HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-06-10, Page 4Pogo 4
Times Established 1873
Times -Advocate, June 10, 1981
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Advocate Established 1881
imes -Advocate
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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
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Composition Manager — Harry DeVries
Business Manager — Dick Jongklnd
Phone 235-1331
Ameliomot,d 1924
BLJE
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at Exeter, Ontario
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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.