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Times -Advocate, March 27, 1985
Timed Established 1873
Advocate Established 1881
Amalgamated 1924
INN
rkt
dvocate
Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM ISO
Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386.
Phone 519-235-1331
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LORNE EEDY
Publisher
JIM BECKETT
Advertising Manager
eNA
BILL BATTEN
Editor
HARRY DEVRIES
Composition Manager
CCSA
ROSS HAUGH
Assistant Editor
DICK JONGKIND
Business Manager
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
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C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A'
Begins at home
As sure as the buds on the trees,
spring brings the. bicycles. And as
sure as the sound of the birds, the
sound of honking horns follows.
Motorists and kids on bikes fight
an unceasing battle. Ironically,
they're usually on the same side - for
the safety of the children. But for the
kids, potential harm is the last thing
on their minds. They expect to be
safe, and that makes it easy for them
to take risks and break traffic rules.
Sometimes those risks lead to ,
tragedy.
Basic bike safety is taught in
elementary schools, and corhmunity
service officers make occasional visits
to review signalling, reflectors and
other safe biking practices. But once
kids get out on the street, many of
them seem to forget.
Driving examinations aren't re-
quired for bikes, but maybe they
should be. We don't let a 16 -year-old
drive a car without proving an ability
to do so, but we let a six-year-old ride
a bike that offers him far less protec-
tion in the case of an accident without
testing him at all.
riding double and failing to .use hand
signals. Don't wait for the school to do
it; lessons on safe riding should come
as part of the gift of that shiny new
bike.
Adults riders should set a good ex-
ample too. The rules are there for a
reason, and may save your life.
Another part of bike safety is
maintenance. A rickety bike can be
dangerous, just like a poorly -
maintained car. Bald tires, loose
chains and the lack of lights and
reflectors are the most common pro- -
blems. By law, bikes must be equip-
ped with a white light at the front and
a red light at the back for riding after
sunset.
In Exeter, Constable Dan
Kierstead says that juvenile violation
warnings have been the norm instead
of Highway Traffic charges. These
.warnings come on a slip of paper
which must be signed and brought in
to the police station by the parent.
This serves to alert the parent to" their
child's problem with bike safety
habits.
s ave t e major respon-
sibility for making sure their children
understand the dangers inherent in
running stoplights and stopsigns,
wal or a warning..or more
serious repercussions. Make sure your
kid knows how to handle that bike
before wheeling out to enjoy the
carefree days of spring and summer.
Should have a
If you have never been
involv-
ed in municipal politics. ypu
should have. a go. Run for
anything from dogcatcher to
mayor. If you lose. it will be good
for your ego. If you win,it will be
good for your humility.
i speak, as always, from per-
sonal experience. For two years
I served on a town council. it was
illuminating, if not very
enlightening.
i was elected, of course, by ac-
clamation. As was everybody
else on the council. So keen were
the citizens to serve that some
years, on nomination eve, we had
to go down to the pub, drag a cou-
ple of characters out, and guide
their hands while they signed up.
When i was elected, i was pre-
sent as a reporter. There were on-
ly five other people in the coun-
cil chambers, so it was decided
that i would be elected as the
necessary six:.h. Since i had
already served on the executives
of various moribund organiza-
tions which had died forthwith. i
agreed. It didn't die, as I'd hoped.
The next year we were all re-
elected. By acclamation.
it was pretty heady stuff, at
first. As a partner in a printing
plant. and a newspaperman, 1
was immediately appointed
Chairman of the Printing Adver-
tising, and Public Relations Com-
mittee of council. This meant that
our firm automatically received
the contract for the town's prin-
ting and advertising, which we
already had. The public relations
part meant that i had to stop sug-
gesting in the paper that the town
council was made up of nitwits.
nincompoops and nerds.
Another chap. with a pretty
good heating and plumping
business. was named Chairman
of the interior Municipal
Modification Committee: Healing
and plumbing.
A third, who had a tractor, a
back -hoe and a snowplow. was
appointed Chairman of the Public
Works Department. Ile im-
mediately introduced a by-law
raising the rates per hour of such
equipment. 1t passed. four to two.
The oppposition was from
another councillor, a retired
farmer, who also had a tractor
and a threshing -machine, which
he thought could be converted to
plowing snow. His brother-in-law
voted with him.
