HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1964-07-02, Page 20Page 12 - Wingham Advance -Times, Thursday, July 2, 1904
Thatched Cottage Makes Comeback
Be it ever so hum'Ae, a
thatched cottage i yeomrng
luxus in England.
Consequcutl , a postwar de-
cline in the ait of thatching has
been reyerscd England's
craftsmen ale hard pressed to
meet the demand for the.:
hlglil skdkd s� vxes.
The price of emphatic ins -
may now comics high. A root
of Norfol'::eeds, the most (lur-
abie cove. mg. costs Up to•l
pounds 01, 12 ), but it will
last C;it to years if main-
tained properly. IN:Non reed
remains intact for '2f.) to 41.1
years, wheat straw 10 to 2o.
Whatever the material, a
topping of snug, thick, tawny,
well -laid thatch will keep a
cottage cooler in summer and
warmer in winter, admirers say,
than factory -made roofing.
TRADITR1NAL TOOLS
A diaster thatcher needs deft
fingers, perhaps two months of
time, and some four Million
reeds or straws cut in five-foot
lengths to cover a cottage of
average size. Ills tools arc
tried and truc — mallet, trim-
ming knifc sheep shears, and
a lcgg;ett which looks some-
thing like a lacrosse stick and
is used to beat the bundles of
thatch into place.
One present difficulty is get-
ting enough thatch. English
farrl;.rs are abandoning long-
steni:n:rd wheat in fa',or of a
high -yield. short variety. There
are I lento of reeds. But as the
Lor:don Sunday Times has oh -
served, Norfolk people find it
an "uncongenial occupation" to
cut reeds while standing knee-
deep in icy water with north-
easters blowing in their faces
LOCAL MATERIALS USED
Though a thatched cottage
is possibly the most charmingly
busolie residence ever devised
by man. thatching in early
England was merely a matter
of making do with materials at
hand, A small landowner at
his horse of local stone or
brick, timbered with wood from
his forests, and topped with
reeds or straw grown in the
same county.
The British scholar Pals -
gra ve, tutor of Henry VIli's
daughter Mary, wrote peevishly
in 153o, "I am but a poore
man, sythe I can not tyle my
house, I mist be favne to
Macke
Colonists brought thatching
essentially an English art, to
the New World. They, laid
thatched roofs oyer log cabins
and split -board huts, But
America's weather was, harsh,
and thatching never really
caught on,
CRAFT DECLINED
In England, the proud craft
was handed from father to son
century after century. It went
into a decline and seemed sure
to vanish — except for replace-
m.�nt of thatches on historical
landmarKs such as Anne Hath-
away's cottage — when England
entered a period of threadbare
austerity after World War II.
Thatched roofs became rare in
places where the., had been a
feast for the e'. es. It was not
uncommon to sec fine old
thatches slhainelessl'. patched
with sheets of corrugated iron.
The British Government did
tnuctt to save thatching with an
apprenticeship program which
attracted young recruits to the
trade. The British Rural Indus-
tries Bureau estimates the pre-
sent number of thatched cot-
tages at ix', nut) to Go, mil).
Craftsmen have waiting lists of
customers.
Many thatchers live peace-
fully nomadic lases, moving
from job to job in comfortable
house trailers. One thatching
family has become so prosper-
ous that the father drives a
Rolls-Royce, the son a Jaguar.
The thatching trade urges
householders to give their ex-
pensive new rooftops faithful
care. One prominent firm, in
a brochure for customers, says,
"If you posses a good thatch,
do be fair to it. It is up to you!"
Of Many Things
WHEN MOTHER GUTS SICK `then net too well. As the hours
go by, the family begins to
realize a little bit how much
they have leaned on mother.
If the illness goes on for any
length of time. hired help must
be brought in. Nobody but a
mother would do all the things
that need doing unless paid a
handsome fee.
Wives contribute more to
the family fortunes than the
husbands do. Most men work
short hours nowadays, and have
it relatively easy on the job.
Automation and frings benefits
have made work a picnic.
Wives continue to work long
hours for low—or no—pay.
Yet, when the husband dies,
the family fortune, if it
amounts to anything at all, is
set upon by the tax collectors.
They forget that the wife was
responsible• for most of the sav-
ings. If the husband has been
able to provide a pension, the
collectors capitalize it and
make the widow pay a hefty
tax. Indeed, she may even
pay on money she'll never
receive!
It seems to me that each
Minister of Finance should be
forced to spend at least one
week as a substitute mother in
the home of a large family.
He would then realize the ex-
tent of the marriage partner-
ship, and the contribution
made to it by the mother. I
think he would go back to his
office determined to reform
the Estates Tax Act to give
widows --or widowers --treat-
ment that is somewhat more
Christian than they are receiv-
ing today.
In a large family, mother
seldom gets so sick she stays in
bed. It has to he a tough virus
indeed to lay her low, because
there is so much to do that she
cannot afford to be idle, Usual-
ly she takes a few aspirins, girts
her teeth, and carries ori. Once
in a long while, however, the
virus is so overwhelming that
she must have a day or two in
bed. Catastrophe is the name
for it,
That's when the family finds
out the thousand and one jobs
that she takes in her stride.
Brownie uniforms to press; leo-
tards to wash; lunches to pack;
shirts to launder; food to coon,
shopping to do, floors to mop,
dishes to wash—you name it,
she does it.
During her incapacity, the
husband, oldest daughter, and
any available relative are press-
ed into service to <<eep the
establishment barely running.
Only the pressing day-to-day
needs can be cared for, and
First Book in Written Eskimo
Utilizes Alphabet and Symbols
The first book in the new
Eskimo written language has
just been printed by Canada's
Department of Northern Affairs.
