HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1969-06-26, Page 4�J 4
CODgRfcu $IQN A.L R, TH'URSP,AY,.JUNE 26, 1.969
Well done
- It was learned Tuesday that a new
industry will be coming to Goderich in
the *near future and while it will, in the.
initial stages, be a small operation, it is, at
least, a start. -
. C. H. (Dutch) 'Meier, director of
'promotion for the town, is, to ,be
congratulated for getting out of the office
and into someone else's and bringing a
new source of revenue here.
Stratford Electric, the company which
will be opening a branch for motor
winding,. is the largest company of its kind
in Perth County. The space leased here is
small but was all that was available.
Perhaps this points up the need for at
least one good sizedbuilding to be.
constructed at Industrial Park. Centralia
has shown that industry will move into
existing buildings so the argument that it
will not, is invalid. .
Mr. Meier has done well in Tess than
two months to bring any company to
town. As former mayor Frank Walkom
-said during his nomination speech last
December, it's hard to bring industry to -
town when it 'doesn't want to come.
Perhaps this will start a trend.
Safe Boating Week
Recreational boating continues to
increase• each, year as more and more
Canadians become involved in this activity
during their. leisure time. To prevent
needless loss of. life and property, ,this,
increasing traffic orr our rivers, lakes and
sea shores m.ust be accompanied by
greater awareness of safe boating
practices.
Principal cause of boating accidents can
be attributed to carelessness on the parts
of the operator. Overloading or improper
loading of small boats, lack of knowledge'
for. safe operating procedures and
improper use of equipment too frequently
result in serious accidents.
Boating accidents can be controlled
through safety education supported, '
where necessary, by law enforcement to
make pleasure boating what ,it should be
- a purely pleasant recreation.
R -. ogni'zing the need for emphasis on
• mrlik g .safety, the Canada Safety Council'
is s• • r sorin a national Safe Boating
Week in Canada. oating and yachting
associations, proving ial governments, the
news media and •thrs interested., in safe
boating are pa `'ci eating 'to promote
boating safety •'rough education,
demonstrations and other activities during
the campaign.
The observance of National Safe
Boating Week is a. reminder to veteran
sailors and novices alike that boating fun
and safety go hand -in' -hand.
It bus to be wide open.
Admittedly, there are times when some
individual news reporter annoys the
elected officials. There are times when the
officials are right and the newsman is
wrung — but if the shoe happened to be
on the other foot and the news ,media
refused to carry school board news, the
board m'tmbers would shortly realize the
utter necessity 'of some means Of -
reporting to the taxpayers and so
retaining public confidence. .
-Independent and cdurageous,
newspapers are a vital part of our society.
They have remained for centuries as a
strong bulwark of those basic concepts of
democracy upon which our freedom is
founded.
Last week's daily newspapers carried
stories about the refusal of the
Huron -Perth Separate School Board to
release the results of its. negotiations with
,teachers. The matter was finally resolved
when a press release was issued by the
board. At the opening,of the Sacred Heart
School addition here last week Chairman
Vince Young alluded 'briefly and rather
wryly to the public image which was
being projected over the situation.
We have a great deal of sympathy for
the new school boards and their relations
with the public. These boards are sti l l
unfamiliar with all aspects of -the
responsibilities they have assumed and are
naturally wary about how the public will
react. For the most part the newspapers in
this area have been understanding and
patient. ,
Very soon, however, these boards will
have to admit that the newspapers, .too,
have „a: responsibility to the public. The
only reason for their existence is that they
provide the citizens of their areas with
information — and the information
cannot. be 'Withheld too long. ,The new
school boards are made up_ of elected
officials not appointed representatives
as . was the case with . local high school
boards, and their sessions are therefore
reesuired to be open to .the public . .. .
which is. usually represented by the press.
To illustrate this point an interesting
news story carne out last week. It was a
first-hand account of the Russian
take-over off' Czechoslovakia by a refugee
who managed to escape. He said that the
Russian plans for complete domination
were foiled to some degree by the fact
that the newspapers in that country did
not immediately bow to Russian threats
and thus kept the public informed of the
true nature of the Soviet invasion.
We don't want ahy take-overs in •
Canada. With free and honest newspapers
the probability is not strong. — Wingham
Advance -Times, June 19.
