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Clinton News-Record, 1973-04-19, Page 4"it's about time they took the tax off of us," purred Alexander the cat the other day when we viewed the Ontario budget speech together in front of the TV. "For too long," he hissed, "they have been making us pets and cats look like unnecessary luxuries, when all the time we knew we were a integral part of any family." "I like John White," he said, beginning to purr again. "Yes," I said, "but you're going to have to cut back on your kibbie consum- ption." "And why should I have to do that," he said, his back arching slightly at the mention of a food cutback. "Well, since John White increased the sales tax from five to seven per cent, it's going to cost more for cat food, and hence you'll have to cut back, because we can't afford the extra." "And on top of that," I said taking the offensive, "you're going to have to out down on the amount of kitty litter you use." "Tax increase on that too?" he asked, showing his claws and cleaning them with his rough tongue. "And further more," I added, feeling my barbs were beginning to work, "you're going to have to quit going in and out that back door so much. It lets out valuable heat, and with John White's seven percent tax on fuel oil, we can't. afford to heat the outside." ' "It doesn't seem like us cats ever get a break," he growled as he headed for the litter box where he promptly piddled on a copy of the London Free Press that had a front page picture of Ontario Treasurer John White. x.,sw ' ‘‘` • • • • .c.•• , - 4-411ITON NEWS-RECORD, THURSDAY, APRIL '19, 1973 Editorial continent Of cats and taxes "1 don't see why anyone would need to jog in this town. With these potholes you get enough jogging just driving!" So what's new? Huron MP Robert McKinley apparently thought a recent article by Ottawa Jour- nal. writer Paul Jackson regarding the number of defeated Liberal candidates now working in government jobs worthy of interest to a number of Huron con- stituents. He sent out several copies of the ar- ticle indicating that at least 12 defeated Liberal candidates had been able to find jobs on the public payroll. Mr. McKinley could have saved the money he spent on having the article reprinted and mailed. Political patronage should surprise no one. No doubt the same lengthy list could have been obtained about stalwart PC members working for the government in Ontario. or NDP backers being on the pubiiF Rayrqlf in Manitoba. 1, IronidallY, the item reached our desk on the same day an announcement was made in Toronto that former Huron MPP Charles MacNaughton had been named chairman of the Ontario Racing Com- mission. There is no doubt but what Mr. MacNaughton will be a most competent chairman and will probably be followed in the position by other PC supporters until such time as the Liberals win in On- tario and can name one of their stalwarts to the position. There's little to be gained in the kettle calling the pot black. This newspaper recently pointed out that some of Ontario's most conscien- tious and capable persons take an ac- tive part in politics and our democratic system would be severely weakened if they did not. Certainly, the calibre of ap- pointments would be equally weakened if those persons actively, engaged in supporting one party or another were ex- cluded from accepting those positions. —Exeter Times-Advocate I aine shure what the mean we get letters Clinton News-Record A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) second class mail registration number — 0817 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) tanaaa, $8.00 per year; U.S.A., $9.50 Published ovary Thursday at the heart of Huron County' a Clinton, Ontarib Population 3,4/5 THE HOME OP RADAR IN CANADA English is going down the drain, going to the dogs, or going up in smoke these days. Take your pick. Maybe that first sentence is what's wrong with the language. There are so many idioms in it that nobody can speak or write the real thing any more. University professors have expressed their indignation publicly. A couple of them recently announced that students who expect to graduate in one of the professions can't write one sen- tence without falling all over their syntax. I agree with them. But if they think they have troubles, they should try teaching English in high school. There has been such a marked and rapid decrease in the stan- dards of written and spoken English that teachers of the subject can be found almost any day in the staff john, weeping into the washbasin. This winter, a teacher in a city school decided to prove something she already knew. She drew up a list of forty words, most of them of one syllable, and tested several classes. Nobody could spell all forty, Many of the kids couldn't spell ten of the words. Her experiment and her sub- sequent indignation were airily dismissed by a publit shcool principal, who said something like, "Oh, we don't worry much about