It also contains the first crea-
tive fiction ever published and
written by an Eskimo.
The author is Leah Illauq, a
23 -year-old girl from Pond In-
let on northem Baffin Island.
Her book is a fanciful story,
based on Eskimo mythology, of
a polar bear that incubates the
egg of a flighty Arctic tern.
When the egg hatches, a small
polar bear with wings crawls out
of the shell. Illustrated with
amusing pen -and -ink sketches
by the author, the book is now
being distributed to Eskimos
throughout the north.
0--0--0
The book has another pur-
pose. It introduces a new stan-
dard orthography — which is
actually a common tool kit of
symbols (letters) to be used by
Eskimos to express themselves
in their own dialect. Once the
new system of writing is learn-
ed, one of the dialects will
emerge as a standard literary
Eskimo language.
In the past 100 years Eskimos
have u, -°d an unwieldy system
of sylla;ic writing. It looks
like shorthand and only approx-
imately conveys the sounds of
words. It often creates con-
fusion over words that are very
different in meaning but only
subtly diffe,ent as spoken.
Several missionaries to the
Eskimos tried to replace the
shorthand with alphabetic sys-
tems, but their efforts were
colored by nationality. A
French missionary could hear a
throaty Eskimo sound like the
French "r," and an English
missionary might miss it corn-
pletely.
0--0--0
"They lacked objectivity,"
says Ottawa linguist Raymond
Gagne, "and for that reason
none of them have been an
accurate reflection of the lan-
guage."
The Department of Northern
Affairs constantly ran into pro-
blems with the inaccuracy of
the syllabic writing. And to
print anything (the quarterly
magazine " Inuktitut, " edited
by Eskimo Mary Panegoosho,
for instance) they needed
special type on typewritersand
type -setting machines.
So they set linguists working
on a new system. Dr. Gagne,
now in charge of the project,
talked to Eskimos from points
as far apart as Aklavik and
Frobisher. After listening with
his well-trained ear, he isolat-
ed 21 sounds basic to the lan-
guage, To represent these
sounds the new system uses 15
different letters of the Roman
alphabet, and six combinations
of them — three double vowels,
as, "ii," "uu," and three
sounds peculiar to Eskimo, "ng;
NOTICE TO
Water Consumers
The hours of watering lawns and gardens
are from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., and from
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
THIS WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED
An k ,it.1UAL charge of S4.44 gross, Tess prompt pay-
ment discount of 10% is made for the use of a hose
or outside tap for the above -noted purposes.
Anyone found watering lawns or gardens, who has not
paid for this service will be billed accordingly.
Wingham Public Utilities Commission
C. E. SHERA, Superintendent.
"qu," and "rng." Most of the
rest of the sounds are similar
to the English and French
sounds of the same letters. This
alone, says Dr, Gagne, should
make it easier for Eskimos to
learn the two languages.
At present only about 500
Eskimos know the new system,
and Northern Affairs hopes the
book will encourage new read-
ers. The department is now
working on a dictionary, and
expects to publish more stories,
including some translated from
the syllabic. They feel op-
timistic: most of the Eskimo
students learned to read and
write the new alphabet in less
than two months. Said author-
ess Illauq: "I studied it for
about a month before I used it.
It is easy."
The syllabic system now us',-
ed
s=ed is based on the dialect of
the eastern Arctic. Although
most Exkimos can understand it
when it is spoken, .the present
written form is often incompre-
hensible,
Miss Illauq is self-educated
and has always had a keen in-
terest in reading and writing.
At an early age she moved north
from Pond Inlet to Resolute on
Cornwallis Island, where she
persuaded residents to allow her
to work as a teacher's aide in
the one -room school that had
been built by the community.
She helped at the school for
nearly three years. Her father
is the well-known Eskimo hun-
ter, Josephie Illauq, who is
now teaching members of the
Royal Canadian Air Force how
to build igloos in the four cor-
ners of the Arctic as part of
their survival training.
0--0--0
In 1961 Miss Illauq came to
Ottawa and joined the Welfare
Division. She was the first Es-
kimo introduced to the new
system of writing.
"I studied it for about a
month before I used it," says
Leah, who had previously writ-
ten her first dialect stories in
syllabics used in the eastern
Arctic. "It is easy to under-
stand and use."
The title of her first book
translated into English is"Little
Arctic Tern and Big Polar Bear'
Thus is marked a new era in
Eskimo life in Canada .--Chris-
t.tan Science Monitor.
dil think he's sold
on seat belts now "
The class was having a les-
son on Eskimos and was asked to
write an account on what they
had learned.
()ne bright youngster began
"The Eskimos are God's frozen
people
FIRST
MORTGAGE
LOANS
Low Interest Rates
Budget Tailored Terms
Experienced Fast Service
VICTORIA
and GREY
TRUST
OWEN SOUND
THE WINGHAM
Industrial Development Board
INVITES
PROPERTY OWNERS within the Town and adjacent area to
submit listings of property available for large or small industry,
stating:
1. LOCATION OF PROPERTY.
2. AREA OF PROPERTY AND BUILDINGS, IF ANY.
3. ACCESS TO PROPERTY: Road, Rail and Rail Proximity.
4. SERVICES AVAILABLE ON OR NEAR PROPERTY,
(Hydro, Water, Sewage, etc.).
5. WILL OWNER SELL PORTIONS OF PROPERTY?
6. WILL OWNER PERMIT LAND TO BE OPTIONED?
7. PRICE.
PLEASE REPLY TO:
D. Kennedy, Chairman
BOX 153, WINGHAM, ONTARIO.
SW,
QUALITY! SERVICE! VALUES!
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