Letters to the Editor
NO OPEN WINDOWS
Goderich the prettiest town in
Canada! If so, " ; at are our town
° fathers thinking of to allow the
horse" barns to remain - in the
centre oPtown where if the wind
is in the right direction you can
hardly stand the odour once you
turn off West St. on to Waterloo
and then on down past the
Collegiate; then if the wind is in
the other direction where all the
new subdivisions are, God help
the people living in those houses,
they, can't open windows or.
doors for the odour.
Now when Mr. Walkom was
Mayor I suggested when they
had the fire in the barns that
they • move out to the Mitchell
farm where there was a real good
barn, but no dice, the town
fathers give.the horsemen money
to rebuild out of oat taxes. Now
1 see where they are making
another donation to build a
paddock.
We have been heavy tax
payers since 1947 business etc,
and as one I. believe the Mitchell
farm would be a much better
place for the horses; -theyr have
to be transported around•
anyway and the air and pasture
are far more bountiful and pure
out there and the fertilizer could
be spread on the land.
Now don't get me wrong, I
love animals but . there is
certainly a place for them and it
is not in the heart of town for•
our visitors to be discouraged of
ever coming back. E
A concerned taxpayer
Editor's Note: Perhaps a
member of council has a reply
for the writer?
HIGHEST APPROVAL
-Some - --years ago, while
residents of Port Elgin,there was
one outstanding nMusicaI
weekend. The entertainment was
furnished by two groups from
Goderich, namely, the rass
band and the girls' tru pet
band. They gave concerts on
Sunday afternoon, and in the
evening, after 'church.
In our opinion, it will be
many years before Port Elgin,
enjoys anything approaching
their standards, unless by some
highly paid professionals.
Recently, a delightful concert
was given in Victoria United
Church by "The Treble Singers".
This was a most enjoyable
evening, and may we be
privileged to hear many more
such programs.
If ' the passing years should
necessitate replacements, there
should be no trouble in finding
recruits, for it should 'be
accorded an honor to be
accepted as a member of this
worth -while Musical
organization.
Ben H. Willings.
AN ERA DEPARTS
• Photo by Ron Price
EARLY DAYS OF THE SALT INDUSTRY IN :GODERICH
DESCRIBED BY VISITOR OF 1867
(By Lillian Rea Benson iniLondon Free Press)
In September, 1867, J. L. S., a Montreal business man, made a
trip into Western NOntario as far as Goderich, and described his
journey in an article which was published ,ip the third issue,of The
New Dominion,,Monthly, an ambitious Canadian journal which was
launched in Montreal in October of that year.
He was much interestedin drilling, for .oil and salt which had been
undertaken, in various Western -Ontario districts, and soon after his
arrival in Goderich he met Samuel Platt, one of the principal
shareholders in the first salt. well near the town. Platt, w#io:owned a
flour mill and cooperage in addition to his interest in the salt
enterprise, offered to show the visitor through the plant. The latter's 7
description of the works and his notes regarding output, cost of t►
production, .etc., constitute an interesting—record of an industry for
which Goderich and the surrounding area became known.far beyond
the borders of the province. '
* * *
"We passed over to the other bank (i.e. the north bank of the
' Maitland River)," he says, "to the salt works by a massive Howtruss
bridge, 425 feet • long, and supported towards• the middle by two
stone piers 33 feet. high. The main building, where evaporation is
going on, is 120 feet long by 60 feet wide. On entering it we were
confronted by two furnaces at the end of the two blocks, on which
are seated the kettles at about two feet apart. The two blocks run
parallel with each other the whole length of the building, each one
containing fifty-two kettles. At the opposite end to the furnaces are *-
elevated
elevated two enormous tanks, containing 44,000 gallons of brine,
which the pump always keeps ,full; from these and along each block
runs a wooden pipe, with a spigot over each kettle by which they are
fed.
a
* * *
"Each kettle holds 140 gallons of brine, and I was surprised to see
the rapidity with which salt is made: Its crystals form on top of the
steaming brine and immediately sink to the bottom. Men run along
17 the top of the block and ladle it out with shovels into baskets, one
of which is over every kettle; supported on laths. The superfluous
brine rapidly runs off the salt into the kettle again. When a basket is
wllmninnuuiuuunniuuuMnuunwiuuuuiunnnuuiuunuuiuuuunuIuluIunnuulunnuIMnuuiuuunuuImmMmmuiiiunuiuuiiminii uuuniimmi a im, filled, the salt is thrown into large bins -behind, whence it is packed
into barrels. They evaporate about 1,000 gallons in twenty-four
-t)#
----,r hours, and make from 100 to 110 barrels. I went up to the, tank and
tasted the ,brine, but it was too strong to be pleasant; as it flowed
from the .pump it was white, clear, and limpid, but is a deep blue in
the tanks. .
