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Times-Advocate, 1983-04-13, Page 4Pape 4 Times -Advocate, April 13, 1983 Ames Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 1 dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Umhed LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Map Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $21.00 Per year; U.S.A. $56.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' 111 A IYs your fight April is Cancer Month and the theme for 1983 tells the whole story ! "We Need You Now! More Than -Ever!" is the, theme chosen by the Canadian Cancer Society to drive home the point that money is needed now to wage the fight against cancer. Due to the support received in past fund-raising efforts, headway is being madeagainst this dreaded • disease and there are many types of cancer for which tremendous advances for treatment have been accomplished. New equipment, treatment and detection methods have saved many lives, but cancer remains as a deadly foe with which the battle must continue. Many people have the mistaken belief that the vast source of money provided by the Terry Fox run pro- vides enough funds for the Cancer Society. Terry was explicit in how those funds were to be used and they are not available for many of the educational and ex- perimental projects required. He never intended it to be a replacementfor the annual canvass, merely an adjunct to it. Canvassers will soon be at your door. Be generous because the donation you make could save your life, or that of a loved one. Those pointing fingers Since the world suddenly became alarmed about the unhappy fate of all those baby seals, Canada has become the scapegoat, pictured as a nation of greedy and cruel profiteers who enjoy the suffering of the animals which are slaughtered annually. We are no more in favor of allowing unnecessary cruelty to animals than are the protesters - but, as is so often the case, one wonders whether the object of the protest is to protect the helpless animals or to pro- vide leadership opportunities and expanded egos for all the protesters. The Toronto Globe and Mail quotes Premier Rene Levesque to point out the stupidity of some of these self- righteous outcries. It seems that the premier was be- ing interviewed on television in Paris when a call came in from super -protester Brigitte Bardot. She attacked the hunt fiercely until finally Mr. Levesque retorted, "The way you handle geese here to make fois gras is much more barbarous." As the Globe adds, the French cheerfully accept the force-feeding which produces grotesquely swollen goose livers: Germans do not inquire about the short, unhappy lives of the veal calves which produce that delicate white flesh. In Britain men and women cheer- fully ride to hounds, chases which end with dogs tear- ing a terrified fox to pieces. The Globe, however, missed the classic example we have mentioned in this column previously. Have you ever heard one note of alarm or disgust about the source of Persian lamb? Both the lambs and their mothers had to die to keep civilized matrons warm and admired. Life after 40 Everything hurts and what doesn't hurt doesn't work. The gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bifocals You feel like the night before and you haven't been anywhere. Your little black book contains only names ending in M.D. You get winded playing chess. Your children begin to look middle aged. You join a health club and don't go. You begin to outlive enthusiasm. Your mind makes contracts your body can't meet. You know all the answers, but nobody asks you the questions. You look forward to a dull evening. You sit in a rocking chair and can't get it going. Your knees buckle and your belt won't. You regret all those mistakes resisting temptation. You're 17 around the neck and 42 around the waist. You stop looking forward to your next birthday. Dialing long distance wears you out. Your back goes out more than you do. A fortune teller offers to read your face. .You turn out the lights for economic reasons rather than romantic ones. You remember today, that yesterday was your wed- ding anniversary. You are startled the first time you are addressed as "old timer". You burn the midnight oil after 9:00 p.m. You sink your teeth into a steak and they stay there. Your pacemacker makes the garage door go up when you see a pretty girl walk by. You get your exercise acting as a pallbearer for your friends who exercise. You get too much room in the house and not enough room in the medicine cabinet. The best part of your clay is over when your alarm goes off. Taken from MTC News You've come a long way baby "Exeter is located in the heart of Southwestern Ontario and is the principal town in the southern and most prosperous part of Huron County, one of the richest agricultural areas in Canada." That was the opening paragraph of the first industrial promotion