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Times-Advocate, 1985-06-12, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, June 12, 1985 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 imes - dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at. Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. �— Phone 519-235-1331 4 IORNE FED' Publisher TIM BECKEI1 Advertising Manager 4PCNA cctia 8111' BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK IONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Out of touch Huron's secondary school teachers are not. going to find much public sup- port in their current salary impasse with the board of education. The teachers have lost touch with reality if -they consider a 7.5 percent wage dike (plus annual increments) in keeping -with the current economic climate in the county, or for that mat- ter, any part of the country. The 71.1 percent who voted in favor of a strike to back their pay demands fail to recognize they are already in the upper echelons of the pay scale and inflated increases would carry them higher than those footing the bill can afford. Education costs are already out of line and the board offer of four per- cent increases is probably more generous than the agricultural -based county taxpayers would like, as the majority of the latter can only dream about annual salaries in the $40,000 to $60,000 range. The board should remain firm in the present offer, knowing it has the full support of the vast majority of • ratepayers. Few straws left The throne speech tabled in the Ontario Legislature by Premier Frank Miller this week has aptly been described as an example of a death- bed repentance. There's little likelihood that Miller and his Conservatives will have to worry about any accountability for the promises and programs outlined in the 37 -page document as the party's obituary is already being written through the coalition of the Liberal and NDP parties which will probably end the 42 -year reign of the Tories next week. Miller's intent in tabling the im- pressive list of deeds •for his govern- ment to undertake was undoubtedly aimed at making it difficult for the op- position parties to express non- confidence in such an array of bounty for Ontario residents. Many, it must be noted, are among the programs be- ing fostered by the Liberals and NDP. However, Premier Miller may have dug his own grave a little deeper. By espousing many of the pro- grams that the Liberals will apparent- ly present, Miller will find difficulty leading any major opposition against them when he and his Tories take their place on the opposition benches. That could lead to a situation where he is seen as an ineffective op- position leader, and coupled with the fact the Ontario voters were less than impressed with his promise as an ef- fective government leader, could well make his days as leader shorter than expected. He's left himself with few straws to grasp. They can keep vegemite A week ago we talked about Allan'I'om 01 Aianildra being the pioneer of the movie business in New Soulh Wales. This week sse received a copy of an article in the May 11 issue of the Sydney 1lerald featuring 111r Tom and his battle to keep his Amour theatre going despite the strong opposition from videos. in the story he said. "I will like - 1y keep going until i peg out" I lis Saturday night showing while averaging from 40 to 50 persons. mostly children have drawn as few as tour people. Our next comment will he on vegemite, one of the very te+e things that we did not like in Australia and New Zealand F'nr- those not familiar with vegemite or marmite it is a flavoured and fortified yeast extract which is used like butter as a spread usually on toast We agree with the Kiwi -Yankee slanguage dictionary which we picked up at the Auckland airport on the way home. in part it reads. "I have never found anything with a louler taste On the others hand. Kiwis have been known to scour grocery stores abroad fran- tically searching for this concoc- tion and if they fail write letters to NeveZealand requesting ('are packages of vegenrile Most Kiwis view the idea of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich eery much the +vac 1 view a vegernile' sand++ich. but at least I have tried vegernile '1'o set the record straight natives of New Zealand are call ed Kiwis. Nmv back to Manikin). we tried vegemite only once and probably spread it on too thick like we would jam or marmalade. in the Manildra area. we didn't see any roads with a straight stretch of more than a half mile. They wound from here to there and back again and Irene and received a lot of thrills as Jeff manipulated these curves with expert- aplomb. The biggest problem we had the first few days in Australia was getting accustomed to look- ing 10 the right before crossing the street instead of the left They drive 0n the opposite side 01 the road. Many of their road signs while not difficult to interpret are a lit- • by Ross Haugh the different than ours. Some of these are give -way instead of yield; overtaking for passing, crest for hill. dip for hump and soft edges for soft shoulders. Speed limits in most areas of Australia were 100 kilometres per hour while in New Zealand the • maximum was 80. Price of gasoline, known there as petrol was from 5:1 to 57 cents per litre in Australia. hut, much ditferenl in New Zealand The day before we arrived in Auckland, a new federal tax was placed on petrol bringing the rate to 99 cents a litre. That's right. Almost one dollar per litre. one could call New South Wales, the I As Vegas of Australia with slot machines in every club. They are the financial means of support of the clubs. There were two in Manildra. The one armed bandits called poker machines gobble up five. 10 and 20 cent coins. These two countries do not have quarters in their monetary system. Australia has eliminated one dollar hills and substituted gold coins of one dollar. 