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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-03-29, Page 4PAGE 4 —GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1979 Godericht SIGNAL—STAR The County Town Newspaper of Huron Founded 11;1541' 0 and published every Thursday at Godorlch, Ontario. Member of the CWNA and OWNA. Advertising rates on request. Subscriptions payable In advance '14,50 In Canada. '35.00 to U.S.A.. '35.00 to all other countries, single copies 35'. Display advertising rotas available on request. Please ask for Rate Card No. 5 effective Oct. 1, 1975. Second class moll Registration Number 0716. Advertising Is accepted on the condition that In the event of typographical error. the advertising apgce occupied by the erroneous item. together with reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for but the balance of the Advertisement will bo paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographical error advertising goods or services at a wrong price, goods or service may not be sold. Advertising Is merely an offer to sell. and moy bo withdrawn at any time. Tho Signal -Star is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts or photos. 'Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd. ROBERT G. SHRIER — president and publisher SHIRLEY J. KELLER — editor DONALD M. HUBICK - advertising manager • Mailing Address: P.O. BOX 220, Industrial Park, Goderich Second class mail registration number — 0716 Business' and Editorial Office TELEPHONE 524-8331 area code 519 *CNA • MYIurtat.GOO Is plan healthy? Reflecting back on the election campaign 22 months ago, Premier William Davis unveiled A Charter for Ontario. The .Charter -basically enun- ciated Conservative dogma but produced 16 rather solemn promises, some general and others most specific. Among other ' things the Charter promised reduced municipal taxes for senior citizens, in- creased exports for Ontario goods, a balanced budget by 1981 (that promise has now been revised to 1984) and a commitment to maintaining the highest quality of health and services, based on a system allowing individuals to work in cooperation with their own doctors for their own health and well being. The Davis government is standing firm on its commitments and maintain the spirit of the charter has been fulfilled. In retrospect, while beds are cut, employees lose jobs becuase of constricting budget allocations and essential hospital care is eroded due to cutbacks, the spirit of the commitment is non existant. The Government claims the emphasis is now shifting to home care and outpatient treatment. And many patients will now pay more for valuable health service as more doctors drop out of the OHIP plan. If the plan was healthy would doctors and anesthetists be dropping out? One opposition leader called the chaarter a simple marketing device that was unveiled in an overwhelmingly pretentious manner. He compared it to the.introduction of a new beer. Despite the anticipation, once the cap is off, the • excitement is gone. • April action month Where does Canada stand on cancer - mankind's modern plague? Scientists all over the world are involved in the search for the causes of cancer, the properties that distingd'sh cancerous from normal cells, and the approaches to prevention, treatment and potential cure. Although man still does riot fully understand the basic mechanisms of cancer, much progress has been made.,_. particularlyin, the diagnosis and treatment. Acute leukemia in children, Hodgkin's disease and other lymphomas, and chorio• - carcinoma in women are now curable in a good percentage of patients through the use of com- bination chemotherapy. Markers, substances in blood and urine that correlate with the amount of tumour present, •are beginning -to provide aid for both detecting cancer and monitoring the response of patients to treatment. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, which provides most of the funds for cancer research through its affiliate, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the major challenge for the future is prevention. This means identifying factors that cause or contribute to the development of cancer and modifying their deadly effects if they cannot be eliminated from the environment. Means to assess 'individual variation in susceptibility must also be discovered. Many scientists believe that most cancers are associated with smoking, sunlight, diet, and other environmental factors in the home or workplace. This means that many cancers, perhaps most bf 'them, ultimately can be prevented. Chemicals such as• polycyclic aromatic hydro.carbons.__.in_.._ci.gar_et.t.e.s, __vinyl .chloride..._and.: asbestos in industry, pesticides and symethetic additives in foods, are just a few examples of suspected environmental carcinogens. Some grantees of the Institute in Canada, and their scientific confreres elsewhere, are currently testing chemicals using laboratory animals to help' identify chemicals in the environment which may cause . •cancer in man. At the same time, epidemiologists are looking for clues to specific cancer-causing agents in population groups. The Canadian public should support the Canadian Cancer Society's position that personal respon- sibility for health is up to each citizen, particularly in the prevention of cancer of the lungs, skin and cervix. Read the insert HOPE in this week's Signal - Star - dnd then fight cancer with a check up and a cheque.