas '62 is past. To many all that is left is a head- ache, extra bills and utter ex- haustion. Stripped of all the non -essentials Christmas was meant to be a time of giving and receiving. No, not that of paltry gifts, whatever their monetary value - but the giv- ing and the receiving of Jesus Christ, Did you give a gift to some- one this year and saw it re- fused or rejected? 1 doubt very much that you have, for we are all a greedy lot. But you can imagine the humilia- tion if such a thing had occur- red. Or, think of this: We are busy now for a week or twq taking out the bare Christmas trees that have brought such cheer into our homes. Were you to see a gift still hanging on the branches of that tree, would you not be concerned that it was not picked up and enjoyed? Seems too trivial to speak of giving and receiving in just this way, but did this happen again as we spurned God's Gift, this Christmas 1962? How humiliating it must be to the Giver of this Gift, to see His offer so abused in rejection. It is again the repetition of an incomplete Christmas. There has been the giving - but unfortunately there has not been the receiv- ing. If Christmas 1962 has been a personal experience of Giv- ing and Receiving then this Christmas has been complete for you. It has meant more than the perfunctory celebra- tion of an event of some 1900 years ago. You are now appre- ciative of this wonderful truth: "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to be- come the sons of God." John 1:12. A merry Christmas and a truly satisfying New Year as you follow on in the discovery of 'His unspeakable Gift. Birthday Party Held Saturday Intended for last week, k'.ORDWICH,--A birthday party was held Saturday night at the home of Mr, and Mrs. Anson Demerling in honour of Mr. Anson Demerling and his brother, Edward, of Neustadt, Present for the gathering were,Mr, and Mrs. Harvey Demerling of Clifford, Mr. and Mrs, Ezra Demerling, Clifford, Mr, and Mrs, Bill Demerling of Kurtzville, Mr, Albert Demer- ling of Hyde Park, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Demerling of Neu- stadt, Mrs, Elsie Demerling, Fordwich, Mr. and Mrs. Clar- ence Deitz and Clarence of Mayne Corners, Hi -C Meets BELGRAVE-The Hi -C. Group met on Sunday night in the Uni- ted Church basement. Mari- lyn Campbell was in charge of the meeting. The theme was " The United Church of Canada, " Max Pletch and Lorne Camp- bell read the main parts and everyone participated by read- ing a chapter each on The Con- gregational Church. Marilyn Campbell and Max Pletch were in charge of the worship service. The next meeting will be held January 13, with Murray Scott's group in charge. successfully. Right now the government of Mexico is pay- ing out many millions of dol- lars to have a professional as- sessment made of the potential of its various areas. And yet Mexico is considered, com- pared to us, a backward coun- try. So let us have a survey which will tell us in what direc- tion we should look. Then let us revise the Muni- cipal Act to enable communi- ties to effect the remedial mea- sures indicated by the survey. Today, section 422 of the Municipal Act provides that the council of a municipality having a population of not less than 5, 000 may pass by-laws for the establishment and main- tenance of a department of in- dustries and for appointing a commissioner of industries to bring to the notice of manu- facturers and others the advan- tages of the municipality as an industrial business, educational, residential or vacation centre. It also states that the council of a local municipality may expend in any one year a sum not exceeding the amount of one mill on the dollar on the total of its taxable assessment and as an additional one-tenth of one mill on the dollar on that part of its total taxable assessment in excess of ten million dollars for the purpose of paying any expenses of its department and commissioner of industries, if any, and for the purpose of distributing in- formation respecting the advan- tages of the municipality as an industrial, business, educa- tional, residential or vacation centre. but no local municipal- ity unicipality shall expend in one year an amount exceeding $60,000 for such purpose. All this high soundingphras- eology is totally meaningless in the areas to which I refer, In Huron -Bruce, for instance, the largest town is Wingham with a population of 2,800. The Act does not permit Wing - ham, as a town, to act to save itself. If Ontario is to grow in opportunity, if the deep rural areas are to benefit from such growth, if these areas are to continue to be an asset to rather than a burden on the body pol- itic, then this act must be re- vised to help smaller towns to help themselves. I know that there will be re- sistence to these two sugges- tions. I know that there are those who will say that places like Huron -Bruce want to be supported by government, that these places want protection and crutches to lean on and someone else - government perhaps - to support them. Mr. Speaker, the person who makes such a statement slanders all the good people who live in these areas. To borrow from history and to adapt a great quotation to the present discussion I state here and now that, far from wishing to lean on the efforts of anyone else, the people of Huron -Bruce will fire the last shot in the defence of freedom of enterprise. All they ask, all they seek, is equality of opportunity. First, then, a survey. This survey should tell us in specific terms what we have in this area, in these towns and villages, that will attract what kinds of employer. This survey should measure our water supply, our labour pool, our hydro load, our soil capacity for various types of crops, our transporta- tion facilities, our domestic market potential, our housing availabilities and all the other factors including freight, refri- geration, storage and insurance that industry needs to know be- fore it establishes. When this survey is com- pleted, its findings should be analysed and there should be established from those findings realistic targets in terms of in- dustrial attraction. When the survey and the survey analysis have been com-' t" pleted, there should be set up a meeting of the wardens, the clerks and the reeves and mayors of the region and these facts should be made known to "\ them in an exhaustive presenta tion of perhals one or two days duration. Out of this presentation there should eome the formation of regional committee which will meet from time to time and which will make requests to specific government depart- ments for specific further in- formation as the need arises. The end function of these regional committees would be to act to attract industry through the dissemination of informa- tion essential to industry and through such local attraction to industry as seemed advisable to the regional body as a whole. You may say that this is no different from the establish- ment of an industrial commis- sion. I agree that, in many ways, it is similar indeed to such a body, And you are aware that such bodies have done much to attract industry and to create prosperity in their areas. But, Mr. Speaker, I submit that if the municipal act of Ontario (I am referring to sec- tion 422) disbars from all but the large town the privilege of maintaining an industrial com- mission, there would seem to be no other choice than the es- tablishment of some such body, Let us suppose for a moment that such a body exists. Let us suppose it has been in opera- tion regionally for a year or so. Could we not visualize a stop in the emigration of young peo- ple, an increase in the gross product of the region, a reduc- tion in the individual tax bur- den because of industry sharing that burden? I think we could, I know we could, for this has been the effect of new industry establish- ment elswhere. And we could have it too in these poor little rich regions that have been abandoned to an expediency which gears its effort to serve the concentrated areas. Mr. Speaker, for us to let our rural areas run down in rr their productive capacity is exactly the same as neglecting the maintenance of a house. The property deteriorates. This situation can - this situation must -- be rectified. A simple survey and implemen- tation of its findings can turn Ontario's wasting rural areas into pockets of progress that will attract investment and provide jobs to keep our youth at home and assure them a career. We owe this, Mr. Speaker, to the diligence of our ances- tors. We owe it to those who follow after us. Anything Less than develop- ment for progress is selling On- tario short. Let us get on with the job. CLEARANCE SALE DRESSES, HATS SUITS, COATS ALL HATS — HALF-PRICE DRESSES, SUITS, COATS 10 to 25(// OFF ONE RACK DRESSES -- $10.00 EA. , RUSH'S 13 Ready4o-Wear