HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-03-13, Page 11HONOUR RETIREE At
Woodham Farmers club,
to Gordon Johnson who
Thursday's annual meeting of the Kirkton-
past president John Scott presented o gift
hos resigned as secretary- treasurer.
ne
Rebates total $125,187
Times -Advocate, March 13, 1985
Page 11
K..W farm club sales jump 5200,000
Members of the Kirkton-Woodham
Farmers Club learned at Thursdays
annual meeting that the 1984 year was
one of the best ever.
The financial statement prepared
by retiring secretary -treasurer Gor-
don Johnson showed total sales at
$1,867,553, an increase over the
previous year by almost $200,000.
Grose margin amounted to $167,452
which allowed rebates of $125,187 to
club mernbers. This is a record figure
for rebates.
In 1983, the gross margin was
$112,120 and rebates amounted to
$97,385.
Johnson said the total sales figure
included over $20,000 in interest on
lootinthe
Mentioning battered farm wives in
this column elicits the same amount
of outrage as a column in favor of
nuclear energy.
A few weeks ago, a column sug-
gesting something should be done for
country women in the way of half -way
houses brought letters from across
the province. One chap from Colborne
in eastern Ontario said the column
made it appear as though farm wives
were being beaten as often as the
chores were being done.
I do not want to create that impres-
sion. All I intended to do was point out
that battered farm women -- and
there area few: perhaps more than
a few -- have a great deal more dif-
ficulty getting help because of the
isolation factor and because of the
traditional community pressures to
suffer in silence.
In a city, wives can grab a taxi and
get help in a short time. In the coun-
try, it isn't that easy. But even more
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important, community feeling in the
country is such that many more wives
will suffer in silence a long, long time
before taking action. And when they
do leave, community pressure makes
it unlikely that they will ever return.
The traditional viewpoint in the
farm community is that rural men
are strong. silent and upright and
they are never in the wrong. Maria
Van Bommell, a national organizer
for Women in Support of Agriculture.
was the speaker at a conference on
family violence in London, Ontario.
recently. She said the rural idea is
that the woman is in the wrong. Other
farm wives are the harshest critics of
wives who leave their husbands
because they say the battered wives
"should give in here, there and
everywhere."
Although farmers are isolated in
the country, there is a strong com-
munity bond and women won't readi-
ly admit being battered to preserve
what little privacy they have, she
said. Farm women seek help from a
friend, then a relative or the familty
doctor. They turn to specialized pro-
fessional workers only as a last
resort.
In recent years, the courts have
aiccrr-n a�T9ifg�tltEt6��'t�r�t�1't�FQr�
publicity is necessary to let the entire
community know that family violence
won't be tolerated. Rather than help
farm women, this attitude has com-
pounded their problems. They do not
want the publicity of laying a criminal
charge.
Yaxt
by lob Trotlft. E14si, /1d . ftmas.ttratliplil47..
Crown attorneys in Ontario now
refuse to withdraw charges and sub-
poena victims, if necessary, to force
them to give evidence. Again,
because of the closeness of the farm
Lommunity, this attitude tends to pre-
vent farm women from going through
with a charge of assault. So, they con-
tinue to suffer in silence.
I quite agree with the conclusions
of Maria Van Bommell. Although the
prevalence of battered wives may not
be as high in the rural areas as it is
in the big cities, I believe farm women
would be more reluctant than their ci-
ty counterparts to go through with a
criminal charge. The stigma of a
marriage breakdown is much more
traumatic to the rural wife than a ci-
ty woman.
It's too bad but I think it is true. The
attitudes may change in the next few
decades but they are still there. In
that delightful book by Gisele Ireland,
The Farmer Takes A Wife, the survey
by the Concerned Farm Women of
Ontario, found frustration, irritabili-
ty and mental fatigue at the top of the
causes of stress in rural women. This
simmering stress in the boondocks is
hound to boil over one of these days.
It has, in fact, become apparent in the
staatntry utiltilhtinrr acro nttrriber
of rural divorces and separations.
It is unfortunate that these
breakdowns have much less of a
chance for reconciliation in the coun-
try than in the urban environment.
Old rules, ideals and ideas die hard
in the country.
unpaid accounts
Sales of chemicals, aqua, seed
wheat and bean seed were up con-
siderably from the previous year.
Newly appointed secretary -
treasurer Ron Groot presented a list
of seed grain prices for the coining
crop year.
Ile said seed grain may be picked
up at Thompson's three outlets,
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With the exception of the change of
the secretary -treasurer, other of-
ficials were returned to office on
recommendation of the nominating
t•onunittee.
William Arthur is the president,
Burns Btackler is vice-president,
recording secretary is David Wheeler
and the board of management in-
cludes Rick DeBrabandere, John
Simpson, Rea Stephen and Clarence
Thomson.
Ron Denham is the assistant
secretary -treasurer and the
nominating committee includes
Albert Weernink, Gerald Wallis and
Keith Selves.
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