spelling any more. They'll learn to spell when they need to." Hogwash. What employer of anything but brute strength wants a semi-literate lout fouling up his invoices, Order forms and everything he can get his hands on? What printer, for example, will hire a kid who can't even spell "etaoin shrdlu" and doesn't even know what it means? I do a fair bit of gnashing and wailing myself when I'm marking upper school papers and have to sort out something like, "The women nu were she was going, as she when they're everyday." The thought is there, but there is something lacking when it comes to felicity of spelling. Everybody blames everybody else for the sad state of English, but, as usual, you have to read it in this column to get at the truth. Let us establish the a priori fact that the high school English teacher is faultless. And, some would add, that a fortiori, the high'school English teacher is useless. So be it. Now for the real culprits. They are not the elementary school teachers, much as we would love to blame them. They are victims, too. First, English had been derogated and eroded for the past couple of decades until it is now down somewhere in the area of brushing your teeth and saying your prayers. Remember, you older and wiser people who went to school longer ago than you care to proclaim? You had spelling and grammar and composition and reading and writing and orals. This was English. Maybe you didn't learn much about sex or conversational French or how to copy a "project" out of the en- cyclopedia, but you sure as hell had English belted into you, Maybe you weren't given much chance to "express your- self", but by the time you were, you had some tools With which to do it. Nowadays English is prac- tically crowded off the curriculuin by such esoteric subjects as social behaviour, getting along with the group, finding your plate in society, and the ubiquitous and often useless "project". Kids, one teacher told me, shouldn't have to learn to spell words that are not in their own vocabulary. Now, I ask you. How else do they acquire a vocabulary? But, I repeat, it's not the teachers of our little treasures who are at fault. It's the tinkerers, the dabblers in education. They are rarely found in a classroom. They are more often haring after some "new approach" in education that has been tried and found wanting by the Americans or the Armenians or the Aztecs. Thus, out went grammar and spelling drill. The kids are sup- posed to learn these basic skills, not through their eyes and ears, but in some mysterious way: possibly through their skin. Daily drill is deadening to the spirit, so off with its head. Let the kids be creative, write poetry: "I saw the moon ovary the cloweds it was sooper," Doesn't that give you a unique experience? The freedom of spirit, the originality, the creativity? Fortunately, I am able to shake this off, along with war and famine, death and taxes. It has it's moments. • The other day, I threw this old chestnut at a class, and asked them to correct the gram- mar: "Forty cows were seen, sitting on the verandah." There was total silence, It seemed OK to thetn. Then a pretty Grade 11 girl flung up her hand and flashed all her teeth. "I got it, Mr, Smiley!" "Yes, Bonny," I winced. Carefully she enunciated: "I seen forty cows sitting on the verandah," courageous breed before, but never was there such a superb Backseat-White-Knuckle-Pilot and from the moment we met in Vancouver, nodding dully at each other as men do in the bleakness of early morning 10 YEARS AGO April 18, 1963 At their regular meeting Monday, Clinton Public Hospital approved the hiring of a food supervisor, Mrs. Merle Traxler. Doug Miles, Huron agriculture representative, reported this week there was a good precentage of spring seeding in the ground, to date. However, he noted that there was little growth due to the cold weather and the lack of a warm spring rain. With their estimated budget showing an increase of over $160,000, the C.H.S.S. board will require an increased mill rate of 18.5 from its eight sup- porting municipalities this year, This will be an increase of approximately 1.8 mills for most. in a recorded vote at council, Monday, Constables Clarence Perdue and Albert Shaddick were each given a $150 raise, but the salary of Chief Russ Thompson was left at $3800. Delayed an hour while they held their regular closed session, Monday's council , meeting again saw discussion on the troublesome three D's -- dogs, dust and dump. Mr. and Mrs. John MacKen- zie, Bayfield, have sold their fine old home on Clan Gregor Square to Brigadier Clift, Ot- tawa, who gets possession in August. Mr. and Mrs. MacKen- zie have purchased the Baptist parsonage on Louisa Street. 