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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1990-01-10, Page 2SINCE 1860, SERVING THE COMMUNITY FIRST Incorporating The Brussels Post Published in Seaforth, Ontario Every Wednesday Morning yT, The Expositor is brought to you each week by the efforts of; Pat Armes, Paula Elliott, Terri -Lynn Dale. Dianne McGrath and 'Bob McMillan. ED BYRSKI, General Manager HEATHER ROBINET, Editor Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc. Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Press Union International Press Institute Subscription Rates: Canada '20.00 a year, in advance Senior Citizens - '17,00 o year In advance Outside Canada '60.00 a year, in advance Single Copies' - .50 cents each Second class mall registration Number 0696 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1990 Editorial and Business Offices - 10 Main Street, Seaforth Telephone (319) 527-0240 Mailing Address - P.O. Box 69, Seaforth, Ontario, NOK 1 WO Try a new tact It seems that Ontario taxpayers are fighting a losing battle. The recent decision by the Province of Ontario to tack its eight per cent retail sales tax on top of the proposed seven per cent federal sales tax, belittles every attempt by residents of the province to keep taxes within reason. A tax on tax. What next? Destined to take effect on January 1, 1991, the federal tax proposes to hit a wide range of goods and services, many of which are not presently taxed. Originally set at nine per cent, the GST, is being flouted as a much more admissable replacement of the 13 per cent manufacturer's sales tax. Maybe so, but add to that the fact the provincial government intends to place a tax on top of the federal tax, and you've got another means to skim more from the coffers of the already growing destitute general public. Come 1991 Ontario residents will not only pay an additional $7 in federal taxes for every $100 taxable item, but they will have to cough up an ad- ditional $8.56 in provincial taxes as well. That can only mean bad news for Canadian retailers. According to reports, shopkeepers enjoyed a fairly easy time of it in the 1980s, even managing to post an annual real growth of four to six per cent after inflation. In fact, between 1983 and 1988, Statistics Canada reports that the in- crease in consumer spending on all goods and services, far outpaced the rise in the disposable income of Canadians. No doubt the economic picture for the 1990s is less optimistic. While disposable income advanced 44 per cent to $397.8 billion in 1988, total cosumer spending jumped by $122.5 billion, or 53 per cent, to $354 billion. That spending boom has left consumers with heavy debts, few pressing needs and little inclination to shop. Add that to an economy that is generally sluggish, low population growth, still -high interest rates, and this other dash of taxation proposed for 1991, and the picture does not look promising. What one sees in their crystal 'ball is little or no real growth in retail trade in the coming years. Albeit Canada's monstrous deficit is hard to tame, there have to be bet- ter ways to meet our needs, than by imposing tax upon tax, upon tax - because it's questionable that is doing any good. And with a recession looming over the country, certainly it appears more difficult for federal government to make spending cuts that will cut into the deficit. Then again, maybe they should try. IN THE YEARS AGONE from the Expositor Archives Wouldn't it be wonderful if we lived. is a perfect world? If our plans never went awry, and if we lived in a continual state of peace and be'• , mess, where grief had not even the estplace? ft would be heaven, wouldn't it? Unfortunately though, the above paragraph, although it would certainly go a long way in describing the idyllic world, is not an accurate portrayal of today's times. Sadness and grief, unfortunately are as much a part of one's daily regime, as breathing. And while it is painful to have that part recounted in the newspaper, to ignore it, would not be the best thing to do either. This week, The Expositor received' a Let- ter to the Editor, which berated it for its recent coverage of a fatal car accident. (That letter is featured on this page in the Letters to the Editor -column). While the newspaper respects the opinion of the writer, it can't-hejp but feel wrongly ac- cused of being callous, or unfeeling towards those directly suffering from the after effects of We incident. An accusation of that sort, really says little about the humanity and compassion of The Expositor staff, something I can assure you, definite- ly exists. We are not steel, but like everyone else, living, breathing and com- passionate individuals who would like nothing more than to, have only the positive aspects of life to report on. But life isn't always positive, is it? Like the writer, I too, would like to view the world through a more positive light, to focus only on those things that are good and true, and ignore those that speak more negatively of world events. Unfortunately my job, which requires that I provide an accurate picture of what is happening around me, and my determination not to sugar coat the goings ons, won't allow me. Certainly if I, and my cohorts here at The Expositor, were to see everything through rose-colored glasses, I'm afraid we'd be doing everyone else a disservice, since we would no longer be painting an accurate picture for our readers. And without an accurate picture, it is virtual- ly impossible to either correct, or improve on, those -situations that do indeed, make the world a less than savory place to live. Like everything else, there are two sides to the news - a good side, and a bad. Pain- ful or not, in order to lend credence to the good side, newspapers must also report the bad. Some papers can do that tastefully, others can't. We like to think, that we at The Expositor do it without heaping a whole