HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1966-03-24, Page 9Ambulance Service-A New Responsibility
NEARLY 100 FEET of waif at the Stanley-Berry Door Co,
plant is being repleced this week after a foundation slipped
and the wall started to collapse. The plant was shut down
until repairs could be made. The land just in front of the
wall was levelled earlier and workmen were about to set
up forms to pour a retaining wall along the old founda-
tion when the structure partly slipped into the trench.
—Advance-Times Photo.
Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, March 24, 1966 SECOND SECTION
This is a time of year — one
of a very few -- when I feel
deeply sorry for high school
principals. It's the time when
they have to start bidding on
livestock, in the form of teach-
ers, for next fall
Let's put you, gentle reader.
Into the boots of one of these
sterling chaps for a few min-
utes. And jet's say you have a
staff of 60 at the moment, And
let's say you don't know wheth-
er you're going to have 1,200 or
1,400 students next September.
Oh, well, so far, only two peo-
ple have officially resigned. Any
clod could hire two teachers.
Unless, of course, those extra
200 kids show up, which means
two or three more. Even so,
nothing to it.
Ah, but tarry a moment. You
know perfectly well that one.
possibly two of your teachers,
preferably from among the mar-
ried ladies on the staff, will be-
come pregnant.
You are fully aware that Ma-
demoiselle Tartuffe, of the
French department, had an un-
fortunate affair with young Ja-
blonski, the basketball coach.
and that one of them %11,111 be
leaving.
The grapevine has informed
you that Mrs. Billings, the old
faithful in the Histor!, depart-
ment, has been hitting the grape I
pretty regularly since her bus
hand ran off with the waitre,,,
Everyone knows the English
department is rife with strap
Since the unfortunate demise of
Mr. Wiley. the depart motit he7id,
in February, of cirrhosis of the!
liver, four of the English teach-
ers, alt z.qually qualified, have
been gunning for the position.
No nuttier which gets it, all the
other, wig quit in dudgeon.
You hioe just heard that your
Home Economics teacher. the
one in charge of teaching girls
to cook, planned the menu for
the monthly meeting of the tin
fulfilled Wives Club. And ever.
body cam( down with loud phi-
s stone
one of your junior science
teachers iris just blown up SMO
worth of equipment and two
students, during an experiment
which completely justified your
opinion of his knowledge of the
subject.
Little Miss Mullett, the geo-
graphy teacher just out of col-
lege, is having discipline prob-
lems. You discovered this when
you walked past her room and
saw two boys hanging out the
window. Investigation revealed
Miss Mullett hanging upside
down, a boy holding each leg.
They were testing the wind ve-
locity, they explained, using her
hair as a weather-vane.
Monday morning, you heard
that the director of your Tech.
Meal department was in hospi-
tal, with third-degree burns, af-
ter trying to change a fuse at
home.
The head of. your Maths de-
partment, old Gwillimbury, re-
fuses to teach the New Mathe-
matics, or have anything to do
with it. because "It's a lot of
nonsense."
Dear Barry:
I have noticed in some of
the weekly newspapers sugges-
tions that Confederation Year
will be a year when special
celebrations might be held in
each community.
This week I received the
Centennial Commission Nation-
al Progress Report. I am not
sure whether you or anyone else
in the town has been advised
that on Saturday, June 10th,
M7, Caravan of the Con-
federation Caravan will bring
essentially the .3ame type of
display as the Confederation
train to Wingham. I quote a.
paragraph given in the report
and feel that the final sentence
is particularly significant.
And on top of this, there are
four teachers you'd clearly love
to fire because of incompetence,
emotionalism, idealism, being
too fat or plain laziness.
So you have two resignations,
but you might wind up with 42.
What to do? If you leave it too
late, all the other principals,
like so many dogs after a bone,
"After arrival at a site, the
caravan will be arranged in a
specific quadrangle formation
which will permit the public to
pass through the exhibit trailers
in sequence. The centre quad
will contain regional exhibits
and a small platform in the en-
trance area will permit the
staging of local performances,
The caravan will be open to
the public from 11:00 a. m, to
11:00. p.m. and a staff of '26
will accompany each caravan
as well as 12.C.M.P, security
personnel, Designed colour-
t u lly and boldly, the caravan
on sire will he like a small tair,
in many of the smaller cam-
inanities the visit of tht.,
tederatiou Caravan probably
are in there first, and you wind
up with a collection of clots.