brochure pro- vided by the Exeter Industrial Develop- ment Corporation, and while it still holds true, that is about the only information that is current from the first printing back in 1961. The writer was simply amazed at the statistics provided in that brochure, given the fact it is only 20 years old. If you don't know what inflation has done to us over those 20 years, read on. The brochure lists labor rates for pro- spective industries based on averages taken from the National Employment Service. Tool and die makers headed the list at a whopping $1.91 per hour, with skilled factory labor at $1.13 and unskill- ed at 97t. Approximately 85 percent of the oc- cupants of Exeter homes were said to own their premises, paving an average residential tax of $215 per year. While the availability of rental units was considered to be low at the time, apartments that were available were ren- ting for $45 to $85 per month and home rental costs were listed at between $60 and $90. The average cost of a standard five or six -room house was set at $10,000 with a down payment of 10 percent being re- quired, with private or commercial loans being available at between six and seven and a half percent interest. Executive - type homes were listed at $14,000. The residential mill rate for 196:3 was 83.7 mills and the town's total debenture debt stood at $778,256.43 for a per -capita debt of $240.13. A breakdown of municipal spending proves interesting, particularly the fact BATT'N AROUND with the editor that 24( of every tax dollar went to educa- tion. That has now more than doubled. The remainder of that tax dollar was split up as follows: general government 7f, protection to persons and property 9Q, public works, roads, streets 16t, sanita- tion and waste removal 6t, public welfare 2e, recreation and community services 5t, debenture debt charge 20t, county rates 10f and miscelleneous lt. The domestic water rate was $16.87 per annum for one or more taps and an addi- tional $8.44 per year for one toilet added and another $8.44 for one bath or shower. Fuel oil prices were 18.7( for domestic with commercial rates running as low as 12t. Coal was also available at $20 to $25 per ton. The town's population of 3,241 was pro- vided with police protection by a chief and two constables with a radio-egdippeo cruiser and the OPP detachment had a corporal and four constables. The 20 -man volunteer fire department had a 1961 Chev pumper and a 1944 GMC pumper and the annual fire loss, based on a five-year average, was $3,500. The town boasted four miles of blacktopped roads. Canadian Canners Ltd. with a seasonal peak of 150 was listed as one of the two major area employers along with General Coach Works of Hensall, with an equal number of employees. Dashwood Planing Mills, then located in Dashwood, had 35 employees and the Ontario Hydro office here had 24. Some of the others listed, along with the number of employees included: Guenther Tuckey Transports 60, TuckC;, Beverages 35, Ex- eter Times -Advocate 14, Cann's Mill 12, Exeter Co -Op 8, Exeter Furniture 8, Kongskilde and JF Farm Machinery 8, C.A. McDowell 20. Enrolment at Exeter Public School was 600, with 30 at Precious Blood Separate School and 800 at SIIDHS. The recreation department received an annual town grant of $4,000 and a provin- cial subsidy of $3,500. The total population within the "labour radius" (20 miles) was posted at 52,917, including Clinton, Mitchell, Seaforth and St. Marys. Populations of some of the other area municipalities at that time were: Hensall 927, I,ucan 932, Zurich 718, Ailsa Craig 549, Grand Bend 874, Usborne 1,524, Stephen 2,626, Hay 1,907, Biddulph 1,808, McGillivray 1,807, Stanley and Tuckeramith 1,948 each. "Excuse me — is this the road to economic recovery?" Pity the poor Canuck Only in Canada? Pity. But where else in the world could you have a situation in which interna- tional oil prices are drop- ping while national prices for gasoline and heating oil move relentlessly higher? This anomaly, of course, was a result of ferocious and frantic efforts by pro- vincial and federal governments to tax everything but the air we breathe. The trick is to find something that everybody needs, and that is steadily rising in cost, and then slap a progressive tax on it. That, my friend, is the reason you're paying about $2.25 a gallon for gas when the sheiks of Araby are up to their navels in a glut of unwanted oil. Should we ever have a massive, Sahara -type drought in this country, guess what your govern- ments will tax heavily. Water? Right on. If every cow in Canada suddenly stopped giving milk, you could depend on a stiff tax on milk and cheese. If the Western provinces had a total grain disaster - hailed out, rained out, rusted out, chewed up by grasshoppers - the logical move by government would be to stick a tax on bread that would rise automatically every time the price went