But these moments of power
and glory soon faded. The conflict
of interest became apparent, and
there was no way out for a man
of honour except to resign. It took
me only two years to reach that
conclusion. You may think that a
fair time, but it's not easy to walk
Sugar
&Spice
Dispensed
by
Smiley
•
away from a $75.00 a year sti-
pend. The mayor made $150.00.
As a reporter, I had been more
interested in the conflicts than
the interests. i had delightedly
heard, and printed, one councillor
call another councillor a "gibber-
ing old baboon". And watched the
victim of the pejorative, a stripl-
ing of 78, invite the name -caller
outside, stripping off his jackrt
during the exchange. Cooler
heads prevailed. It was thirty-
four below outside. a
e
go
municipal councillor, or
perhaps because of it, this by-law
completely baffles me.
The first thirteen pages are
definitions. They tell us what is h
lot, a yard (front) and a yard
(rear), a garage, a building.
They also inform the ignorant
citizenry what a school is, a per-
son, a restaurant, a motel, a
boarding-house. All alphabetical-
ly. There was no mention of
"brothel" under the B's.
The by-law tells us how high
our fences or hedges can be. It
tells tis how high our houses can
be. How many square metres of
floor space we must have if we
decide to ask Auntie Mabel,
crippled with arthritis, to share
our dwelling. How many parking
places we need for each
establishment. Again no mention
of either brothels or bootleggers
For most the document, the by
law dwells in metres, square
and decimated. I know very few
people over thirty who would
know a metre from a
maskinonge. Somebody on coun
cil must have cornered the
market on metre sticks.
Then this baffling by-law
moves into "hectares". What the
heck is a hectare? To me, it's ari
ancient French (Canadian) piece
of land about as accurate as an
cre, which nobody understands
ither.
Here's an example: "RM2 uses
are permitted as specified to a
maximum of 550 persons per hec-
tare." Is it a square mile? Is it a
H!acre" wit' an accent?
This is crazy. When I was a
councillor, we could knock off
three •or four by-laws in a
meeting, and everybody
understood them. "Moved and
seconded that there shall be no
loitering in the cemetery, except
by those who are among the
dead, not the quick". That sort of
thing.
This big fat by-law is for the
rds. Or the lawyers. Not for us
d municipal politicians.
Remember what i suggested at
e beginning of this column?
rget it. Otherwise you might
d up in a "Detached dwelling
it", which allows "3.2 persons
r unit standard." Not two. Not
ur. 3.2.
well. as you can see, as a
member of that august body, the
Town Council, I couldn't print
that sort of thing. i had to report
that the two councillors "had a
difference of opinion." When I
wrote that phrase and had to omit
that one of the councillors was ob-
viously in his cups, I knew i had
to quit.
All of this is a reamble to a
thickish document I got in the
mail the other day. it is a by-law
printed and dispersed (at what
enormous cost i shudder) by our
local town council. There are 39
numbered pages of legal in-
anities, and about an equal bi
number of pages of maps of the of
town. equally unintelligible.
As i said, the mailman th
delivered it, regardless of ex- Fo
pence. A dozen kids could have en
covered the town in two hours, or un
stuffed them in the sewer. pe
Despite my wide experience as re
Serving South Huron, North Middlesex
& North Lambton Since 1873
Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited
Kremlin's spring chicken
MIllEit SERVICES
Famous and infamous
Last summer, members of Ex-
eter council were at a loss to
designate a "native son" for the
Huron County bicentennial atlas.
After almost dismissing fur-
ther attempts to find a well-
known and honored former
citizen to present as a nominee,
Jack Smith of RR
rescue and advised Reeve
Mickle that the town did in fact
have a logical contender in the
person of Charles Trick Currelly.
Currelly was born in Exeter on
January 11, 1876 and went on to
become the first director of the -
Royal Ontario Museum. Among
his many credits in a listing of
"Who's Who In Canada" in 1951;
it was noted that Currelly had
also authored a book entitled "I
Brought the Ages Home" which
includes one chapter on his early -
life in Exeter.
A noted archaeologist, the
native son was a member of
several expeditions and as a
member of the Egypt Explora-
tion Fund, discovered the Tomb
of Aahmes, two Royal tombs and
the Temple Shrine of Ustertesen
III and the Cow Goddess and
Shrine at Deir el Bahri.
Currelly was decorated by the
Sultan of Turkey for bringing to
Cairo the portraits and inscrip-
tions of the early Egyptian kings
from the Wadi of the Mines in
Sinai.
