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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1965-05-13, Page 2);:.4'', A PO Times Established 1873 Advocaf Established 1851 Amalearnated 1924 txeferZime$46isocafe SERVING CANADA'S I3ES1` FARMLAND Member; C.W.N.A,., C.C.N.R. and ABC PUBLISHERS: J. M. Southcett, R. M. Seuthcett EDITOR: William Batten Authorized as Setehd Chits Mail, Post °Mae NO, Ottawa, and or Oaymont Of Posfage In Cash ONE MAN'S OPINION by John c. Rom, Opinions come much too late Religious education Federal-Mogul-Bower (Canada) Limited requires MEN For Shift Work in Press Room Mitchell Plant This work is on an incentive (piece work) basis, and our operators are averaging over $1.70 per hour. This is hard work and requires a good effort, but you can earn top wages in the area. Why not call us and inquire or arrange for an interview (on weekends or after-beers if necessary) at 348-8471 during working hours, or 348.8076 at night or weekends. MECHANICAL RUBBER DIVISION 80 Arthur St. cil failed to realize at their meeting, because if they had, we are certain they would not have opposed the addition for SHDHS. There is no doubt but what SHDHS will be a large institution, but in comparison to city schools and many other rural schools it is certainly not too large. The department of education says a school isn't too large Un- til it reaches an enrolment of well over 1,800 students. But a school has to be comparatively large before it can provide vocational train- ing, with the minimum enrolment around the 1,000 figure. So, area students could not have this training if another school 'MIS built in lieu of adding to the present structure, And due to the generous grants available for vo- cational additions, it would undoubtedly cost area ratepayers a great deal mare to erect another academic school in the area and they still wouldn't be providing their children with the best possible education. Therefore, when the question of costs, education and the steps already taken are considered fully, the Hay council must realize their suggestion is not only too late, but too costly to pursue. As for the suggestion that Exeter has mare representation in comparison to the as- sessment of the two municipalities, it should be noted that this is stipulated by department regulations. There are two men representing Exeter, another from Exeter is appointed by county council and another represents the public school board due to the fact it is the largest in the area. Hay Township has had as many as three representatives in the past. One is ap- pointed from Zurich and another from Hay, while the third representative in the past has represented the largest separate school in the area. However, t h e latter representative comes from Stephen, as Mt. Carmel has the largest separate school in South Huron. The suggestion that there should be a complete investigation into the high school system for South Huron by one Hay council- lor infers the regulations are not being fol- lowed. We doubt that very much. A report from Zurich indicates Hay Township council withheld approval for issu- ing debentures on the planned addition for slums because they felt the area high school would be too large an institution and that an- other school should be built somewhere in the South Huron area. There was also an inference that Hay Township was not receiving a fair share of representation oft the board, Hay Township councillors are certain- ly entitled to their opinions, but we point out emphatically they are about one year late in making them, In fact, their opposition at this late date makes it almost absurd and if they are sincere, it suggests they have not been following the school situation with the inter- est area ratepayers should expect from their elected officials. The board at SHDHS have not been secretive in their plans to build an addition at SHDHS. Complete details of their planning have been recorded in the pages of this news- paper, and at times, in the Zurich paper. if the plans were deemed unsuitable by the Hay council, they should have been outlined to their representatives on the board at that time, not after the board had spent countless hours in attempting to arrive at a solution to give all students of South Huron the best education possible. Not only that, the board has engaged an architect whom they probably now owe at least $10,000; they have made several trips 'to Toronto to consult with department of ed- ucation officials, who by the way, have en- couraged them to proceed on their present plan; they've cancelled their agreement with the school at Clinton for providing vocational training for area students; and the board has hired a principal and several staff members on the basis of their planning. To change that planning now turns the entire situation into a complete turmoil, And to follow the advice of the Hay council