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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-06-10, Page 4Pogo 4 Times Established 1873 Times -Advocate, June 10, 1981 ,:•:A*VIKM**3•WOSi*: .48811411111181141811801/W' Advocate Established 1881 imes -Advocate r•ti Y•• sem... . 00a »7.4110.( SERVING CANADA S BEST FARMLAND C W N A O W N A CLASS 'A' AND ABC MEMBER ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL Published by J W Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY. PUBLISHER Editor -- Bill Batten Assistant Editor -- Ross Hough Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongklnd Phone 235-1331 Ameliomot,d 1924 BLJE R,BB'N A,'.ARD Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada 517.00 Per Year; USA $35.00 Far from perfect Attaining a mark of 100 percent is uncommon for all but a handful of the more brilliant students in the education system. However, a survey conducted recently in one Huron County high school did find that there is one area in which many students have reached that plateau. Of 50 students in the survey, all 50 reported using alcohol twice a week or more. The figures dropped to 75 percent for smoking and only two of the 50 reported to using drugs. It's a disconcerting statistic, given the fact that many of the 50 students were below the legal drinking age. Some would suggest it is alarming. Board of health chairman, Paul Steckle, reeve of Stanley Township, observed that perhaps parents and adults should be taking more respon- sibility for the example they set for young people. The current example is that to have a good time you must have an ample supply of booze on hand. Teenagers en- joy fun, so why wouldn't they follow the example? Teenage use of alcohol may be a problem, but more correctly it should be considered a result of a problem that exists with today's society in general. It's an area in which the 100 per- cent figure is far from reflecting perfection. The first step The Ontario government's plan to put new drivers on probation is a move in the right direction, but there are strong arguments that all drivers, regardless of experience, should be subject to tougher penalties for break- ing the rules of the road. Statistics prove that youthful drivers have a higher accident rate, due not only to inexperience, but also their brash attitude and the love for speed and power that is glorified among their contemporaries. But what is the validity for suspen- ding the licence of one driver for ac- cumulating six demerit points and allowing another to accumulate more than twice that number before facing a suspension? If the move to a two-year probationary period with its accom- panying suspensions for a lesser number of demerit points pays dividends in a reduction of collisions on our highways, then the whole system should be changed to include all drivers. Licence suspensions are feared much more than the fines drivers face for breaking the law. Words are hollow Some of the financial institutions in this country claim they are not making windfall profits due to the weekly climb in interest rates. Not only do their profit and loss statements suggest otherwise, their quick action in raising rates last week should be called into serious question. On May 28. the Bank of Canada rate dipped from 19.06 to 18.68 percent. The majority of banks left their rates un- changed. However. one week later, when the rate jumped back to 19.10, the majority -of banks immediately in- creased their prime rates to 20 percent from the previous 19.50. So, not only did the hanks not By SYD FLETCHER 1 had the privilege of being a guest at a most unusual group the other night. one which I had been aware ex- isted but did not really know too much about. Some clubs are secret and fraternal. They gain their membership through invita- tion only and impose strict rules of silence on the procedures of initiation and various ceremonies that take place within their meetings. Then there are the service clubs which are almost always glad to gain new recruits who will help them in the various tasks by which they help the community decrease their prime rates when the Bank of Canada rate decreased, they increased their rates one week late by .50 when the Bank of Canada increase was only .04 over the previous high. If that's not enjoying windfall profits it is something very close to it. It's understandable that the banks increase their rates when the Bank of Canada rate goes up. But it is not as easily understood why the banks don't lower their rates when the Bank of Canada rate goes down or why they raise it when the Bank of Canada rate returns to a previous level on which the banks have already made their ad- justments and are charging according- ly. Perspectives This group. referred to as the Double Circle. is a church organiztion I sup- pose one might call it a 'couples club'. a term not un- usual in many churches where adults get together for a time of fellowship each month separate from regular Sunday services. What is so unusual about the Double Circle is the fact that it has held together as a unit for so many years. In many churches these groups are formed. but when the leaders either move away or lose interest the group disintegrates The Double Circle has been in existence for almost 40 years. It was formed dur- ing the second World War