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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-07-27, Page 4PAGE 4--i'HE PaglaERICA SSGN:A, ,-STAR, THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1978 Goderich` RIGNAL-STAR The County Town Newspaper of Huron Founded In 3MIandpubllehad every Thursday at Goderich, Ontario. Member of the CWNAw and OWNA. Advertising rotes on request. Subscriptions payable In advance '13.00 in Canada.; 17.00 to U.S.A.. '30.00 to all othalr countries. single copkts 30 cont. Display adver- flying rates usailable on request. Pleepa ask for Rate Card No. i effective Oct. 1, 1977. Second class mall Registration Number 0716. Advertising Is accepted an the condition that. In the event of typogrophkar error. the advertising space occupied by the erroneous Item. together with reasonable allowance for signature. will not be charged for but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographical error advoetlsing goods or services ata wrong price, goods or service may not be sold. Advertising Is merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at any time, The Signal -Star Is not responsible for the lessor damage of unsolicited manuscripts or photos. Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd. ROBERT G. SHRIER —_president and publisher SHIRLEY J. KELLEjjtt — editor EDWARD J.BYRSJCj_—.advertising manager._. Business and Editorial Office TELEPHONE 524-8331 area code 51-9- ... .. _ _ -. • Mailing Address: P.O. BOX 220, Industrial Park, Goderich Second class mail registration number — 0716 Trail bikers unwelcome The word isn't good this week for owners of trail -- bikes. According to Police Chief Pat King, kids within the town of Goderich whe own trail bikes can ride them on their own lawns - or nowhere within the municipality. Unless mom and dad (and the neighbors) will put up with the kids tearing around the rose bushes and forsythia, trail bikes wi-Il have to be transported out of town to places like Hully Gully to be ridden. Trail bikes are not welcome on'the town streets; on school property; on shopping plaza parking lots; • on sidewalks; at the railway tracks; on town owned property including the. former site of the dump; on private property within the town without the ex- pressed permission of the owner. .Outside the town, trail bikes are no longer welcome on privately owned farm property. According to Police Chief King, his office has been getting complaints from farmers who are just fed up with thoughtless trail bikers who ride rough shod over, their _ crops, dig _ruts_ _in , their_ fields_ .and +--The- fact-i-erei ams -that ;pa`rerits rvi'll Piave 'to say "no" to kids who take off from their homes on their trail bikes unless they know -for certain where they will be riding and that riding is permitted there. 1 It is just one of those things. Trail bikes are great Pun - but you, must have a proper place to ride them. There just are no such places in the town of Goderich. — SJK Dumb The vandals have been at it againDuring last week's festivities on The Square but late at night under cover of the darkness when nobody was around to hassle there brave beadlebrains did their nasty deeds. Itis always amazing what small minds find entertaining. Breaking tables, swinging from delicate signs and destroying lovely things belonging to other people isn'enjoyment for normal folks. But forcoura..geous vandals, it seems...... to` rovlde, real citem ent to sneak around In the shadows -and mfella te=afolio tarn that can't ralse'a` finger to resist. There's only one word for vandalism and van- dals. Dumb.-SJK Look ahead, Canada Think it over for a minute or two. You Know? Barney Danson, Ottawa's Minister of Defence may be right. It may be time that Canadians cheered up. It may be true that Canada really is the nation with the golden economic future. They say that Barney Danson doesn't have much time for died -in -the -wool traditionalists who want to run contemporary Canada just as it operated at the turn of the century. They say that Danson believes that Canada has resources galore and that these resources should be used to develop technologically innovative Canadian -owned industries aS opposed to mass manufacturing - which can be carried on in almost any country. Think about it. At;:a time` when the rest of the world is running out of the raw materials needed for manufacturing, Canada has an abundance of oil, water, trees and all those other natural wonders tGod gave to this country. The OPEC nations, for instance, are already worrying about what happens when the oil is gone. Saudi -Arabia, for example,- is said to be seriously considering floating icebergs from the Arctic to provide drinking water. How can Saudi Arabia become a manufacturing nation when it lacks water for the production process? In the southern United States, where labor is cheap and manufacturing is booming, rationing water is already in effect in many regions. It would appear that future expansion there is limited, too. The non -oil Third World nations, currently booming because of rock -bottom wages and taxes, will likely be forced to raise both wages and taxes over the next few years. Workers have a way of expressing their needs and their desires,, and it is probable they will expect better compensation for their labors as those countries become more in- dustrialized. ... Jim Smith of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says, "Danson's blatantly cheerful remarks stand out in pessimistic Canada like Rene Levesque at a Liberal rally. Yes, Canada's future is potentially bright, however, it isn't enough to complacently fall back on resources. New mineral deposits have disconcerting tendency to pop up where they are least, expected - and providing fierce competition for Canadian sup- pliers. In our lifetimes, the sea will undoubtedly become a fantastically rich source of resources - far richer than anything Canada can claim now." "We would be naive to allow others to use our resources as a basis for their