tit" -
ESTABLISHED- 122nd YEAR
18411 al* (Ldtrrtr1!t xc - �r x� of
--a —
,,Thr County Town Newspaper of HuronPUBLICATION
Published at Goderich, Ontario every Thursday morning by,
Signal -Star Publishing Limited
ROBERT G. SHRIER
President and Pablisber
RONALD 10y',Y. PRICE
Managing Editor •
EDWARD J. RYRSKI
Advertising Sales'
Subscription Rates $6 a Year — To U.S.A. $7.50 (in advancer
Second class mail registration number — 0716
•
Remember
When ? ? ?
55 YEARS AGO
The general elections in
Ontario were held on Monday
last and resultedin the return of
the Whitney government with a
majority similar to the one they
had before the appeal to the
province.
Mr.. W. Protidfoot,, I~ -C., w -
again the . winnet - in. Centre.
Huron; this time by an incr .- d
majority, • -
The steamer Ionic unloaded
54,700 bushels of wheat at the °
Transit elevator.
The steamer H. N. Jex with
,schooner Ida Keith arrived with
coal for the Big Mill.
The Ontario West Shore
railway is tobe advertised for
sale by tender.
An alarm of fire was sent in
from the summer hotel at 6-:30•
on Monday evening. When the
firemen arrived on the scene it
was found that their services
were not much needed. The fire,
which had started in one of the
bedrooms, was easily
extinguished with the aid of a
garden hose and some chemicals.
Rev. Father McRae is having a
new residence erected on North
Streett, Mr. C. A. Reid has the
contract for the masonry and
James Dean is attending to the
wood -work.
The summer school of the
Presbyterian Church is now in
full swing here. From seven in
the morning, when the rising
f.9-#
belts sound at the Sunset,Hotel,
until ten o'clock at night the
days are filled with study and
recreation. °
Last week Mr. J. J. Miller;of
Hibbert, engaged an emigrant
newly arrived from Scotland to
work for him. After two days in
his - employ, the fellow
disappeared, and so did $100°
from Miller's home. •
Nearly half of the old city of
Salem, Mass., rich in historic
buildings and tradition, was
devastated on Thursday' by a fire
that caused an estimated loss of
$20,000,000.
25 YEARS AGO
Pilot Officer J C. Russell, an
instructor at Sky Harbor, was
seriously injured and his student,
a member of the Fleet Ail° Arm,
Royal Navy, was slightly cut
when their training plane, a
Tiger Moth, spiralled to the
ground, out of control; and
crashed on the farm of Alex.
Johnston, Ashfield Township,
two miles southeast of Port
Albert Navigation School, at
8:30 Tuesday morning. The
plane had just -taken off on its
first flight of the day.
Sunset Hotel opened for the
season on Saturday. The first
large contingent of guests is
expected for the coming
weekend, and the bookings
indicate that the hotel will be
well filled Until the middle of
August at least
- g.. , . ,,... ... 1
,.... T .i�
,.•
By G. MacLeod Ross
10 YEARS AGO
The Jaycettes' annual bursary
cheque, for an , outstanding
student entering the nursing
profession, was presented to
Miss Margaret MacDonald.
Catherine Ann (Kay) Walsh,
15, has received word that a
recording has been made of a
song for which she wrote the
. lyrics.
Stratford is dusting off the
"welcome" mat for July 2 - not
only for Queen Elizabeth and
Prince Philip, but also for
residents of the nearby towns
and rural areas.
THE FLAW IN AUTOMATION•
We have become prisoners of our obsession with mechanical and
technological progress. We are so concerned, with the importance of
making machines that can do wonderful things that we forget that
man, if only his full potentialities are developed and used-, can do far
more wonderful things than any machine. But; he can and will only
do them if these potentialities are developed' to the full. This
requires more thought and effort and intelligence than the making of
even the most complex machine. It takes more to produce a truly
good and civilized man or woman than to make even a "Concorde."
And the finished article is more valuable and capable of greater
benefit.
There was a time during the last war when this problem of making
good men and women and of devoting thought' and resources of
society- to it were -much, considered: It happened because during the
war, when the work of turning ineffih»nt-men, into efficient ones;
frightened men into brave ones, and selfish men into selfless ones was
the very essence of trainingfor battle.