and has continued without interruption for the whole time since. with some of its original members still atten- ding. Perhaps you would think that becasue the group has been around for so Ionli that it is now comp ised of old fogies who are hound shortly for a nursing home and whose meetings are a real bore. On both counts you would be wrong Though the group's membership is not young. they are certainly an active and alert hunch of people who are intensely in- terested in life. their com- munity and their church. As for their meetings. they may not he in the line of a toboggan party but from what I could see were in- teresting enough to draw together a very large. diverse group ranging from a retired business executive to a minister through to a fruit farmer. with new members frequently joining the group. All of them though were on common ground. a shared faith and an interest in hav- ing good friends around about them. Both excellent reasons for the Double Cir- cle lasting for so long BATT'N ARI MODERN TIMES Mainstream Canada Bankruptcies are up again By W. Roger Worth The sad news Is that there were 587 Canadian business bankruptcies In April, up 16.5% from 504 the previous year. That may not sound over- whelming, but the number would be at least doubled if you added the businesses that were placed in receivership and the entrepreneurs who simply locked the door, payed off the bills, and closed up shop. Roger Worth Is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. In fact, there will probably be more than 16,000 business 'failures in Canada this year, which will be a record 'few people want to talk about. And the heartbreak related to each of the failures is some- thing few people will know Should be locked up Just a few years ago. the Canadian government spent millions of dollars embarking on a "Shop Canadian" program. There were advertisemnts, leaflets and tags to exhort people to buy 'products produced in this nation. Few people had difficulty understan- ding the validity of the program. Purchases of Canadian -made products ensured that Canadians kept working. It reduced the flow of imports and im- proved the balance of payments. It was, however, one of those intangi- ble things. Few people could see the direct results. But there aren't many people who haven't been touched by the fact the Canadian government doesn't always follow that advice. Every time you drive up to the gas pump these days you can see what happens when the federal government increases its itnportation of foreign oil. Service station operators are almost dizzy from the constant task of changing the price tag. For the seventh (or was it eighth?) time in the past year and a half, they were out last Tuesday morning moving those little wheels up another two cents per litre. It's no wonder the government has repelled all attempts to halt the change -over to the metric system in this country. An increase of two cents doesn't sound like much to most people. But those who recognize the increase as being nine cents per gallon have more feeling for the pinch. The others don't tecognize it until the figures stop spinning and they see the total cost of their purchase. There are some of us who can remember the days when it was possi- ble to pull up to the pumps and ask for "a couple of bucks worth" and know that it would take up several miles. To- day, it wouldn't take you past the next station down the road, if in fact it was possible for the attendant to stop the pumps that quickly. A couple of bucks now gives you a few fumes. The explanation. according to Energy Minister Marc Lalonde, is that the increases are needed to pay for the higher cost of importing foreign oil needed to make up for Alberta's latest cut in production. ,,Alberta, as some will recall, is in Canada. Those blue-eyed shieks are in a squabble with Ottawa over the price of their oil products and to tighten the screws on their position, have cut back on produciton until new agreements are reached. No doubt the whole situation makes sense to Mr. Lalonde and his cohorts in Ottawa and to Peter Loughheed and his band of cronies in Alberta. . They are, after all. sensible politicians who are proud to be Canadians and work diligently at fostering the national well-being. If you keep that firmly fixed in your mind, it won't hurt as much when you have to mortgage the family estate to pay for your next tankful of gasoline. There's even more solace in knowing that the Ontario government is benefit- ting from the price increase, now that Bill Davis and his boys have changed their tax from a flat fee to a percentage of the selling price. The more the price Sugar and S Dls sed Dy Smlley Swept away by two waves Two waves swept over me the other day. No. I wasn't on the beach at Waikiki or Monaco or even such plebeian places as Florida, California or Mexico, which are now frequented by us common people. And no. I wasn't drowned, as I know you were hoping. (Two waves. Maybe we won't have to listen to Smiley's blathering any more.') I can swim like an aging, arthritic seal, and it would take more than two waves to do me in. The first wave came when someone announced at school that the price of pop in cans was going up by a nickel. I was swept by a wave of nostalgia for the days when pop was a nickel. And then came the second wave, one of