15 YEARS AGO April 1/, 1958 More than 500 people crowded into the Legion Hall here last night for the Progressive Conservative nominating convention held to fill the candidate's position left vacant by the death of the late Tom Pryde, Exeter. Charles S. flight, I knew that Mr. Menzies, like Walter Mitty, would get us through, pocketa-pocketa. I had sized up Mr. Menzies when he took the upholstered pew next to mine, but even the new TriStar has a noise level that discourages conversation and it is safer to be a little cool with your neighbor than risk a transcontinental case of acute laryngitis. I became acutely aware of him, however, when the aircraft taxied out on the strip and the pilots up ahead went through their' routine checks of controls and engines. Mr. Menzies, a short man of the type easily lost in crowds, 'Suddenly 'assumed the"ap- listens to a cardiac condition. The captain up in the nose pulled back the wheel and drew us up through the morning drizzle, but this was a purely reflex action. It was really Mr. Menzies who got us airborne by MacNaughton, president of the Huron Progressive Conser- vative Association and right hand man of Tom Pryde throughout his terms at Queen's Park, was swept into the candidate's job on the first ballot, which dealt firmly with the five other men nominated for the office. Choked with emotion, Mr. MacNaughton said " I will do my very best, so that you will never have to say you chose the wrong man at this convention " A committee of the Kinsmen Club,Clinton i has been appoin- ted to start a fund with which to purchase jackets for the All Star team of Peewee hockey players which earned the Beacon Herald 'Trophy and second place in the "C" Cham- pionships at Young Canada Week in Goderich. They are: K.W. Colquhouri, chairman; Donald R. Kay, Frank McEwan and Terry ONeil. 25 YEARS AGO April 15, 1948 Definitely today was spring and it was the first day for some time that you could call it that, after so much cold and rainy weather.—But after all, it is the middle of April! The farm on the Base Line, three miles north of Clinton, and owned by the late Oliver J. Jervis, has been sold to Lawrence Stephenson, Huron Road West. It is 35 years last March since Mr. Jervis bought the farm from the late Ephraim, Butt, who previously had lived there for 30 years. Clinton's new sewerage system and sewage disposal plant, both of which have been under construction for Most of two years, went into operation this week, after many unfor- tunate delays. Levis Contracting Company, Clinton, was awarded the con- sheer body English. When the wheels lifted to be tucked un- der the plane's umbilicus he turned to me wordlessly, but with the quiet satisfaction of a man who has made a monkey out of gravity. That was merely the begin- ning. Mr. Menzies then flew the TriStar by the seat of his pants across the Rockies and the plains, across the Great Lakes hidden in the cloud below and safely to rest on the tarmac at Melton Airport. As we stood in the aisle waiting to deplane it was all I could do to refrain from saying,' "Well done, sir." In a rare moment, of porn munication, Mr. Menzies had confided that he ,yEks ong.otthe,, chief reasons for the rosy balance sheet of Air Canada. He is one of the tribe, so familiar on every air transport, the travelling "representative" who carries a neat, aluminum attache case bulging with the details of the plastic toilet seats or patented trusses or novelty ash-trays or whatever it is that tract for supplying and distributing on the streets of Clinton during 1948, 4,000 cubic yards, more or less, of three-quarter-inch screened crushed gravel, at a special meeting of the Town Council Monday evening. Miss Eileen Gliddon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D.E. Gliddon, R.R. 3 Clinton, won high honors at Stratford Musical Festival last week. She has been a pupil of Mrs. E, Wendorf, Clinton and is doing advance study work with Miss Cora B. Ahrens, Stratford. 40 YEARS AGO April 20, 1933 The annual military ball, given under the auspices of the Huron Regiment, brought out a large number of invited guests. The hall was handsomely decorated with flags and bun- ting, the streamers from the central lights to the side walls being particularly effective. The Junior Band gave a second concert in the town hall on Tuesday evening, Their per- formance was well worth hearing and their advan- cement, under the leadership of Mr. Morgan Agnew, is very causes them to take to the skies. Unlike the others, however, Mr. Menzies and the airplane were still far apart, While many other business types dozed through this steady flight he was alert and on duty, flying the TriStar every inch of the way. Eyery manifest, as the stewardesses will tell you, has one or more of them, the men who accept the Air Age and profit by it, but have a deep suspicion that it is against the laws of nature and God to take all that metal aloft. Until we arrived at Winnipeg I felt there was something comical about Mr. Menzies' devoAion to identifying and reacting to the aircraft's every movement, but in the waiting room there we fell into conver- sation. When I asked him how he liked flying his answer con- vinced me that Mr. Menzies deserves a place in the annals of flight. He put it simply and humbly. "It terrifies me," he said. patent to the ear. It looks as if Clinton is in no danger of being without a good band in the years to come, as our much ap- preciated Kilties will be refreshed from time to time with new members from the juniors as time goes on. Very impressive, joyous Easter services were held in all the Clinton churches on Sun- day. In each case the atten- dance was augmented by many visitors who had come to spend the Eastertide with Clinton friends. 