would have even more disastrous results: it would deny area students the privilege and advantage of vocational training. That shouldn't happen! It is probably this fact that Hay coun- WHAT DOES YOUR HOME NEED? Share costs, share ownership f. tit ' q A MODERN KITCHEN El ACOUSTICAL CEILINGS O WALL TO WALL BROADLOOM O NEW HEATING PLANT q ANOTHER BEDROOM O MODERN PLUMBING O INSULATION O A NEW BATHROOM S/Ne:- /8i: BRITISH MORTGAGE & TRUST You may need another home if you checked them all. Buy one with a mortgage arranged through any of our 15 offices. A mortgage can also help finance the cost of renovation. Let's discuss it. "the company that shows 100"o' interest in you!" HEAD OFFICE; STRATFORD, ONTARIO Branch Manager: C. V. Barrett Branch: 425 Main Street, 5xeter Phone 235.0530 Advisory Board: E. D. Be!!, Q.C., P. L. Raymond, 9. W. Tuckey mil•kl..niatel629.1.110l1.111 Isn't it amazing what those generous government departments do with our tax dol- lars these days! Consider the Conservation Branch of the department of energy and resources man- agement as an example. They've agreed to assume 75c'e of the $12,000 rehabilitation and dredging project planned for the Exeter Riverview park dam and reservoir. That of course works out to a gener- ous donation of $9,000 and all they want in return is a little piece of paper. But that little piece of paper happens to be the deed for the darn and reservoir, which Councillor Ross Taylor estimated at a value of $125,000. In view of the mounting costs on the Parkhill dam scheme, Councillor Taylor's estimate could be about $1,000,000 out, if replacement value was used as the basis of estimating. Although the Ausable River Conserva- tion Authority will receive the deed for the property, it should be explained they did not hand down the ruling on the matter. And it should also be noted that the Town of Exeter will probably continue to enjoy all the privi- leges and benefits from the dam as they have since it was erected here by our ancestors. If binding reservations as to continued water use and access can be written into the agreement to transfer the deed, this news- paper agrees that council's "reluctant" de- cision is in the best interest of Exeter rate- payers if this is the only way the grant can be attained. To get a 512,000 job done for only $2,700 with no apparent loss of privi- leges has to be considered good business on a project of this nature. The dam will continue to exist, it will still be in Exeter. Technically, all that will happen is that Exeter ratepayers will not be able to look at the property and proudly say ers must also be concerned with what type of person the student is going "to be". He will be concerned with the type of standards the student is going "to obey". He will also surely be concerned with counteracting the all too prevalent spirit of "to get" with the spirit of "to serve". But surely this can be done without formal religious edu- cation in the classroom. Surely it can ultimately be done most effectively in the church by the church. This is such a complex mat- ter that it is difficult to form a solid unwavering opinion. My own opinion has changed in the last two years. I now feel that form al re- ligious instruction should be separated from our public school system. To begin with, half an hour a week is an ab- surdity. The subject is thereby down-graded to the level of "basket weaving". I believe that at the moment religious education in the schools is a meaningless ad- junct to the curriculum. I would support retaining the subject in our schools only ii it is made a compulsory sub- ject with half an hour PER DAY. This could only be done by using ministers AND teachers. There would probably also have to be some sort of pooling ar- rangements where say United, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Anglican in each class would go in one group. Pentecostal, Bap- tists, Mennonites and others could form another group, Ro- man Catholics could be an- other. The "Pierre Berton or Gor- don Sinclair types" could teach the agnostics and atheists what- ever they want to. Personally, I feel this type of operation would be well nigh impossible, but who knows? Another alternative is "re- leased time" where the schools would close perhaps fifteen minutes earlier each day and each person would go to his own church for religious education for at least half an hour. This would require at least three times the church school staff most Protestant churches now have. It may even mean that churches would have to start paying Church School teachers, This after all, may not be a bad idea— they now pay a min- ister, an organist and a janitor and perhaps the teacher's role is more important than any of them. In any case, the churches will have to dig in and face this problem on their own. We will have to face the fact that we are doing an inadequate job at the moment both in