revulsion, as I realized what infla- tion had done. not only to pop. which is irelevant to a decent life. but to many another cherished aspect of our daily living. Being swept by two waves of strong emotion is not an easy thing to cope with, and I had to fight off sudents who crowded around, saying: "Are you alright, sir? Can we get you a Coke or something? (They'd never think of a stiff Scotch). Maybe he's had a stroke and we'll get a day off." And so on. A moving experience. But I was so upset by the twin waves that all day I kept calling Shakespeare George, Bernard Shakespeare and Dylan Thomes, Bob Dylan. My students didn't know the difference, so it didn't really matter. That night, however, I looked back on the experience, and realized what it was. I had been exposed to mal du temps, and barely rescued by la memoire du fin de siecle. I hope nobody will cancel subscrip- tions because of the last paragraph. I am not trying to shove bilingualism down anybody's throat, and I think Pierre Trudeau is a... well, you know what I think. What all that bad French means is that I got a pain in the ass, then one in the pocketbook, both relieved only by memories of times past, accompanied by the inevitable association that I'm just about ready to be put out to pasture. Except that nowadays they just send the horses to tht glue factory. O. K.,Glue Factory, here I come, and if I can even make a couple of things stick' together, I'll still be two jumps ahead of a millionaire who hasn't been able to make one marriage stick together. Ah! Those golden days. When a nickel would buy you: a Pepsi, a cup of coffee, a phone call, a chocolate bar three times as big as those anemics of today, a good (?) cigar, a ride on the carousel or the Ferris wheel. When a dime would buy you a ham- burger, a piece of homemade pie, a Saturday matinee, three eggs, a good (no question mark) cigar, a draft of beer, a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread. It's true, you unbelievers. Those were the days when two boys received from a minister of the church one dollar and half for working eight or nine hours cleaning up the huge grounds on which his huge manse was located. My older brother got the dollar, I got the half. The minister com- plained about a few leaves. A couple of weeks ago, 1 engaged a young man and his crew to clean up our yard. It cost me $175.00. I didn't com- plain at all. Why didn't you do it yourself, you'll ask. Laziness, business, sore back, and the fact that I can't get any young peo- ple to rake leaves any more, even for goes up, the more tax they collect to fill the Ontario coffers. Last week, the Exeter police depart- ment noted that as the price of gasoline escalates, the number of the thefts from gasoline tanks also increases. It was suggested that motorists may find a locking gas cap to be a wise in- vestment. In fact, there appears to be some merit in the suggestion that Lalonde and Lougheed should be locked up in a room until they can work out a sensible solution to the current impasse which is threatening this nation's move to energy self-sufficiency and pushing many Canadians to the wall of economic despair. It's beyond comprehension that the main benefactors of the dispute are the oil moguls of the Middle East, to whom we also sell our eggs for less than Cana- dian consumers buy them at super- markets. In case they haven't noticed, many people in this country are on the verge of a revolt as they watch the various levels of government dig deeper and deeper into their pockets and sub- suquently force them out of their jobs, their homes and their dreams. The_ sparce few in boththeprovincial �4araJ parliaments who aren't Lig world sight-seeing tours or attending ribbon -cutting ceremonies continue their farcical antics by pass- ing the buck back and forth from one level to the other. It's little short of total madness! three or four dollars an hour. They get • an allowance from their stupid parents that makes that sort of demeaning labour not worth looking at. But that half -dollar from the manse was wealth, to me. It meant ten bottles of pop, five matinees, a night at the movies with a girl friend. I asked the young entrepreneur who did my place how his business was go- ing. Only in his twenties, he sounded like a right-wing conservative. He claimed that young fellows don't do a decent job when they do work, don't show up for work, and are generally un- reliable, shiftless, irresponsible, and plain lazy. "Then how do you get guys like the ones who worked so hard at our place?" He admitted that he had to get someone who was hooked on motor- bikes or racing cars, and needed money to supply the habit. In my day, of course, if you had a habit, it was something as expensive as biting your fingernails or sniggering at off-colour jokes or drinking so much Pepsi you got pimples, which wrecked your love life, which was non-existent anyway, so it didn't matter. I'll never forget the time I found a dollar bill, in the snow. It was the first one I'd actually ever held in my hands. I dreamed of eloping to the South Seas with a girl I had my eye on in Grade five. But is was not to be. There was cer- tainly enough money there, and I think she'd have gone with me. Her parents were bn relief. But it was not to be. With considerable pride, I told my mother about the dollar. She