Times-Advocate, 1978-10-12, Page 4Page 4 Time$-A4vocate, October 12,1978
Cutting some throats
There was a time when death and
taxes were among the only certainties
in life, but the list has been extended to
include postal strikes and slowdowns.
The great paradox in the situation
is that while the postal union leaders
and their followers take such action to
gain better wages or fight automation,
they jeopardize their very livelihood.
The fastest growing business in the
country today is mail courier services.
Each strike, or even the mere mention
of a mail disruption, sees more and
more customers switch their business
over to the new firms rather than suf
fer the consequences.
In addition, many customers are
finding that the couriers not only
provide better and more dependable
service, but in some cases it is
cheaper. In one Toronto borough, the
PUC has hired a courier service to
deliver bills to its 80,000 residential
customers. In so doing, they’re saving
$30,000 a year as it costs only eight
cents a bill instead of the 14 charged by
the post office.
It is a move that other firms will be
investigating closely and one which
taxpayers will be demanding their of
ficials to look at in view of the savings
involved.
Meanwhile, postal unions fail to
see the handwriting on the wall and
continue to cut their own throats. It’s
almost beyond comprehension!“Sun tan, my eye — this is RUST!”
ATecd candidates
While it may still be too early to
tell, indications are that Exeter tax
payers may have difficulty filling the
many vacancies which exist on the
local council.
There are at least four members
planning to retire and to date the
number of candidates announcing in
tentions to seek office is not sufficient
to provide a full slate.
That situation could change during
the nomination period over the next 10
days. However, there is a danger that
the positions could be garnered through
default by people who have dubious
qualifications or interests for the coun
cil seats.
People usually get what they
deserve and surely one of the fastest
growing communities in Ontario
deserves the most qualified people
possible to make the important
decisions for the next two years.
Ratepayers would be remiss in
their duties if they failed to ensure that
the vacancies are filled by conscien
tious citizens.
BATT’N AROUND with the editor
Happiness isn't... new plan
What are alternatives?
Thanksgiving Day has come and
gone for another year, and given the
current state of the nation’s economic
status, there may be those who found it
difficult to reflect enthusiastically and
thankfully on the past year.
Unemployment has not shown any
decline, strikes are still rampant in
many segments, the Canadian dollar
continues to struggle and inflation is
far from levelling off.
The country, in many respects,
could be termed to be in a rather anx
ious state.
However, given the alternatives, is
there any place you’d rather be?
Changes difficult
In a number of municipalities
across Canada, police are switching to
smaller cars. The reasoning is simple.
Smaller bars are more economical.
And police today rarely indulge in
those wild high speed chases that re
quire big powerful cars — dangerous
drivers become more dangerous, when
they’re desperately evading pursuit.
Blacks, women and members of
some minorities are slowly beginning
to appear among the ranks of
professionals, and in executive
positions.
In India, rats still destroy about as
much grain as humans consume.
What have these three examples to
do with each other?
Simply this — the first two are
changes taking place in North
America. Some people welcome them
as common sense and justice. Others
regard them as dangerous deviations
from tradition, and fight them with all
the vehemence they can muster. Both
these changes, now becoming more ap
parent, have been slow in developing
although they have been advocated by
thoughtful minds for years.
And this is in North America,
where we have become accustomed to
change, where change has taken place
faster, and more often, than perhaps
anywhere else on earth. In contrast life
in much of India, south-east Asia, and
Africa continues with few differences
from centuries ago.
Today, many well-meaning people
on this continent grow disillusioned
with aid to underdeveloped nations,
and argue that there’s no point in help
ing them with food or technology until
they make radical changes.
If we who are fafniliar with .change
find it difficult to accept minor changes
in our lives, how can we so glibly de
mand radical change from people who
appear to us to have never learned how
to change?
The United Church of Canada
Exeter’s new official plan and zoning
bylaw came into effect this week and
the amount of time and money spent on
the project over the past four or five
years would prompt some .people to
question whether it was really worth
the effort.