—SJK Remove the gloves Ontario's Premier Bill Davis has obviously had enough of the sort of propaganda which the premier of Quebec is, directimg at the United States. Speaking to.a groupof businessmen in Washington, Davis said the statements which Premier Levesque made not long ago before an American audience were "mischievous and unfair". ` Mr. Davis informed his American listeners that they need not count on Quebec remaining on good economic terms with the rest of Canada should that province decide to separate. Sovereignty association, .no matte''r how' it is explained, means separation from the rest of Canada, according to the Ontario premier. He is to be commended for laying it right on the line for, the Americans. Levesque has. been .telling our neighbors about the glorious and prosperous future which awaits his province after separation, based on the premise that the other Canadian provinces will have to do business on the same old terms. Mi Davis has remained remarkably polite in the three years since the PQ was elected in Quebec, but it is time to take off the gloves.—Wingham Advance -Times. DEAR EDITOR Winter ..._.lastf1 n - Join up Dear Editor, Most of us believe in democracy .but very few of us really participate in the various. democratic institutions of our country. • A very good example is Alexandra Marine and General Hospital, Goderich Corporation. It is this corporation which elects the board which in turn administer>A.M. and G. Hospital. I wonder if many people in Goderi.ch know that every one of us is entitled to become a member of the cor- poration on payment of an annual membership fee of one dollar. The last date to become a member is May 1979. It is most important that we take interest in our hospital which is bound to influence the board as well as the at- titude of the provincial government in matters concerning the interest of our hospital. Should most of us not come forward and join the corporation • im- mediately? Yours truly (Dr.) Saidullah Khan Goderich About books Dear Editor, It will soon be time for teachers to choose the books for use in the English high school courses next year. With the wealth . of good literature available, it shouldn't be necessary to choose any questionable books. Our schools were set up by parents and taxpayers to uphold the standards of right and wrong taught in the homes, while giving the children the best in academic education., Parents and taxpayers are now being told to "trust the teachers", "leave the decisions to the professionals", etc., when any discussion arises over the choice of material being used in schools. A child;s first teachers are his parents. By the time a student reaches high school age, parents have already had about 13 years of teaching experience. This makes them rather expert in that field. Using books in school which teach moral standards different than (hose taught at home, only confuse the minds of the students. The whole community is then af- fected. Yours sincerely, Grace Austin. Poor care Dear Editor, I would like to bring to your attention the standards of health care now existing at the Alexandra Marine and General Hospital. As a resident of a different province, my contact with the hospital came about through the illness of my relative. I would like to use the column of your newspaper to publicize his story in hope that other patients canavoid similar events. He was an elderly in- firm 'man -who was ad- mitted to the hospi01 and developed pneumonia. During his time there he was left to sit up • in a chair without any housecoat on, and when he was put to bed he was only given a sheet to cover himself. He complained how cold he was, and when a blanket was requested for him we were told there wasn't one, and instead, we were offered another sheet to cover him. In. Turn to page 5 75 YEARS AGO Robert Clark made a • fresh start cutting ice on Monday for though he has filled two big houses, he wants to be prepared for the hottest of.summers, It is some years since we had ice cutting as late as March 28. A number of men were engaged on Monday gathering drift wood off the ice on the river along -by the __-breakwater, a dangerous work many thought. The Goderich Harbor Mill and Lumber Com- pany bought quite a number of logs this winter, mostly soft ones. Fitting out or repairing was in progress on nearly „every vessel in the harbor yesterday. Barber Hutchison has moved his parlors one door north on Montreal Street and now has much LOOKING BACK more commodious quarters. The Public Schools having burned more wood than usual the past winter, have small wood piles and the Contingent committee has con- siderable difficulty in keeping up the -supply, The ^ thaw last week greatly inconvenienced a number of our citizens by flooding their cellars and, where there were fur- naces, putting out the fires. 