'Their 50 cent pieces are hexagonal. in both -countries, the nickels and dimes are exact op- posite to ours with the 10 cent coins being the larger. They also have coins worth two cents. In Australia a local telephone call from a pay phone costs 20 cents while in New Zealand it takes only six cents to make a call and the coins must he three - two centers. The only call i made from a New Zealand pay phone was to the Canadian Embassy in Well- ington to find out results of the Stanley ('up playoffs. Everything goes well if you in- sert the six cents and dial the number until the person at the other end answers. That's when the problem starts if the caller doesn't read instructions careful- ly as 1 didn't. Button "A" is to be pushed as soon as the phone is answered which seals the call. 1 had more fun pushing button "BV which was for the refund. The money exchange rates' were very acceptable to north Americans in Australia we received from $I.14 to $1.17 for each Canadian dollar and in New Zealand it ranged from $1.57 to $1.59. Residents of United States were getting $2.17 tor their dollar - in New Zealand The drop of the New Zealand dollar which occurred about six months ago has really helped their tourist industry. We were there in early May which is the fall and off-season tor tourists and everyone was saying the number of visitors were never higher. Irene received a phone call from Jeff and Lynn in Australia Monday morning. They had heard of the tornado near Toron- to and were anxious to know if our area was affected. 1 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited "Were you affected by Wilson's budget cuts?" It's pure poppycock Probably the biggest piece of pure poppycock on our calendar is the Sunday in June designated as F'ather's Day. it is almost as silly as celebrating the birthday of Queen Victoria ion the nearest Mon- day i, or adopting that pretty. but uninspiring thing, the maple leaf, as our flag symbol. That's because, like queens' birthdays and flags. fathers are anachronisms, things that belong to the dear. dead past of empires and gallantry and family solidarity.. The empire has disappeared, the flag has become something to quibble• about. and fathers have turned into cartoon characters. We have become increasingly a mother- dominated society. But in trying to prove that Mom doesn't have clay feet, we have casually accepted the theory that lather has a dough head. The word "father'' is never us- ed any nior'e, as a term of ad- dress. The only place it creeps up is in sociological and psychological terms, such as "father image" or "father figure. • it's been a wild swing of the pendulum. and it is a sad and bit- ter thing. this degeneration from Father to Daddy, but I can't help pointing out that we have brought it upon ourselves, chaps. The Trojaps opened the gates and dragged in that big, wooden horse. The Arab let the camel stick his nose into the tent, to keep warm. Father achieved the same end by relinquishing the purse strings to that brave, little Sugar & Spice Dispensed by Smiley ............................. woman with a heart of gold and a will of iron - Mom. Next. he began to listen to a lot of third-rate tripe. mostly in the form of articles in women's magazines. Thus, he fell prey to such clap -trap as "family togetherness,'.' and "being a pal" to his children. and "talking things out" with his wife. Then. under the bullying of his wife and the relentless heckling of his children, he forsook prin- ciples for possessions. and happi- ly hopped aboard the treadmill of proving that he could bring home as much bacon as the poor. harassed, coronary -bound character next door. Slaving like a pit pony, and at- tacked for it by his family, he was still expected to help with _the dishes. mow the lawn, entertain at parties arranged by his wife, and drive 300 miles on the weekend to visit relatives. Thus. the comfortable paunch which was a measure of Father's success became Dad's pothetly. a sign that he wasn't doing his 5BX. Thus, Father's ominous look and cuff on the ear became Daddy's whine that he would cut off the allowance. Thus Father's majestic craving of the famiy roast became Dad'F inept spcxm- ing out of the meatballs smothered in canned mushroom soup. Not a pretty picture? Right. What are you going to do about it. Jack'? Will you loin me in trying to convert dithering Daddy into fearless Father? Shall we grow b ards.get rid of the blubber, pound the kids once a week, and tell the old lady we're going fishing when we damn well feel like it? What's that? You agree. and you'll join the movement on Mon- day. but right now you have to help Morn oto the shopping? All right. Don't say you weren't asked. Not 'gutless' stand A tew weeks ago Mr. Michael Wilson brought in the first budget of a federal Conservative govern- ment since the ill-fated one of John Crosbie and the Joe ('lark government of not that many years ago. You remember the one perhaps. That was when the ('onservatives tried to put in a lax on gasoline. The Liberals jumped on it with both feet. an election was called again. the Liberals came in and promptly helped the price of gasoline to rise to record highs. They didn't stop there. They created the biggest bureaucracy in Canada's history. They borrowed money like it was going out of style. creating a deficit so large that the interest payments alone consume most of the tax dollars that we are now paying to the government. The comparistm is much like the ordinary consumer who has a good job and finds himself with an excellent credit rating. Lots of things appeal to him to buy such as cars. a new house, clothes. stereos and furniture. The list is endless and for a number of years he finds out that he can buy all these things. Because his wages go up with inflation borrowing; can he quite a good thing for him. Suddenly though. the bubble By the Way by Syd Fletcher breaks and he realizes that most of his wages are taken up with paying hack his debts. Ile makes a Nigger loan to cover all his lit- tle debts and for a while things look a little better. Then he can't resist a new car since everbody else on the block has one. Ile gets the car but finds he can no longer make the payments if his wife is going to buy groceries each week. Some dramatic choices lace him: burning the credit cards. not eating, going bankrupt it all else fails. The bottom line is that the debts have to he paid back. Mr. Wilson is saying that the debts run up by the government of the last sixteen years have to be paid hack. Of course we don't like the medicine. II's got a bit- ter taste to taxpayers who always complain when they get hit in the pocketbook. At some point though are have to be realistic and face up to the problems that face the nation. At some point we have to burn the credit cards. I believe that the unpopular stand that Mr. Wilson is taking is not a 'gutless one' as the honourable leader of the Opposi- tion called it but an extremely courageous one. However. as the old saying goes. 'the proof is in the pudding'. A couple of years will tell if Canadians are better off or not and if they actually end up with more money in their pockets at the end of the week.