promptly about, mainly because those involved generally don't advertise (heir problems. One of the many reasons for the rising number of business failures is the high cost of money. With interest rates of 21% - 22% or more, even the smallest of enter- prises is having a hard time staying in the game. Ottawa and the Bank of Canada tell the families that operate these failing enter- prises that all Canadians have to bite the bullet, accepting high interest rates in order to defeat inflation, now running al 12% - 13%. Meanwhile, the govern- ments are coming to the aid of big firms such as Chrysler and Massey -Ferguson, tossing in hundreds of millions of tax- payers dollars without blink- ing an eye. Somehow, troubled smaller companies don't get the same -attention. The readers write Good Morning: Congratulations! Your newspaper has won a Blue Ribbon Award in the 1981 Better Newspapers Competition sponsored by the Canadian Community Newspapers Association. A Blue Ribbon Award in- dicates that your newspaper achieved 80% or more of the first place mark awarded in your circulation category. Please find enclosed logos for the masthead of your newspaper. Wear them with pride, your newspaper is one of Canada's top weeklies! Yours truly, Heather Jones BNC Co-ordinator The Editor, Exeter Times -Advocate Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S0 Dear sir: The Huron County Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society would like to express their appreciation and gratitude to all the residents, in- dustries, business firms and associations of your com- munity who have con- tributed so generously to the 1981 Campaign for Cancer Funds. The Exeter Branch of the Society has attained the remarkable sum of $15,- 200.00, which is 9% over its objective. This achievement combined with the other four Branches of Huron Unit will enable us to reach the unit objective of $60,000.00. A special thank you to Car- frey Cann and Bill Mickle and their fine team of volunteers who have worked long and hard to reach this goal. In so doing a signifi- cant contribution has been made to the fight against Cancer and a great service has been done for your com- munity and for Canada. On behalf of the Huron County Unit please accept our sincerest thank you for a superb job. Respectfully yours, Ross McDaniel Campaign Chairman Huron County Unit Canadian .Cancer Society • Exeter Times Advocate Main Street Exeter, Ontario To The Editor: We the student body at South Huron District High School would like to express our feelings about a certain student whom you exploited on the front page of the Times Advocate. We feel this student was wrong in what he did, but there was no reason why it should of been put on the front page and in headlines. He is now being harassed by quite a few teachers here at the school. We also feel that he was taught a lesson by spending two days in jail for this was only his first of- fense, and didn't deserve what you have done. The signatures below support those views that we have expressed: Liz Miners, Cathy Day, Dan Luxton, Ena Schaufler, Lee Blommaert, Deb Waldeck, Julie Miller, Deb Piercey, Jenny White, Ivy Schaufler, Kelly Phillips, Cheryl Wales, Jackie Bedard, Robert Demooy, Darrell Dinney, Vicki Bedard, Cathy Raymond, Paul Cooper Dennis Denomme, Mark Stuckless, Mark Christie, Rebecca Jantzi, Sheila Eisenschink, Frank Giffin, Paul Horn, Valerie Baker, Darrell Rathray, Paul Scott, Rob DeKoker, Doug Fischer, Carrie McLeod, Heather Clarke, Michele Vandeworp, Kathy Russell, Gail Clarke, Jacqueline Winegarden, Scott Eveland, Ron Clark, Kathy Giffin, Jamie Lesperance, Nancy Hornton, Darlene Lowe, Tom Raymond, George Black- well, Lisa Miller, Kim Plaman, Pete Bedard, Derek Somann. There were several other signatures on the above letter but they were not legible. June 3, 1981 Dear Sir: We are pleased to an- nounce that the $500 Scholarship Award for On- tario 4-11 Club members will be offered again in 1981. The award, previously known as "Stewart Seeds Scholarship Award" will be presented by CIBA—GEIGY SEEDS LTD. for the first time this year. We would be happy to receive an application from any 4-H Club Member who meets the following guidelines: 1) Is entering the first year of the Agricultural Degree Program at the University of Guelph, 2) Is a member of an Ontario 4-11 CIub,3) Has achieved a minimum of 66% in Grade XIII studies. Applicants will be judged on their leadership qualities, as demonstrated by their participation in 4-1I, Junior Farmer and Community ac- tivities. Ontario 4-11 Club Members may obtain applications from the office of their County or District Airicultural Represen- tative. Applications are also available from CIBA—GEIGY SEEDS LTD., Box 40, Ailsa Craig, Ontario, NOM IAO. To be considered, applications must be receiv- ed by September 11, 1981. Byron E. Beeler Executive Vice -President went all Presbyterian on me, took the buck from my grimy paw and announced that we'd have to find out who'd lost it. That was my last chance to run away. I don't know what happened to the dollar bill. It probably went Into twelve pounds of hamburger (yes, it was three pounds for a quarter, with some "dog bones", now known as stewing beef, thrown in free.) - I don't quite know the moral of this column. Maybe it is: Never Trust Your Mother. But I don't think so.