55 YEARS AGO April 18, 1918 "Victory", the patriotic pig, who was sold by raffle, was displayed on the streets in a crate bedecked with flags. Sale of raffle tickets for :'Victory" amounted to about $40. His new owner is now William Cudmore. A clock presented to the Girls' Auxiliary by Mrs. Morrish was also raffled. Mrs. Seeley held the lucky ticket. On Monday evening, A.J.McMurray unloaded • five 10-20 International tractors at the station here and had them (continued on page 5) Dear Editor: Several months ago the Minister of Transportation and Communications, the Hon. Gordon Carton, Q,C., commen- ted in the press on the lack of courtesy on the part of commer- cial vehicles and their apparent disregard for the convenience of other users of the highways, He particularly pointed to com- mercial vehicles driving two and three abreast on hills and bridge approaches thereby preventing the passage of faster moving traffic. At that time, the Minister suggested that unless the transportation in- dustry, as a whole policed itself and an improvement in the driving habits was noted, he would be compelled to institute legislation to- correct the situation. Such legislation has now been enacted. Effective im- mediately, trucks are not per- mitted to use the left-hand lane whenever a freeway has three or more lanes in one direction. On high volume freeways with only two lanes in one direction, signs advising "Slower Traffic Keep Right" are now being erected. While supporting the new legislation, observations of On- tario Safety League staff members indicate that the use of the left-hand lane by trucks on multi-lane highways is ac- tually less of an impediment to the free flow of traffic than is the thoughtless use of the cen- tre lane. The Ontario Safety League feels that the transpor- tation industry could take a real step in removing some of the tarnish from its image by voluntarily instructing its members to use the right-hand lane exclusively, except when passing. The ability, safety and courtesy of the commercial driver was once well noted. Here is an 'opportunity for the industry to regain some of the prestige it has lost with the public. Fred H. Ellis, General Manager, Ontario Safety League Saint Mary University High Rise 2, Apt. 510 Halifax, N.S. Dear Editor: Recently on a CBC show I heard of ,your method of dealing with "stray dogs". No doubt then, your town must be pro-abortion, pro-tapital punishment and anti-humane societies. I don't take issue with fact that you have a problem, but is it the solution. Man demon- strates his intelligence by the use of reason and intelligence in solving his problems. How does Clinton handle its alcoholics? I lived in Toronto and knew a few people from Clinton. Un- til today, the word "Clinton" conjured up nice memories of people I had known from Clin- ton. No longer! Regretfully, Brenda Nicholson, Halifax, N.S. (Editor's note: Apparently, the dog situation nt Vanastra was the subject on a CBC Radio Show that was broadcast coast to coast on the netWork. Although the show was received enthusiastically by many people, others thought it was brutal and indicated a mindless mentality in Clinton and area, a situation that sim- ply is not true. Maybe we should send our dogs down to these people so they can have their garbage spread all over their lawns and have one of their children bitten. Maybe then their attitude would change.) The extra pilot A new name must be added to aviation's golden page of great flying men and women. Somewhere down below Lin- flbergh, Alcock and Brown, Amelia Earhart and the rest must now be inscribed the name of Mr. Menzies, if I have the name right, who took a great aircraft singlehanded this week from Vancouver to Toronto. Mr. Menzies accomplished this exhausting hop from a seat well to the rear in one of Air Canada's splendid new TriStars, a seat that chanced to adjoin mine. When I last saw him as we went our separate ways into the jungles of Toronto he wore that look of 'conquest characteristic of eagle-eyed 'Men 'Who, characteristic* Pearance of a robin after hurled back the challenge of ,worms. He was listening to the wild blue yonder. those three engines, if I may I have met others of his switch metaphors, as a doctor JAMES E. FITZGBRALD--Editot• J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager THE CLINTON NEW ERA Established )865 Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD 1924 Establisher:1'1881