Arthur Bryant
THE COST OF MAIL
The embattled Kierans tells us NOW that we may have to go back
to collecting our own mail — not from the Post Office of course.
Every change of plan requires a new building — but from kiosks.
Here in Goderich, as in hundreds 8f other small towns, we were.
more than content to collect our mail from boxes in the post office
until illusions of grandeur decreed that we must have our mail
delivered to our door. President Nixon and Harold .Wilson have seen
the light. They are 'hot foot for Making the postal service a private
monopoly, TV, etc etc service, something much more intricate than
the mail, wouldn't it be better if Kierans tried a similar agency?
Mercifully in the near future, Mother Bell will offer us per
recording system, so that we can dictate our letters by dialing our'
correspondent. Rprnernbej when an unm
known an named ,A..Q. Bell
introduced what he was pleased to dell "the tielephone," his proposal
to place his instrument in every home and business was called
"fantastic?" 'You don't? Perhaps you're too young! A •
Anyway* as Kipling Might have -written: if Kierans be the price of
mail service, good God we ha' paid in tuli!
tl7
ONE YEAR AGO
Dr..Michael Conlon, medical
superintendent at the Goderich
Psychiatric Hospital, received a
Centennial Medal . Friday in
honor of his work .at the hospital
for the past year.
- Saturday's 25 -mile. OXFAM
walk ' is bringing out the.
competitive spirit , in people,
young and- old. Challenges and
pledges have been issued across
the town for the walk, which
starts from MacKay Hall, North
Street, at 8 a.m., and goes as far`
as Jowett's'Grove, near Bayfield,
and return.
The Goderich District
Collegiate. Institute's Viking
Concert Band claimed•80 points
to take first -place honors in the
Grey County Festival of Music
in Owen Sound Friday.
Kenneth McFee, :232
Britannia Road West, Goderich,
was elected president by
acclamation of the Goderich
Kinsmen -Club --at the--Harbourlite
Inn Monday evening.
* * *
''The pump throws up J,000 gallons per hour, and- the brine is
now more uniformly strong than at first, — present strength, 95 per
cent. On mounting the top of the block the gleaming white of the
salt is quite dazzling ... I found the enginp driving the pump to be
but of 15 horsepower; and the total•expense per day to be only $28.
But the cost of fuel for the furnaces is not large, as wood is only $2
per cord here. I think, however, that it might be further economized
.by evaporating by steam piping through large. shallow tanks, as it is
done in many other salt works."
* *
J. L. S. was interested in the financial organization of the
company, and in its profits, and. Mr. Walker, the superintendent of
the plant, furnished the information. The company S, in 1867, had
forty shareholders, three of whom owned one-halfrof the stock.
Samuel Platt owned one-quarter and Messrs. Deldr and .Cameron
owned one-quarter. Original shares were issued at $10, but.by that.
date were worth half as much again, and 15 per cent per share was
paid in the first six months of operation. Two hundred and eighty
pounds of salt plus the barrel in which it was packed cost 90 cents,to
produce and sold at $1.65 per barrel, f.o.b. Goderich.
* * *
a
•
Mr. Walker also told the visitor depth of the well was 1,010 feet;
that salt rock was struck at a depth of 960 feet; and that they had to
bore 43 feet through it before reaching the deposit of brine.
Samuel Platt was no doubt very much ' elated the day J. L. S. .
visitedthe salt works because he was able to announce in the
visitor's presence that word had been received that morning that
Goderich salt had carried off the first prize at Paris Exposition.
* * *
1
. One worker, an Englishman, was was busily scooping salt crystals
from the baskets, was,,not impressed. He remarked that such a thing
was impossible, that "no salt in the world can come up to English
salt and English salt cannot be beat."
And, strangely enough, twenty years later English salt was cutting
into the Canadian salt market to an alarming extent. But it was the :r
low price of the duty-free English product, not its superior quality,
that reduced the market and limited production of the salt wells
which. _had been one "of- the. thriving --industries of such townsas
Clinton, Seaforth, Kincardine and Goderich.
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LBS. - OVEN READY
TURKEYS., Ib. . 43
WHOLE- OR HALF -- FRESH -- LEAN •
ROASTING. AMS Ib. 594
EXTRA LEAN ,
ROUND lb. 79
4 GENUINE SPRING ° LAMB
AT ..POPULAR iPPICES ,
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