If you jump in too early, and
start hiring teachers right and
left, nobody will resign and
you'll wind up with 12 more
teachers than the Board will pay
for. And no job yourself.
As a result, quite a few prin-
cipals these days are treading
the thin line of lunacy. They
start at shadows. They quail
when they see a teacher looking
surly.
They stare with unconcealed
horror at Mrs. McGillieuddy's
swelling waist-line. They flinch
when a teacher knocks at their
door, They pour oil on troubled
waters, turn their backs and
find that somebody has tossed a
match into the mixture.
Hard luck, chaps: and good
hunting.
will be the major Centennial
event around which local Cen-
tennial planning will develop."
I feel that this information
is important and that the Muni-
cipality, the Legion, or one of
the service clubs, or a combin-
ation of all of them, might like
to do just what is indicated and
make this into a major centen-
nial event. If this information
has already been made avail-
able, no doubt some thought
has been given to the sugges-
tions I have made,
I am sendin: a copy of this
to Mayor Miller so that the in-
formation ill he avaii.ablc at
this time lor the' Council.
Yours sincerely,
Marvin Itowe,
11 in gton-liuron
From the Editor's Mailbox
ART WORK TOOK UP a long display table
at night school open house. Looking over
some of the pieces are Principal Frank Ma-
dill and two of the artists, Mrs. Murray
Garniss, of Wroxeter, and Donald Nesmith,
of Wingham. At the right is art instruc-
tor Guenther Heim.
—Advance-Times Photo.
Pity For A Principal
0
THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES
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The costs of modern living and the
methods by which we meet them pose an
evermore complicated problem. The
latest conundrum is the question of am-
bulance service—how it is to be provided
and who will pay the rather stiff bills
which will be incurred?
Up to the present time ambulance ser-
vice has not been a matter of any great
concern. Most communities have been
well served by private operators, usually
the local morticians. The introduction of
new regulations, however, which demand
that every ambulance shall carry such
specialized equipment as oxygen tanks,
and that a person trained in first aid pro-
cedures must accompany the driver, have
tipped the scales. The private operators
now face a highly unprofitable situation
and intend to abandon the service.
The entire problem has been placed in
the hands of the local hospital boards and
they have accepted the necessity of finding
a solution, since they feel themselves re-
sponsible for sick and injured persons,
whether in the hospitals or in need of
• transportation to those institutions.
The great stumbling block, of course,
is the fact that the Ontario Hospital Ser-
vices Commission, the provincial body
which strictly regulates hospital finances,
will not allow any expenditures whatever
for ambulance service. In other words,
if a hospital board is to operate an am-
bulance service all costs must be borne by
the people who require the service and/or
the municipalities in which they live, with
the possible assistance of service clubs
The members of the Wingham Public
School Board and the parents whom they
represent are faced with an apparently
impossible predicament. At the urgent be-
hest of the Department of Education the
board has been making plans to remove
the original structure of the school and
erect a new building. The plans were
undertaken when it was learned that the
existing heating plant in the school could
not be expected to hold out much longer.
Provincial regulations, it was found,
preclude the replacement of the present
boilers in the school building proper. A
new building had to be erected to house
the new heating plant. Investigation
proved that it would be better business
to tear down the old school and put up
a new building to house the boiler and
needed educational facilities.
Up to that point no one could possibly
have argued with the board's decision on
Those who can recall the tragic days in
the spring of 1940, when France was cry-
ing for American and British help to stand
off the German onslaught, find the French
attitude of 1966 more than a little ironic.
President De Gaulle, who sought refuge in
Britain after his country's fall, who was
• given British arms and training facilities
to re-build a free French fighting force,
now finds French pride will not permit
the presence of NATO forces on French
soil unless they are under French com-
mand.