up. Only in Canada. Where else in the world would a government try to bribe people to read a book by making used lottery tickets worth 50 cents on purchase of a Canadian book? It's incredible, and readers in other countries must be chortling, but it's done in Ontario: So much for our cultural pretensions. Only in Canada. In what Sugar and Spice Dispensed By SmNey other country would a political party turf out a leader who had a clear mandate from two-thirds of his party to carry on? And in what benighted country anywhere would a dozen or so idiots leap to fill that discarded leader's shoes, knowing full well they could expect the same treatment just down the road? Only in Canada. Can you imagine any other democratic country in the world where the head of government could give the finger to some of his peo- ple, tell some others to eat merde, utter obscenities in parliament, and still be re-elected? Only in Canada. In what other country in the world is everything printed in Mr° languages, and when you go shopping, the language in which you are feeble is the one that presents itself to you on every package, every tube, every box. (I swear that when Quebecois go shopping, they are con- fronted with the English side on every box, etc)? Only in Canada. Can you imagine another country that steadily destroys lush, productive farm- land by turning it into asphalt and urban sprawl, or tearing it up for gravel pits to create more asphalt, more urban sprawl? Think of the hue and cry there would be in France or Italy if the government not only condoned, but en- couraged, the ripping up of vineyards to build ham- burger stands and gas sta- tions and motels with lum- py beds and exorbitant rates. Only in Canada. Is there another country in the world that decided any building more than sixty years old should succumb to the wrecker's hall, be razed. and be replaced by a tasteful concrete -block and plastic abortion? Other countries preserve their heritage, carefully and often expen- sively, restoring old castles, ancient city walls, cathedrals, country homes. Here we wipe them out, say, "Oops," and rebuild them as "quaint" restorations with all the artifacts of the original, but with all modern accoutrements. Only in Canada are authors considered as second-class citizens who don't really "work" for a living, singers as inferior unless they've played Vegas, actors as malcon- tent long -hairs who should get a job, ballet dancers as people dancing about in long underwear and our national broadcasting system as a socialist drain of the taxpayer. Only in Canada can the government seize private companies without any ex- planation or compensa- tion, 100 police raid a pseudo -religious organiza- tion and seize all its papers on the flimsiest of evidence, and politicians get up and lie and lie and lie, without any repercussions. Oh, I'm not naive. 1 know this sort of thing is going on every, day, all over the world. But in democratic countries? On- ly in Canada. Look at Quebec. In a lovely bit of irony, the teachers, who had more to do with electing the Parti Quebecois than any other group, are riow facing that party, snarling, calling it "fascist", beating its cabinet ministers over the head with placards. Only in Canada. And finally, in what country in the world is it possible to have a cold at any day, week, or month of the year? Only in'Canada. Pity. Some costly differences One of the things that burns me up about travell- ing here in our own pro- vince is the cost of accom- modation at motels and hotels. It seems to me that the wrong philosophy is beng adopted by the hotel owners in that they Seem to believe that it is better to have half of their building's rooms filled at a high rate than all of them full at a reasonable one. In Orlando, 4 persons could stay in a nice motel (equivalent to the Holiday Inn) for less than forty dollars a night. Now I would have to plate Orlan- do alongside of Toronto why gasbline should cost with respect to tourist at- anywhere from ninety- tracting power yet in seven cents a gallon to Perspectives By Syd Fletcher Toronto you would have to paydouble that amount. he other thing that ir- ritates me is the dif- ference in the price of gas on the south side of the border. I can't understand OA there and $2.25 here. Even with the difference in the size of the gallon there's still a heck of a price spread. Come to think of it, I guess I know who's raking in 60 cents on the dollar (and it's not the oil companies). Just as a matter of in- terest, I noted that at a number of places that I filled up that the price was measured in litres (27 cents/litre) instead of gallons, and also that distances would be often given in kilometres in- stead of miles. Maybe those people who are angry at the metric system should take a look at the emergence of that trend in the 'States' before they get on their band- wagon about scrapping metric.