lot more pain on those people already hurting. We are after all, not only reporters, but inhabitants of a small town. That means whatever bad happens in this vicinity, it touches us as human beings as well. In most cases we know the people involved, or know their families, and we also feel the pain of sudden death or injury, if on- ly indirectly. We have had to write about Olds In" volving staff memhers,:and d , in the past, and there is no preferential treatment given. Whether it strikes close to home or not, our reporting of similar events, where information is available, hi the same. In this more recent case, it was the OPP itself that sought out The Expositor reporter, in order that the most accurate account of the accident be printed in the local newspaper. He was concerned that because of the fact that it was winter, and that the accident involved 'a youth, as well as an elderly man, that a lot of misconcep- tions would be made about what actually occurred. He wanted to assure the public that neither party was at fault for the ac- cident, and ensure that neither driver was wrongly maligned by gip. This 'accident was an Act of God, so to speak, and there was no way it could have been avoided. We at The Expositor, do grieve for the families that are doing their grieving now, and we wish them the healing that only comes with time. We also hope that by reporting their sorrow, we were able to help, rather than add to their situation, by generating an awareness in their neighbors, and evoking the compassion and support for which the people 10 this area are known. Time is on my side I, unearthed a nifty little piece of trivia the other day. It said, "In his or her lifetime, the average Western -world profes- sional will spend three years in wasteful meetings, four years being interrupted, five years waiting in line-ups, six years eating and seven years in the bathroom. One year is spent looking for things, eight months spent opening advertising mail and six months waiting at red lights." This is exactly the kind of stuff that 1 waste time memorizing so .that I can regurgitate it again at opportune moments. I'll wait until I'm standing in some inter- minably long line at a grocery store, and if I hear someone grumbling about the time that they're wasting, I'll turn around and say, "That's nothing. Taking my pre- sent age into account, I've been standing in line for, oh, two years now." That'll stump them. And seven years in the bathroom. Think about it. Kind of makes you want to take a good book, doesn't it? I read. somewhere that we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. (Actually, I think that I heard that on a Craftmatic Ad- justable Bed commercial during the late - late movie...whenI should have been sleep- ing.). 1:wonder. ifanyone has calculated the amount of tim E:that the average working person lies in, bed hitting the snooze button, muttering "..just five more minutes -please..." Those five minutes add up in an awful hurry. ROUGH NOTES by Paula Elliott If the average professional spends four years being interrupted, does that mean that the same person spends four years in- terrupting everyone else, in turn? I have a funny feeling that I've spent 24 years be- ing interrupted, myself. It seems as though every time 1 open my mouth to tell a story, another conversation erupts about something totally different and II •end up talking to myself. I like to think that it has something to do with the tonal modulation of my voice - it's low-pitched and easy to override - but I've been told by well- meaning constructive criticizers that it's because I have nothing interesting to say for myself. That's why 1 write. If someone turns the page in the middle of one of my jottings, 1 don't know any better and everyone is happy. The 'six months waiting at red lights' part is pretty depressing, actually. Seven years on the toilet is time that can be spent pursuing other things simultaneous- ly, like learning a new language or knitting an afghan. (Gee, maybe I'll start keeping my typewriter beside the can..)Three years in wasteful meetings can be spent filing one's nails or doodling out shopping lists. But six months at a red light is truly wasted time. If you had any sort of idea how long the light would last, you could plan your day accordingly, but they're all so unpredictable. Maybe it's just me, but I figure that I could hit a red light at Main St. and Highway 8, jump out of the car, go across the street and rent a movie, come back and make the green just in time. It would sure beat sitting there watching my knuckles turn white on the steering wheel. But you could make up for those six lost months, and then some, by throwing out advertising mail before you waste eight months opening it. With those spare two months, you could plan a nice vacation. It would just be like some wiseacre, though, to come along and inform us that the average person spends two months of their life throwing out advertising mail, pulling the vacations out from under our feet. It's now lunchtime. Let me see...If I figure the amount of time that I've already spent eating during niy life, and consider that I'll probably spend one year eating on the run, P111 go ask the boss if 1 can take a two and a half year lunch break. And then I'll try for another year off to look for inspiration. Brussels reeve acclaimed JANUARY 10,1890 Reeve Graham of Brussels acknowledges the honor done him by his return by ac- clamation on nomination day, and to mark this era in history of Brussels, has donated a brand new street lamp for the bridge. It was ascertained that the lights at present are not sufficient to do .the work at the bridge, hence the gift of Reeve Graham. Long may he live. The town elections did not create a great deal of excitement this year. The principal contest was for the Deputy Reeveship, and the voting was pretty close. The day was wet and disagreeable, and the roads about as bad as they