In his book, Currelly tells of a
convocation at the University of
Toronto in 1926 which was
dominated by other Exeter
natives, including the Greek
scholar Professor Ramsay, Sir
Wiliam Willison. Brigadier -
General Mitchell, Sir John
'McLennan, T. A. Russell and
'Martin, the Prime Minister of
Saskatchewan and his brother,
head of a big financial
company".
*
While only a few of our senior
citizens may recall these native
sons who went on to fame and for-
tune, the names of o
eep cropping up in
some interesting places.
Earl Long recently advised
that two former Exeter men were
Batt'n
Around
...with
The Editor
detailed in Pierre Berton's book,
"The Promised Land" which
details the settling of the west
from 1896 to 1914.
Several pages are devoted to a
Reverend I. M. Barr, who serv-
ed briefly as a Church of England
priest in Exeter. Here, as well as
some other centres, Barr argued
over the size of his salary and
"his parishioners made no real
effort to seek his retention" Ber-
ton explains.
• Barr had a grandiose scheme
of an all -British colony in the
Canadian West, and with a mis-
sionary's zeal, and telling images
of the west that strayed far from
the truch, managed to enlist 1,960
British, men, women and
children to sail to Canada in 1903
and start the long, painful trek to
an area in northern Saskat-
chewan to start new lives as
farmers. Few . were either ex-
perienced or equipped for that
task.
The immigrants founded the
community of Lloydminster and
Barr, who had several narrow
escapes with his life with the
angry settlers he had duped, end-
ed u. r
money he had taken from them
and then . escaped to the U.S.A.
and then went on to Australia
where he died at the age of 89,
still dreaming of building com-
munities in non-existent promis-
ed lands.
* *
*
The other Exeter native includ-
ed in the book is W. J. "Will"
White, a former editor of the Ex-
eter Times. On the advice of
another local boy, Tom Green-
way ( who later became Premier
of Manitoba) White founded the
Brandon Sun where he set the
type himself, cranked the press,
peddled the paper on the streets
for a nickel a ,copy, sold the
advertising, wrote every work
that appeared and evensweptthe
floors.
Berton claims that "as a prac-
titioner of hype, Will White
deserves to stand with the best of
the modern hucksters".
White arranged free trips for
newspapermen from throughout
the U.S.A. to visit the Canadian
West with the intent they return
home and proclaim the benefits
of settling in this nation.
Ile became propoganda chief
for luring Americans and by 1912,
had helped bring 217,000 to the
Prairies.
Barr and White are probably
Exeter's best-known conmen and
their antics as outlined in Ber-
ton's book make some very in-
teresting reading.
Among most fortunate
It seems to me that senior
citizens in Ontario (and probably
similarly in the rest of Canada )
are among the most fortunate in
the world.
The business world has come to
realize that there are a large
number of paying customers out
there in the older age brackets
now and are catering to them
.with discounts and bonuses.
Many restaurants have issued
"Senior Citizen Cards" which of-
fer as much as 15 percent off
meals or outright gifts such as
free coffee.
The government has also in-
stituted a number of socialistic
programs over the last ten years
which help out as well. Free pro-
grams over the last ten years
which help out as well. Free
hospitalization, drugs, subsidized
rental accommodation (geared -
to -income housing) and rebates
on property taxes or rental
payments are among the han-
doutk which was have managed
to get given to us. Rightly so too.
if we can't take care of our own
By the
Way
by
Fletcher
citizens then we certainly can't
be very proud of our society.
However, it's going to he in-
teresting over the next fifteen or
twenty years as the baby -
boomers reach retirement age.
The costs of their pensions and
subsidies are going to reach
phenomenal levels. Those ex-
penses are going to be borne, in
large part, by a shrinking labour
force who are going to complain
bitterly about their tax load (hut
to no avail since the majority of
voters will be among the retiring
age group).
i hope that some judicious
planning is going on in govern-
ment now about how all these
goodies are going to be paid for
as it may he too large a problem
to handle if left to the last mo-
ment. Politicians being as unwill-
ing as ever to face unpleasant
realities in the present may leave
to their successors the task of cut-
ting out "freebies" such as pen-
sions and children's allowances
to wealthy people even though
such measures are not too
popular. i, for one, do not agree
with universality of social
assistance.
it is ridiculous that the former
prime minister should receive
children's allowance or an okl
age pension. it would make far
more sense to give that money to
a pensioner that truly needs it