That takes on an even greater ques
tion mark when one considers the fact
that the final documents are not even
considered with pride and joy by those
who steered them through the long,
drawn-out procedure.
Mayor Bruce Shaw probably summ
ed up the attitude of most members of
the planning board and council when he
said he was happy the documents were
passed, but he was not happy with the
documents themselves.
t In fact, council members were
probably too lenient in acceding to the
wishes of several property owners who
asked for changes in the zoning
designation of their properties. Out of a
list of approximately 20 objections,
council altered the zoning to appease
the property owners in all but two or
three instances. In some cases, that
was justified, while in others it was
questionable planning. . A
However, the fact remains that plan- /fl
ning can never be perfect, and that no
doubt was one of the foremost thoughts
in the minds of councillors when they
finally approved the documents.
There are probably few communities
in Ontario which have experienced as
much growth as Exeter over the^past
five years, and if that continues, "even
on a smaller scale, there is little doubt
that it will necessitate several
amendments to the zoning regulations.
To envision those required changes at
the present time would be impossible.
W * ★
Expediency also entered the picture,
particularly in the case of the Cl (core
commercial) designation granted the
commercial property owners along
Main St. between Wellington St. and
the river.
That designation certainly appeared
to satisfy both the property owners in
volved and the neighboring residential
owners, but it could lead to problems if
some of those commercial properties
are developed to the extent possible un
der the Cl classification.
Some of those existing businesses
immediately become non-conforming
uses as well, a fact that could jeopar
dize their own growth and cause them
some anguish.
There was abviously no easy decision
to be made. As long as the status quo is
maintained in that area, there will be
no problems.
However, the zoning designation
does not guarantee that the status quo
will be maintained, although that
should have been the aim of the new
bylaw.
In fairness to the present council, it
should be noted that some of the
problem would not have existed for
them, had their predecessors been
% more diligent in enforcing the existing
zoning regulations which in effect
would have prevented some of the com-
jnercial businesses from being located
in that area' In the first place,
c- -i * * *
i T,-
One of the more difficult aspects of
planning is the fine line that has to be
drawn between an individual’s
freedom and the welfare of the com
munity as a whole.
Decisions in that regard become in
creasingly difficult in modern society,
and today there are even arguments
stemming from a person’s right to the
use of the sun, a consideration that
takes on more impetus as solar energy
becomes increasingly important.
There are those who would argue
that a person should be able to do what
he wishes with his own property, as
long as he does not impinge on the
Sugar and Spice
Dispensed by Smiley
Letters a little disconcerting
$
Perspectives
zx.
quality of life for his neighbors.
On the other hand, modern planning
tends to be much more restrictive,
looking beyond an individual’s rights to
the aspect of what is good for the com
munity as a whole.
It goes to the point of telling a lan
downer that his property must be kept
open for industrial growth in the com
munity, regardless of the fact he may
wish to use it for commercial or
residential purposes.
There are even rules as to the type of
commercial or residential develop
ment that may take place within those
zones and in that regard, it is expected
there will be further battles over the
zoning status given by council to the
north end shopping centre.
The developer will argue, no doubt,
that having allowed the commercial
complex in the first place, council
members are now being much too
stringent in what type of businesses
may locate there.
An appeal can be expected, and in
fact appears justified.
. * ’ * *
There will be many changes in the
zoning bylaw over the next few years,
as the needs of the community and of
local landowners change.
Those are to be expected.
Hopefully, councils in the future will
ensure that those changes are made by
following the correct procedures,
rather than the periodic practice of the
past when councils gave permission to
people to sidestep the dictates of the
bylaw.
That practice erodes the value of
such documents and ’creates
precedents that lead to charges of
favoritism when others are denied
similar considerations.
The amazing aspect of Ca
nada’s dismal economic per
formance isn’t so much the
fact that we have high unem
ployment (other countries are
also short of jobs) or that we
have high inflation (other coun
tries are finding the value of
the local currency dropping).
