August 12, 1920
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
August 12, 1920
The big news of the week was the impending arrival of 90 members of the Imperial Press Conference. “No more important or influential body has ever visited Canada,” crowed The Leader of this group which included one viscount, a lord, eight Sirs and a colonel among its dignitaries.
Meeting in Victoria, they represented over one-quarter of the Dominion (the British Commonwealth) and were scheduled to visit the Valley on the coming weekend.
The Duncan Board of Trade held its regular quarterly meeting with 191 members on its rolls. By unanimous vote all former presidents were granted letters as ex officia members of the council in the hope of maintaining their interest and active connection to the Board.
The directors were also given authority to accept new memberships without going before the membership at large.
Construction of a highway overpass above the E&N at Cobble Hill hadn’t even begun despite having been promised for a year. The Board resolved to complain to the railway commissioners and the provincial department of public works.
Neither had there been any progress in the installation of a telephone booth on the Malahat for emergency use by motorists. The province had already established a permanent “road camp” there.
There had been no effort on the part of the Dominion Government to repair the public wharf at Cowichan Bay or a navigational beacon in Chemainus Harbour. Daily(!) mail service had been inaugurated between Duncan and Lake Cowichan, however.
Ten months had passed without the publication of a looked-for federal fisheries report.
At least the Board of Trade’s Publicity Committee had been busy in publishing several brochures touting the “outdoor life and natural history” of the Valley.
Another work in progress was the campaign to assist British residents who were lobbying the British government over their pensions which were penalized upon emigration. Better, unspecified “arrangements” were needed in the Shawnigan Lake area, Lake Cowichan needed a new government wharf and Chemainus wanted better fire protection.
At Hill 60, shipments of manganese to the Tacoma smelter had resumed but an attempt to re-open the once-rich Tyee Mine on Mount Sicker had been unsuccessful. There was hope for the Blue Grouse copper mine, however.
Tourist traffic was up, newcomers were arriving in the Valley and the 1920 hay and grain crops were good.
A.A. Patterson had bought the C.C.L. Elverson home formerly owned by photographer C.W. Sillence. The Elversons were moving to a farm on Galiano Island.
C. Brownsey had sold his house on the Cowichan River to Toronto newcomer A.T. Struthers and Miss Monk had bought the G.H. Hadwen house on College Street. All sales had been handled by Messrs. Leather & Bevan, Duncan.
The rest of the front page was devoted to sporting news, baseball, cricket and the coming hunting season. Willow grouse were exempt but bears, deer, ducks, ground and brant, blue grouse, quail and pheasant were fair game during specified months.
These hunters pose with their day's shooting. Almost anything that moved or flew was fair game in the old days; in 1920 only Willow Grouse were exempt.
Bag limits were: three deer (one doe); ducks, 20 daily, 100 in total; geese, 10 and 50; grouse, 6 and 50; quail, 20 and 150; pheasants, 6 and 25. The buying and selling of bear meat was permissible from Nov. 1, 1920-June 30, 1921. These bag limits had been determined with the input of the Cowichan Fish & Game Assoc.
It was hoped that “by strict adherence to the game laws and by every sportsman constituting himself a volunteer game warden “it may be possible in future years to secure a lengthening of the shooting season”.
Speaking of game wardens, there wasn’t one, this position being vacant; The Leader hoped that an announcement on this subject would be made very shortly.
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