own industrial ex- pansion," continues Smith. "Moreover, although resource exploitation creates only a few jobs, the manufacturing that could spring from our wealth would createcountless jobs." Patricia C. Johnston is research director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. She writes: "No country has a monopoly on talent. We have a highly trained work force and abundant resources. We have some natural adcntages because our climate and our geography Dave en- couraged our development in certain fields such as transportation equipment," "But our bounty will be squandered unless we find the will to develop it," she goes on. "The em- phasis must be on Canadian -owned enterprises. The key to the future is control over technology and, with few exceptions, branch -plants cannot control their own destinies." Ms. Johnston lists 10 steps to healthy industries. Two of them are worthy of mention here: A change min emphasis from welfare and unemployment insurance funding to on-the-job training and ap- prenticeship- programs; the development of renewable energy - solar, wind, wood and so on - which is labor-intensive and regionally dispersed. The message from Danson-, Smith and Johnston is clear. The future is Canada's - but Canadians must choose to take it.— SJK Rights of others An editorial in last week's Signal -Star entitled "Cooperation important" has a sequel. That editorial was a comment on another one from The Wingham Advance -Times - and last week, the original editorial also brought a reaction from a member of Turnberry Township Council con- cerning the Wingham editor's belief that township council should think it -over carefully before issuing a permit for the establishment of a pig operation less than a Mile from Wingham and District Hospital, Sacred Heart Separate 'School, F.E. Madill Secondary School, a medical -dental clinic and many residential homes on the east side of . town. ' The main point -In -the councillor's letter was that the man who owns the prospective piggery is perfectly within his' rights to chose a swine operation as a means of paying for his farm. The farm is agricultural land in an agricultural area and as the councillor sO-bluntly states," Fresh air and sunshine do not make mortgage payments." The letter also stated that the Huron County Planning Department ruled that a "permit for a , piggery could not be refused, for such an operation definitely comes under "agricultural purposes in this area zoned agriculture use at present". What' s more, the councillor pointed out that it is the opinion of a majority of people '-'tn-"T'iirnberry Township (perhaps in the whole of Ontario) that residential and commercial development should not occur on good farmland. The letter writer concludes his letter this way: "It would seem to me that the field of agriculture is facing enough difficulties without placing any more stu-mbling blocks- in • the way of progressive far- mers. We, more than any other segment of society are gradually losing rights inherent to our way of life, and being legislated away from our traditional livelihood. So if we as the grassroots politicians are not going to protect these rights, who ii? - The letter outlines the crux of the matter - the need for. co-operation and understanding between' - rural and urban dwellers. _It ,also touches on the importance of acknowledging the rights of others, particularly as they apply to planning for the future. —SJK Delicate beauty By Dave Sykes BY SHIRLEY J.KELLER It wasn't really sur prising to read in last week's Signal -Star tha liquor Offences, are in- creasing again. What was surprising is that liquor offences had been down for a time. Certainly the use of "spirits" has not declined according to all reports, although there now does seem to be hope that people are slowly learning to be more discerning about where, when, why and how much they drink of alcoholic beverages. The police report in Goderich shows that for the first six months of 1978, there were 105 liquor charges as com- pared to 89 during the same period in 1977. You may think that's not an astounding increase ... and hardly bears men- tioning. Yet to Police Chief Pat King, it spells a trend for which he is searching for answers. Offenders, says Chief King, were younger ... mostly 14 and 15 years old. The chief of police also points out this is a prevalent problem in rural counties "for some reason". But for the most part, liquor infractions are levied against people - of legal drinking age who are carrying booze in their cars ... a definite no- t no and a dangerous habit. And apparently for some it is a habit for as the chief admitted, one particular offender was charged three times in one week. +++ This writer, of course, does not have the ' an- swers. It is doubtful if anyone has. But some things are well known. First of all, medical doctors will tell you that ulcers are becoming more commonplace •in very young children. Why? Obviously, very young children are emotionally upset and full of stress these days ..- and even though they may not show it in an outward manner, they are in a constant state of turmoil inside which erupts into an ulcer. There are lots of things that would bring stress to a child of 1978, things that children 30 and 40 years ago never -had to concern themselves with. There is the fear of family breakdown. It happens regularly these days and is a real worry for the children who sense it is happening and can see no way to stop it. There is the pressure of the "peer group" ... the other kids around them who also are being pressured into growing up too fast and accepting life's truths too early. There is the influence of the media where nothing is simple any more. Entertainment is intense; music is intense; books are intense; news stories are intense. And the children feel the lid tightening down on them at a very early age. Childhood is no longer innocent and sweet. There is the instability that is everywhere ...in the home where mom and dad may drift from this house