The amazing aspect is that Ca
nada is widely believed to have
a “planned” economy.
No, it’s not like the Soviet
Union or China where work
ers are instructed to report to
specific plants and perform
specific jobs. We don’t follow
the communist world’s philo
sophy of state ownership (if
you can ignore operations like
Air Canada, the CNR and -
sigh - the Post Office). But we
do operate under strong gov
ernment influence when it
comes to determining the struc
ture of our industry.
The names of the folks who
plan the Canadian economy
are not widely known (most
of our planners prefer anony
mity - for reasons obvious to
anyone who has studied the
nation’s economic performan
ce). However, these shadowy
figures do exist and they do
exert enormous influence over
our economic operation.
Unfortunately, these na
tional planners all suffer from
a common affliction known
as “facilititis”. In Canada’s
case, facilititis threatens to
prove fatal.
Facilititis develops gradual
ly. At first, there’s nothing
more involved than a vague
belief that big business does
things more efficiently than
smaller business. Gradually,
this insidious disease takes
hold. Before long, the victim
is convinced that production
proceeds most efficiently if ail
the little plants can be merged
into just a handful of very big
plants. Sooner or later, the
patient reaches the tragic con
clusion that Canada can sur
vive only if the various com
o
r .
i (m!
<1..■■■<»......-
panies in each manufacturing
industry combine into one
monstrous firm.
“World scale efficiency”
is the term that victims in ad
vanced stages of facilititis (lit
erally, the belief in the value
of very large facilities) ulti
mately begin to babble hys
terically. Time and again, the
patient will state categorically
that Canada can’t compete
with other nations because our
manufacturing plants are too
small.
Facilititis, in effect, causes
the victim to wear blinders
when surveying the economy.
Matters like unrealistically
high wage rates, the shortage
of high technology industries,
foreign control over Canada’s
production decisions and re
strictions on imports of Cana
dian-made goods by other
nations escape the attention
of those afflicted with facili
titis.
One doctor summed up the
tragic condition of a facilititis
patient under his care as fol
lows; “The poor chap is con
vinced that the cure for the
Canadian economy is to build
plants large enough to produce
all the refrigerators and auto
mobile tires demanded by the
entire world. He refuses to un
derstand that there must be
demand for those refrigerators
and tires, too; otherwise all
those goods will end up in
warehouses. It’s a truly sad
case. There is almost no hope
of Canada acquiring larger
foreign markets.”
Facilititis. Remember the
term the next time our nation’s
leaders suggest that Canada
needs to combine more of our
smaller firms into a few large
manufacturing firms. They are
sick men. They need your sym
pathy.
"Think small" is an editorial
message from the Canadian
Federation of Independent
Business^
: ----------—n
7 cown memorylanej
55 Years Ago
Mr. Clayton Frayne,
Thames Road, had a fine
flock of about 45 ducks and
for some time he had been
missing them one by one and
could not account for their
disappearance. One day
recently he discovered that a
cow was enjoying a duck
dinner but the discovery was
not made until after 20 of the
flock had disappeared.
Messrs. R. N. Creech, C.
Pilon, H. Rivers and W, E.
Sanders are on a week’s
shooting expedition in the
Bruce Peninsula.
What seems to be some
mean spite work has taken
place in Usborne township
during the threshing season.
At one place where Mr.
Chester Gorvett was
threshing, half of a hor
seshoe was discovered in a
sheaf of grain and Luckily
was found before it went
through the separator. A
short time after on another
farm, another part of a
horseshoe was discovered
under similar cir
cumstances. While threshing
at another place a piece of
sulky rake tooth got by the
threshers and broke the
concave.
Messrs. A. Wildfong and
W. J. Northcott of Sexsmith
left on a hunting trip to the
highlands of Ontario on
Monday last.
the WMS sectional meeting
at Centralia on Tuesday.