25 YEARS AGO Navigation was of- ficially opened at Goderich last Saturday when the Imperial Oil tanker Imperial London steamed into port with a full load of gasoline. Names of five men as suggested members of Goderich ..Housing Authority were chosen last Saturday by L.E. Cardiff, MP, for Huron at a meeting with town council. Suggested names were Ellis Jeffrey,J.K. Hunter, Cec Hoffman, Alex Alexander and H.M. Ford. \ Thirty-five members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce representing clubs in District 2, gathered for a meeting at the British Exchange Hotel in Goderich Sun- day. Delegates to attend the annual meeting and nominating convention of the Ontario Liberal Association were named at a meeting of the Huron South Liberal Association executive held in Hensall Tuesday evening. Delegate for Goderich will be Gerald O'Brien. Goderich will benefit by an increase of 100 per cent in the unconditional grant made this year to the ' municipality by the province. Under the old system, Goderich received $4,965.59 in 1953. This year the town will receive $9,931.25. The figure is based on a population of 5,675., , 5 YEARS AGO Goderich Town Council entertained a group of 29 students from Abbot- sford, B.C. at lunch on Monday. The students are in Goderich for a week on an exchange program that will send 27 St. Mary's students to B.C. in May. The recently , fired airplane at the Dorninion Road Machinery Com- pany Limited is causing Goderich Town Council some concern. A letter from Bruce A. Sully, president of DRM,CO, has revealed that the local airport facilities • are not up to par and he has asked town council to ' look into the matter at its earliest convenience. In discussing the for- mation of secondary plans for Huron County at Thursday's Land Use Conference at Centralia College, ,.several suggestions were made that the number of municipalities in the county be reduced. There's a new building on the horizon just east of Goderich on Highway 8 that serves a dual pur- pose for the animal lovers and Tamers of the 'area. The building is the Goderich Veterinary Clinic and it is both a hospital for emergencies and a clinic for animals , needing constant at- tention. The man responsible for its. existence is Dr, Bill Schilthius, a graduate of the University of Guelph. DEAR READERS BY SHIRLEY J.KELLER . An interesting lead story from The Zurich Citizens News last week brought forth a whole bunch of new and exciting thoughts for me about this business so flippantly called "weekly newspapering". It gave renewed promise of that big city excitement that most hopeful young journalists expect to find in the newspaper game, but seldom experience. ° The title of the story was "Suspects worm way out of country". ' It was about three citizens of the United States who came to this part of Ontario to apparently con the local yokels. But the plot failed. Seems as though Richard Taarud, 49 of Pbmpano Beach, Florida; Thomas D. Stiler, 25 of Nashville,Tennessee; and Gail Morely, 23 of Seattle, Washington, have been charged for working illegally in Canada and maybe even face additional 'charges of deceptive advertising. And that's where the news editor of The Zurich Citizens News came in: Tom Creech decided to get to the bottom of things, for it appeared that persons who had answered the ad- vertisements placed by this trio fill lira paper, were fearful they had been had. International Vermiculture was the name of the firm. Does that ring a bell? It may. That company advertised in The Goderich Signal -Star, too. Seems International Vermiculture said worm growers were needed. The company claimed to have markets for worms. The growers would invest to get started in the worm business and have readymade outlets for the product. They could make up to $10,000 or $12,000 per annum, the firm's sales representatives said. Not so. According -to The Citizens News, the -..police were looking for Taarud, Stiler and Morey .... and the worm growers were looking for other markets for their wiggly product. Actually, International Vermiculture did supply worms - hybrid red worms, yellowtail worms and ringling warms. But the red and yellow varieties don't seem to' be in demand at all, while the tingling worms may have some value as fish bait. Interestingly e,nough, though, the future may hold some new and won- derful uses for the lowly worm. Worms may be used to recycle your garbage in the future, and believe it or not, there may even be a market for worm Castings. But at this moment, right in this area, the worm growers aren't too positive that there is much money to be made fromllieir produce. It'sq,,eally a depressing thing for someone who has invested heavily in worm growing. But let's get back to Tom Creech. Tom has been on top of this story for a while. He was researching an article .on one worm growing operation, and even had an interview with Richard Taarud. Taarud told Creech Inter- national Vermiculture had "just scratched the surface" when it came to markets for worms. He claimed ,there was a "viable market for worms". But Agriculture Canada had serious doubts about that. So did some other experts in the field of worm growing. Creech wanted to talk Taarud and his bucdies again, so :he followed a van with Florida licence , plates into a grower's farm and spent another 40 minutes trying to get the whole story together. Taarud just kept insisting there were markets for the worms. Then the trio vanished. No for- warding address. No nothing. But the Royal 'Canadian Mounted Police always get 'their. man. And the trio was apprehended about mid- March and charged following an in- vestigation by the federal department of cor1 umer and corporate affairs. International Vermiculture was charged under the combines in- vestigation act which dealt with the misleading representation of the projected market and subsequent profits from the sale of worms. It is estimated International Ver- miculture may have received up to $65,000 from the 26 growers they signed up through Southwestern Ontario. Tom Creech won't be happy about that. But the Zurich news editor will probably tell you it was dne of the most interesting stories he's ever covered. Why the worm growers' story was to The Citizens News what Watergate was to The Washington Post. A news man's dream.