April 14, 1921
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
April 14, 1921
Journalism has certainly changed in a century. Today this story would top the front page with a full-width, blaring headline; in 1921 it’s one of the smallest items (just five paragraphs) on the page and almost buried in the middle of columns of type.
At least LOGGING FATALITY – Choker Strikes Man in Forehead At Cowichan Lake Camp does catch the eye.
Logging fatalities have ever been with us, right up to this year with several in the past few months alone. In 1921 it was the turn of John Scott who was working at the Genoa Bay Logging Co.’s Cottonwood Creek setting, just beyond Youbou on the north shore of Cowichan Lake. While the donkey engine was drawing in a log to which a single choker (cable) had been attached, a choker previously attached but now lying beneath the log, “flew around and struck Scott on the forehead”. His having taken cover behind a stump didn’t save him and he suffered for two hours. Provincial Constable W. Kier handled the investigation and Dr. H.F.D. Stephens, RN, conducted an inquest that same evening, Indian Agent A.H. Lomas acting as juror foreman. The inevitable verdict was accidental death with no blame attached.
Originally from Ontario, and in B.C. for 10 years, 35-year-old Scott, single, had been working at Cowichan Lake for only three weeks. Funeral arrangements were on hold until a brother in Calgary could be contacted.
Seemingly of greater import (perhaps because 500 people attended) was the lead story of a locally produced amateur musical presentation in the newly-renovated Agricultural Hall. The Leader’s reporter obviously had fun with his light hearted rendering of the various acts and actors; so much so that it’s almost meaningless to present day readers so I’m going to pass on further detail...
Immediately beneath it is a short article on the Cowichan Amateur Orchestral Society having been invited to play in Victoria, and the Duncan newspaper smugly noted that the provincial capital “cannot boast of a single symphony orchestra in its midst though it possesses many talented musicians and music lovers”.
Duncan City Council was studying a consultant’s report on the paving of Craig Street, Trunk Road to Station Street, Station Street, Craig Street to Front Street (Canada Avenue), Front Street and Trunk Street to Evans Road.
Consultant C. Brackenridge, of Vancouver, recommended that all streets be paved almost full-width but to allow borders for future laying of sewer lines without the need to tear up the pavement. Craig Street, for example, would have a 30-foot-wide layer of pavement and a five-foot-buffer on the west side. (Today’s municipalities who, it seems, can’t wait to tear up almost new pavement for water and gas lines, etc., please take note!) In the meantime these shoulders would allow run-off of surface water.
His recommendation for Station Street sounds odd today—two 18-foot-wide strips of hardtop with a five-foot-wide open ground up the centre for parking! His rationale was this: “This block is so flat, that if the paved portion was placed in the centre of the road, it would be almost impossible to keep the unpaved portions at the sides from turning into mud and water holes in the wet weather, and a very unsightly condition would be created in front of the stores and business premises.”
His plan called for the maple trees in front of the Tzouhalem Hotel to remain. Kenneth to Evans streets would be just 16 feet wide which he thought adequate and the limit, cost-wise, that the City could expect of its 50-50 financing with the province.
Most surprising, at least from today’s perspective, is that Brackenridge isn’t talking of paving with asphalt but with concrete. Duncan, he said, lacked the equipment to lay hot asphalt. The biggest problem he saw was that city roads weren’t uniformly graded and many required substantial levelling to conform.
(Concrete’s susceptibility to cracking explained his suggestion that Station Street be laid in two separate strips.) A major problem with using concrete, he admitted, was the required two-three weeks necessary for drying sufficiently to accept heavy traffic, and the inconvenience this would have on merchants. But he was sure that some temporary arrangements could be made to cover the interim.
He estimated the cost to be $4 per square yard plus the cost of grading for a total expenditure of $4.40 per square yard.
To promote its Portland cement product the B.C. Cement Works was willing to allow the city of Duncan an advertising budget of $2500 “for every mile of concrete pavement constructed, based on a width of 16 feet, having a thickness of six inches on the shoulders, and 7 1/2 inches in the centre, and using a 1-2-3 mix [cement, sand and gravel]”. This would amount to a saving of 13 cents per square yard.
The Cowichan Creamery Co-op was installing new office accommodation and a warehouse for potatoes, A.A.B. Herd had resigned his position as secretary of the fundraising drive for a war memorial because of ill health, and it was noted that school children, Mayo Singh of the Paldi Lumber Co., Chinese and Japanese residents had donated generously towards erecting a cenotaph and a second memorial on Mount Prevost.
The Women’s Institute was flush with money thanks to a $450 donation and its members saw some progress in women’s suffrage with the news that “women now have the right to act as school trustees if their husbands own property, but that they cannot yet hold the position of councillors if similarly qualified”.
Duncan High School student received rave reviews for their production of the ‘Merchant of Venice,” and mining engineer W.M. Brewster was back in town for the last of his public lectures. He concluded by encouraging recruitment in the industry, the number of prospectors in the province having diminished despite the promise of “undreamt of affluence at the end of the rainbow of hope”.
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