20 Years Ago
Frank Taylor, Exeter who
Wednesday celebrated 50
years of auctioneering
records the longest period of
service in the profession in
Canada.
V. Wor. Bro. W. W. Taman
of Lebanon Forest Lodge
A.F. and A.M. was presented
with a 60-year jewel and a 50-
year grand master’s jewel
Monday even by the DDGM
Rt. Wor. Bro, David White of
St. Marys on the occasion of
his official visit to the lodge.
Workmen began ex
cavating the basement for a
new post office building in
Hensail Wednesday mor
ning.
Karen Heywood, daughter
of Mr, and Mrs. Eric
Heywood, Exeter twirled her
hula hoop 16,160 times and
ate her supper doing it — so
far no one has been reported
beating her feat. She
provided the T-A with the
best news tip of the week and
created it herself,
15 Years Ago
Over 100 visitors viewed
the art and market show at
the library over the
weekend. About 20 area
artists displayed more than
70 pictures but only one was
sold.
Usborne School Board
reports more break-ins this
week. Windows were broken
for entry into Hurondale and
No. 5 school near the
Morrison Dam, but no loss
was reported. Zurich
trustees reported damage to
a new fence at the village
hall.
Pranksters in Hensail
have been threatening the
water supply there by
opening fire hydrants during
the night. In one evening the
storage level dropped four
feet as a result of the
practice.
Mrs. Jack Doerr and Mrs.
Robert Southcott, co-
conveners of the Hospital
Auxiliiary rummage sale,
repoled that the sale brought
in $735 at the Legion Hall.
One df the deepest satisfactions in
writing a column of this kind is the
knowledge that you are getting into
print the angers and frustrations of a
lot of other people, who have no
recourse for their resentments, and
consequently take them out on the old
man or the old lady.
How do you know this? Well, because
people write you letters cheering you
on to further attacks, and other people
come up to you, perfect strangers,
shake hands warmly, and say, “By the
Holy Ole Jumpin! Bill, you really hit
the nail on the head.”
This can be a little disconcerting, as
you are never quite sure which nail
they are referring to. If the con
gratulator is a woman, I smile weakly
and change the subject. Because sure
as guns, though she thought you were
one of nature’s noblemen for your
assault on male chauvinism last week,
she’ll turn on you like a snake when she
reads tomorrow’s paper, with the
column exposing female chauvinism.
Speaking recently to a class of poten
tial writers in a creative writing
course, I tried to pass along the per
sonal satisfaction one gets from this
type of personal journalism.
I emphasized the “personal”
Satisfaction, because there’s a lot more
of that involved than there is of the
other kind, financial satisfaction.
Columnists and freelance writers have
no union working for them, nor any
professional association, as have doc
tors, lawyers, teachers.
They have only their own talent and
wit and perseverance with which to
penetrate the thick heads and thicker
Skins of editors and publishers.
But it’s a great feeling when you vent
your wrath, say, about the
rapaciousness of mechanics, and you
are button-holed six times in the n&d
three days by people with horror
stories about mechanics you can
seareelv holieve
Trouble is, they all want you to write
another column about mechanics, and
put some real meat into it. This means,
in effect, that they would happily stand
in the wings and applaud when you
were sued for libel.
Some readers would like you to be
constantly attacking whatever it is that
they don’t like. Capitalist friends are
aghast when you refuse to launch an
assault on capital gains taxes.
Welfarist friends think you are a
traitor and a fink when you won’t at
tack the government for not providing
color TV for everyone on the take.
I am not by nature an attacker, and I
think there is nothing more boring than
a writer of any kind who tries to make
a career of being a “hard-hitting” jour
nalist.
Once in a while my gently bubbling
nature boils over. Throwing caution
and syntax to the winds, I let my spleen
have a field day and try to throw some
sand in the grease with which many
aspects of society are trying to give us
a snow job. And that’s one of the finest
paragraphs Fve ever written, if mixed
metaphors are your bag.