the church and the school and the school is not the place to try and makeup for this failure. Surely no church worth its salt requires a "captive audi- ence". Surely, too, no o ne should be subjected to a treat- ment of religion which is not meaningful for them in any way. So I hope the government passes this very hot potato right into the lap of t h e churches. During the past few weeks we have been advised that the De- partment of Rducation in On- tario is going to reconsider the whole question of religious edu- Cation in the schools. A committee, composed of representatives of the various points of view, is to study the whole matter. One thing alone is certain at the moment — it is time somebody took a long hard look at this subject. At present most of the Pro- testant churches officially sup- port the teaching of religious education in the schools. They remind us that our nation was built on Christian principles. They tell us that the originat- ors of our school system de- sired to incorporate this ele- ment in our educational struc- ture. It should be said, however, that there are many individuals in the Protestant churches who are convinced that religious education is at present so badly handled in the schools that we would be better off without it. They feel that "no impression is better than a bad impres- sion". On top of this, various groups including the Unitarians, Jews, Jehovah Witnesses, Buddhists, Moslems, agnostics„ and athe- ists are pushing to strike re- ligious education from the pub- lic school curriculum. Needless to say this latter group forms a small minority. But it is an extremely vocal and w e 11-organized minority and they do not like the fact that their children receive a certain stigma when they "ab- sent" themselves from these classes. Within the past week the Ang- licans in Ontario have indicated that they do not want to see this subject dropped from the classroom and I am sure that many other Protestant churches will follow suit. They and oth- ers will remind us that the ma- jority has some rights too. They will no doubt tell us that if the majority desires religious education in the schools then we should have it. But what, in reality, is it that we are asked to work to retain? The vast majority of our high schools at present have no for- mal religious education at all. A few schools devote all of half an hour a week to ft for half the school year. It could ob- viously be dropped from our high schools without affecting the Church or the school. The elementary school set up is much the same some schools have half an hour a week others have none and some schools which do have it pro- vide it only in two classes. Personally, I believe that no education is complete without Christian education. The edu- cator had a point who said that secular education is primarily concerned with the verbs "to know", "to do", "to get" Whereas Christian education is primarily concerned with the verbs "to be", "to obey" and "to serve". Further, I believe that teach- LAWN BOY that they own it. But then, who in the past 50 years has looked at the dam proudly and noted that they owned it? However, this newspaper agrees with the thought expressed by Clerk C. V. Pickard that ownership of such lands should be held jointly by the groups which share the costs, which involves not only the land in question, but also other acreage around the ARCA of- fice. Joint ownership would appear to be extremely equitable on the basis that the town has to share costs of purchase and maintenance on all the lands. Surely they should have some share of authority in re- turn. As Ontario taxpayers, we must agree that government bodies have to exercise some degree of control over projects on which they provide grants. This is in the best interests of all taxpayers. But to demand control of property as valuable as the dam and reservoir for nothing more than $9,000 worth of assistance would appear to be very unjust, especially when it must be remembered that Exeter ratepayers help provide some of the funds for the $9,000 grant in the first place. It would appear to be much fairer for the groups to hold joint ownership, with the privileges to be enjoyed by each supporter to be clearly recorded in the ownership. The present setup appears to be ridic- ulous in that the government collects taxes from the people, returns some of it to them in the form of grants, but in that process manages to ease control of their interests out of their hands. That's not being very generous with our tax money! BATT'N AROUND BY THE EDITOR Fight fire with fire drivers to the point where they would avoid this heavily congested area and by so doing would eliminate the dan- gerous situation that now exists. It's high time the little game was halted and it will take action, not words. While We're a little late with an article for Mental Health Week, it's better late than never. The folloWing article makes good sense for every- 50 YEARS AGO Miss Irene Hand:ford, daugh- ter of Mr. and MrS. T.E.Hand- ford, Ingersoll, formerly of Exeter, leaves this Week for Fratoe where she will be en- gaged as a Red Cross nurse. Harper islYers left Thursday for Strathroy to enter the Bank of Commerce. ReeVe J. W. Taylor, Council- lor Dr. G. P. Roulaton and clerk RIS. Senior will attend the of- ficial opening of Western On- terio'a first Hydro Radial rail- way from L ond oh to Port Stanley. Mr. Silas Handford has pur- chased the house and lot on Math Street owned by William Dunsford and occupied by Mr. Thorn Baker. 