could be, so that it was not very pleasant getting around. There will be considerable new blood in the Council this year. The Council consists of G.E. Hender- son, Deputy Reeve; James Watson, North ward; James Gillespie, South ward; Robert Wilson, Mayor; D.D. Wilson, Reeve; A. Davidson, George Good and John Darwin, East ward. William Burns of Stratford was the other day fined $1 and costs for using blasphemous language. JANUARY 8,1915 Miss Mary E. Vanstone of Benmiller was the fortunate winner of the Singer sewing machine offered by Mrs. L.B. Tape of Goderich to the person making the closes guess of the number of beans there were in a glass jar displayed in the window. The judges said that there were 5,183 beans in the jar, and Miss Vanstone's guess was 5,180. The guesses ranged from 500 to 1,200,000. The days of the "Black Maria", the old horse-drawn wagon used for conveying prisoners to jail in Toronto, are gone forever. Las week the last day of the old year, saw the last of it, and the new year sees the automobile replace the horse, as the police are now in possession of two motors, one of which is convertible to an ambulance in case of necessity The prisoners will in future have more room, as the new patrols can travel much faster than the old ones, and can make several trips in the time taken by a horse. Among those in training at Winnipeg for the second contingent are two Huron boys, Wishart Houston, formerly of Clinton, in the Army Medical Corps, and Campbell MatCordie, son of Mr. Robert MacCordie, formerly ui happen, dui nuw of Lonuuu. JANUARY 12, 1940 One of King Winter's worst and most persistent outbursts of the present winter is still in progress. Concession roads have been closed to motor traffic for a week, but county and provincial ploughs have succeeded in keeping open main highways. A heavy rain and thaw on Sunday, which provided badly needed water on many farms, was followed the next day by in- tense cold and a blinding snow storm, which is still in progress. Fire destroyed the stately school building of S.S. No. 6, Hibbert, conunonly known as Cromarty school. The fire seemed to have started just inside the woodshed door, and had a good start in the 20 cords of dry wood before noticed. The cause of the fire is unknown. The school was built in 1906 and was considered one of the finest rural schools in Western Ontario. Mr. James McClymont of Kippen has had hydro light installed in his house. JANUARY 14, 1965 A misunderstanding resulted in a 40 -mile round trip for Zurich firemen. It all began when fire broke out in a henhouse on the farm of Bernard Westerveldt a mile nor- theast of Seaforth. Seaforth firemen were fighting the fire when Mr. Westerveldt remembered an order of chicks was due from McKinley Hatchery in Zurich. Calling the hatchery, he explained about the fire, but his message was misunderstood and the hatchery people alerted the Zurich fire department. Within minutes, a pumper was on its way to Seaforth followed by a long line of cars. In the meantime, Seaforth firemen had brought the fire under control. Hibbert Township has joined with McKillop and Logan and the Police Village of Dublin to protest a suggestion that the CNR station at Dublin be closed. A Seaforth rink, skipped by Mrs. Robert MacDonald, won the first round in District 5, 'A' Division of the Southern Ontario Ladies' Curling Association playdowns. The rink will play the next round in Kitchener. Along with Mrs. MacDonald were Mrs. A.Y. McLean, vice; Mrs. R. Box, second; and Mrs. L. Slade, lead. The high quality of gladiola bulbs from Tyndall Gladioli gardens at Brucefield has resulted in orders from across Canada and abroad. Now the Tyndall glade have penetrated the Iron Curtain. Murray Tyn- dall this week received a letter from Frydak, Mistek, Czechoslavakla asking for a catalogue. o- 4. CDU,I/,RYs &/LL/O/d$ /n/DFBrAND you 60 qPM- ODER,3N'/g2 Ol/E-RDP,9FT? " Paper should be positive To the Editor: Kind of ironic, isn't it? The first newspaper printing of a brand new year - and even better - or so I had hoped - a brand new decade. This edition included several well -intended "Happy New Year" greetings. However, this edition should have included a warning such as "FRONT PAGE COVERAGE OF PERSONAL TRAGEDIES REKINDLE THE PAIN". All in the name of journalism? The "scoop" is - two families are desperately coping, on a daily basis, with a lot of pain and all the other emotions involved with death. But that's not news is it? It's just a personal hell! People want the pictures - the results - the wreckage. Did you even once think past that, and put those people's personal bells first? Obviously not. Would you have reported it the same, had it involved staff members or their immediate families7.Ll wonder. L LETTERS TO THE EDITOR But that's not all. What really takes the cake, is the fact that on page two, in the very same column that this letter will pro- bably never appear - a young person's honesty and integrity does not even war- rant her name, let alone a 5" x 7" front page "glossy". Wake up Expositor!! Don't fill your paper full of "Happy New Year" gree priorities and speeches about fresh starts if you don't intend on practising them! If and when you're able to accomplish this - then call yourself a newspaper - or perhaps you should change the name to "The Exploiter". People should be "fed the facts" - yes - voNMITSWISINI that way gossip 1s Just Walt - DUE LO headline someone else's loss and pain and confirm that with pictures - well that's nauseating! I I think the Ryan and Bradley families deserve a heartfelt apology and possibly a donation to a worthy cause - all in the name of "resolutions". As my New Year - no - "New Decade Resolution", I promised myself to dwell on the positive aspects - prioritize them - and then act on things that really make a positive difference. Perhaps the Expositor could learn something from that! Patricia Spence RR 6 St. Marys, Ontario NOM 2V0 A