He must believe the rest of us have
short memories. France was beaten by
Germany. In fact France was so torn by
indecision that its armed forces did not
even put up a worthwhile defence of their
own land. The city of Paris emerged un-
scathed from the war because it was sur-
rendered without a fight. Rotterdam was
obliterated. Vast areas of London were
devastated. Coventry was flattened—but
Paris the beautiful was untouched.
Most people in the Western world are
thankful, now, that at least one great city
was spared, but they are also a bit con-
temptuous of the French attitude which
• so readily ignores a debt to all its allies.
The Canadian government has decided
to put up with no more of De Gaulle's
nonsense. Canadian bases will be remov-
ed from French soil, and a good many of
the Canadians who serve in the NATO
forces in Europe will have few regrets as
they are taken over the boundary into
Germany, where Canada's two active and
nuclear-armed aircraft bases were located
after the first disagreement with De
Gaulle a couple of years back.
and other community-oriented organiza-
tions.
The entire problem points up the
greatest weakness of government-sponsor-
ed welfare plans. Once entered into the
field of welfare service, whether it be
health, social security or whatever, the
public rightly feels that all aspects of that
service should be covered by the plan.
There is a general assumption that the
OHSC should cover not only care for the
sick in hospital but all out-patient ser-
vices, examinations and ambulance when
necessary.
OHSC, of course, limits its responsi-
bility purely on the basis of finances. The
premiums paid to OHSC by the public do
not come anywhere near meeting the total
costs of hospital services already paid
under the plan. The balance is paid out
of the general treasury with tax money
contributed by the residents of the pro-
vince. OHSC knows that additional ser-
vices will mean higher premiums. High-
er taxes to meet such needs will be upon
us at the first of April.
As the matter stands now the entire
community is involved in the provision of
ambulance service. The Wingham and
District Hospital Board will study the
question in detail and will probably come
up with a suggested solution, but financ-
ing of the service will have to be met
through the co-operation of all who are
in any way interesed in maintaining such
a service. And there are few among us
courageous enough to deny the need for
prompt and efficient ambulance ac-
commodation.
the basis of sound thinking, They decided
to spend the taxpayers' money in the
wisest way.
Apparently, however, the Ontario
Municipal Board is not intimately ac-
quainted with matters which concern its
sister Department of Education, for the
town's application to issue the necessary
debentures to meet the costs of school
construction has been turned down.
It's just grand to live in an enlighten-
ed province where the government pays
big grants to assist in the financing of
our every need. We agree with the De-
partment of Education that the time has
come to replace the old section of the
school. Why, then, must the school
board go to all the trouble of working
out a solution when another division of
government simply vetoes the whole
scheme? Perhaps it's time for someone
at Queen's Park to find the answer.
Actually the Canadian airmen in
France have remained only to man and
operate the great transport base at Mar-
ville. At this station some 1300 Canadians
operate the European depot of the trans-
Atlantic staging route. Another 700 Ca-
nadians work at the headquarters in Metz.
On a trip to those bases a year ago we
found the average Canadian service man
was anything but overjoyed with his so-
journ among the French. One young
airman who came from this locality was
living some 18 miles away in Belgium
where accommodations and general at-
mosphere were more pleasant than in
France.
On the other hand most of the Cana-
dian service people with whom we talked
in Germany were thoroughly enjoying the
opportunity to live and work with our
erstwhile enemies. By and large the Ger-
man people have been co-operative and
courteous; they have recognized the pres-
ence of thousands of NATO troops on
their soil as a necessity in the defence of
Western Europe. It must be conceded,
too, that the Germans have also recogniz-
ed the fact that these thousands of service
people are big spenders. The business
they have added to the general economy
has been one of the most important fac-
tors in Germany's recovery, another fact
which the French seem to have forgotten.
'Of course France is entitled to com-
plete independence. It is her prerogative
to build her own defence forces independ-
ently of British, American or Canadian
supervision. We can only hope that she
builds more soundly than she did in the
years prior to 1939.
The Right Hand and the Left
New-Found Independence