15 YEARS AGO A new Exeter tennis club was formed Monday night at the Town Hall. Warren May was elected president. Joyce Chambers of Crediton, a SHDHS student, won highest honors in solo claSses at the tri-school music festival held Tuesday in the gymtorium. Mr. Alf CoateS of Usborne has pUrchased the brick resi- dence on Albert St., from Mr. Mel Alderson, who has been employed with the hydro, and has been transferred to London. Mr. and Mrs. Archie Morgan attended graduation exercises at OAC Guelph Friday When their eldest son Allison gra- duated. !eV t;•/.• The concern over the driving antics of area youths who insist on burning up rubber in the vicinity of SHDHS is far from being new. It's been a problem for a long time and will con- tinue to be Until stern action istaken. The best way to fight some fires is with fire and perhaps this is a theory that the local police should employ. These foolhardy drivera are Making a nuisance of themselves, so why not let the police make a nuisance of themselves by conducting frequent safety checks in the area. All the drivers could be herded onto a side street and lined up for a lengthy safety inspection that would take them out of "circulatien" for some time, and at the same time Would enable police to give some of these hot-rods the necesSarY iatPec.- Lion that most of them appear to need by the sauna. they make.. Such safety inspections conducted frequently would probably annoy the perfortned; we cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone. The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow, with its large promise and its poor perfortnance, its possible adverSitles and its burd- ens. Tomorrow is beyond ottr earthly control. Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow for it is yet unborn. one and is reprinted from "The Tra- This leaves only ene day, TODAY. yeller". Anyone can fight a battle for just There are two days in every week one day. It is only when you and I about which we should not worry, add the burdens of thoSe two frightful two days which should be kept free eternities, Yesterday and Tomorrow, from fear and apprehension, that we break dOwn and falter. One of these days is Yesterday It it not the ekperiencet of Today with its Cares and mistakes, itsfaults Which drive Men mad; it is thebttter- and blunders, its pains and heart- mess of remorse for something Which aches. Yesterday has passed forever hapPened Yesterday and the dreaded beyond our -control. All the money in thought of What Temorrow maYbrthg. the world cannot bring back Pester- Let uS therefore live btit One day day, We cannot undo a single act we at a time. 1965 FINGER-TIP START LAWN BOY Ultimate device for shorter grass and longer weekend% I See MILT MOWER & CYCLE 436 Meld South 23$-2940 ..... :17 25 YEARS AGO The firSt rolling hotne of the season landed in the Mallard tourist camp, Grand Bend, sun- day and has left the trailer for the season. Adolph Morenz, 89, oldest resident of DashWood, died Wednesday. He Was a. relative 17747::7;;;;:Z:,:-'117-n137$72::=:74=2-VeMST-00010,03 Of Howie lYlorelsz and was widely known for one of the finest gardens in the area.. Two years of unceasing ef- fort on the part of Agricultere Representative J. C, Shearer and the Plowmen's Atsociation has resulted in bringing the In- ternatiOnal Plowing Match to Huron County for 1942, Five sehoola, Eilition, Plug- town, Andereen, TOV-ht- Line and Salem took part in a recital by the pupils in abeedeen flail under the direction of W. IL Goulding. Proceeds of $43 were ......w...—.41,‘,.."%—.....rs—"'—.;=1:,...%:=4:=441=SiiitatIOStiaWar',AsrAMII.Isi for the Red CroSS. 10 YEARS AGO M. Gans announces that he has opened an office for the practice of medicine at 460 Main St. Jim Fairbairn, manager of Exeter Mohawks intermediate baseball team was elected to hiS second terra of president at the anneal meeting of the Huron Perth Baseball League Sunday. Irwin Ford, a 20-year veteran of the Exeter Fire Brigade was appointed chief by town council Monday night. Two symbolic cornerstones will be laid in a public cere- mony at the new Hutch County Courthouse Monday, May aa. An outside stone will be laid by Huron County Judge Prank Fingland and an inside stone by liuton County Warden Earl Campbell.