Fair game for the hard-hitter are:
garage mechanics, plumbers, postal
workers, supermarkets, civil servants,
and politicians. Most of them can’t hit
back, and everybody hates them, ex
cept garage mechanics and their
wives, plumbers and their wives, etc.
etc. 5
Smaller fry are doctors, lawyers,
teachers, used salesmen. They all
squeal like dying rabbits when at
tacked, but nobody pays much atten
tion to them except doctors and their
wives, etc. etc.
There are a few areas that even the
hardest-hitters avoid. When have you,
lately, read a savage attack on greedy
farmers, callous nurses, or unloving
mothers? And yet, there are lots of
them around.
One of these days, perhaps, one of
these hard-hitting writers will muster
enough guts, after about five brandies,
to launch an all-out attack on the
audacity of women, thinking they’re as
good as men. Boy, that fellow will
learn what real hard-hitting is all
about.
Personally, I can’t stay mad at
anybody long enough to be a voice of
the people, or a public watch-dog, or
any of those obnoxious creatures who
try to tell other people how they should
feel.
The only constant in my rage is the
blatant manipulation of self-seeking
politicians who will twist and warp and
wriggle and squirm and bribe for self
perpetuation in office. Best example of
the moment is the Tory government in
Ontario, which has called a totally un
necessary election in that province
through sheer hunger for greater
power.
Otherwise, I get a great deal more
joy from touching the individual life
than inflaming the masses. When I get
a letter from an old lady in hospital,
crippled with arthritis, .Who has
managed to get a chuckle out of my
column, it makes me feelgood,
Recently, I got a letter from a young
Scot who has immigrated to Canada.
He says: “I have learned more about
Canada and Canadians through reading
your column that all the accumulated
wisdom from the Canadian
newsmagazines, novels and TV
programs I have absorbed.”
Now there is a man with his head
screwed on right. If I, as a newcomer,
tried to get my impressions of this
country from newsmagazines and TV
programs, I’d catch the first boat or
plane home.
So, I guess I’ll try to go on talking to
people, getting sore, havihg some fun,
looking for sympathy in the war
between the sexes. That’S what life is
all about, not plumbers and politicians
and other horrors of that ilk.
the city streets. When they
came to a garbage can they
would turn it over, going
through the messy piles to
find* any morsel of food or
worthwhile piece of
clothing. Then, very careful
ly. they would place every
bit of it back in the can so
they wouldn’t get into any
trouble.
Hard times. I doubt that a
weight-watchers club would
have been much in demand.
Imagine the laughter when
somebody suggested that a
group of people should pay
three dollars a week to not
eat.
This summer I was sitting
Please turn to Page ,5
were the days before un
employment insurance,
when welfare was still a dir
ty word, and people knew
what it was like to be
without all the things that
we consider as the
necessities of life.
He told me about the hun
dreds of young men who
rode the railway freightcars
from town to town. At each
they would be given some
soup and if they were lucky
a place to sleep. The next
day they were told to move
on or face vagrancy
charges
In the city of Hamilton he
remembered that vou could
see young fellows walking
of
in
In
the .
wealthy Canada it would
seem that nobody would
need to go hungry.
My father told me about
how it was back in the thir
ties. the ‘hungry thirties’
people called them. Those
SYDFLETCHER
this the latter part
20th century, here
vocate
Advocate Established 1 88 1 Amalgamated 1924Timei Established 1873
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30 Years Ago
Gerald Regier, ll-year-old
son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph
Regier, Ml. Carmel died
from injuries received when
he jumped from a truck on
his way to school.
Mr. and Mrs. Mel King
were feted on the occasion of
their silver wedding an
niversary,
Jim Wilson, who has been
with the RCNA’s at
Esquimqlt, B.C. has been
posted to Halifax.
The hew pellet mill for
producing pellet feeds now
being erected at Cann’s mill
is hearing completion.
Mrs. Hugh Taylor
Toronto, formerly Thames
Road was guest speaker at