to- that .... house . several times in their children's growing up years; in the community where change is common and the norm is difficult to define; in school where rules often seem to be relaxed or tightened to suit the occasion; and even in the church where teachings have known to alter with the times. +++ This ongoing upheaval in a young person's life can be deadly. When there is nothing static and sure to hold onto, children and older people tend to flounder. At 14 and 15 today, young people are like 18 and 20 year olds 30 years ago. They've got more knowledge than they can handle: They've ex- . perienced just about every kind of enjoyment known to man. They may have travelled ex- tensively, or if they haven't v they certainly have a good idea of what the countryside is like away from home. Many of them by that age will be sexually,. active. Certainly ..they would have heard the viVid tales from those who are. Why should it surprise people that they are drinking? In my mind, it isn't so much that young people are drinking. That isn't a new problem. The 'frightening thing is that a ..good...many of them are now drinking for a reason . to forget, to change things, to alter their outlook, to escape. Remember when it was called "Sowing your wild oats?" Now it is more like, "Seeding down your field in permanent pasture." +++ Drinking under age is a prevalent problem in rural areas, police say. Why? Again, I don't have the answers;' but some things are evident. There simply isn't enough to keep young people busy and happy in the rural areas. I know that's a sore point with many people .. and I understand the reason. But let's not forget that things have changed. The activities provided in Huron County, for instance, haven't changed much in the last 15 jears. But nothing else has stood still in that time. There are dozens of new and exciting opportunities waiting for young,eople . . but they aren't available here. Huron County youth aren't sealed off in a. vacuum. They know what's , going down in other' places. And they are bored a good deal of the time ...just as their parents are bored. Everybody has an odd sense of feeling that the faster they runto catch hold of life's pleasures, the more confused and disillusioned they become. +++ That .may have something to do, too, with the numbers of peopje who regularly flaunt Oise laws' of the municipality, of the province, of the country. It is almost like the game of Russian Roulet we've all heard about.. It's at least ex- citing albeit deadly. There doesn't seem to be much doubt. We're a bunch of hassled people, looking for a way to get off the merry-go-round without missing any' of the fun. And booze is one way to make things look rosy,, if only for a little while. That's what worries me. It isn't that we're drinking. It is why we're drinking. 75 YEARS AGO There was quite a fire at the Harbor Park on S1lnday early in the af. ternoon, a stretch of grass on the bank overlooking the road to the harbor being burned from the summer house to near the' entrance of the park. It is thought the fire must have started from a match being thrown into -the grass. A number of boys got the fire out with pails of water from the purnp on the hill. Engineer Brough has been conducting correspondence' With reference to securing material for the work of repairing the super- structure Of the south pier.- Therr, is �„an ap- propriation of $16',000 for this work and if sufficient Material can „be obtailed, the work will probabl be LOOKING BACK started,ere long. With the repairs the G.T.R. are making to their portion of the dock, the new elevator dock, the proposed building of the superstructure of the south pier would put the works on the south side of the harbor in-(-air-shape along the whole stretch. There will be a pianola concert at the summer hotel tomorrow evening and Saturday night the usual weekly hop will be held. Since the inception of the Y.M.C.A. Bible Study Club about :two months ago, it has met regularly on Monday nights. 25 YEARS AGO ' A memorable moment in the history of Goderich was recorded last Saturday morning when the firstsod was' turned for the new W.A. Sheaffer Pen Company of Canada Limited plant. W.A. Sheafferll, president of - the firm which will build the million dollar plant, was present for the oc- casion and actual sod turning was performed by Leon H. Black, plant manager. Some 60 or 70 Goderich residents were guests aboard the Sheaffer yacht on four different cruises out into the lake this week, taking about 17 people each time: The boat arrived at Goderich fast Saturday. Adopting a move made in larger cities tittle more than a year ago,Goderich banks will remain closed all day Saturday, beginning (August 11 and will open for an extra hour and • one-half on Friday afternoon. Five local organizations will ^ be p,. asked by town council to name a suggested representative to the, proposed recreation council as the result of a nieeting last Thursday night. Decision to authorize B.M. Ross, Goderich engineer, to survey and make plans for a new sanitary sewer from the Huron Road to the lake was made by town council at a special meeting Monday night. / 5 YEARS AGO Fire completely destroyed one wing of a farm home at RR 6, Goderich and gutted, the 'remainder of the house last Wednesday. Mr. and Mrs. William Borland managed to save only an armful Of personal belongings before smoke and flames forced them away from the burning house. ' At last Thursday's meeting of Goderich Town Council, the jail committee was authorized to "co- ordinate public input" in formulating plans for the use of the former Huron County jail. A motion giving the contract for demolition of the former CPR Freight Shed at Harbor Beach was accepted by Goderich Town Council last Thursday evening but the permit will be issued with a number of restrictions, one being that no fires are allowed during the demolition. An inspector from the O.P.P. will be sent to Huron County next week to determine if policing of Vanastra is adequate. 1 1