August 26, 1920
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
August 26, 1920
‘FROM THE SEVEN SEAS – Journalists of British Isles and Dominions Visit District on Saturday’
Yet another issue of The Leader touting the forthcoming visit, two days hence, of this travelling troupe of big-name international journalists. After spending Friday at Butchart’s Gardens and the provincial legislature they were to be motored, next morning, to Duncan.
(Because this is the third lead-up to their visit I’ll wait until next week to conclude...)
At last report hunting season was about to open without a game warden. This had been corrected with the appointment of A. Dunbar who got off to a good start by charging two local men with hunting violations. In police court James E. Brown, assistant supervisor of the Soldier Settlement Board, pleaded guilty to possession of game and not having a firearms license; Augustus Luckowitch, who worked at the city power house, admitted to having a firearm in a motor car. They were fined $60 and $50 respectively. The Leader noted that Brown was driving his official government car when searched and arrested.
Although new at the job, Warden Dunbar had distinguished credentials, having served, 1915-1918, in the Great War with the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles and won the military Medal at Arras. He’d ended the war in charge of the Cyclist Corps.
Better yet, having hunted and travelled the American continent, he’d been “connected with game all his life”.
After 13 years’ residence in the Cowichan Valley well-known poultryman E.D Read, his wife and two children were returning to the Old Country. His poultry farm at Cowichan Station had repeatedly won awards at fall fairs. He was credited with being the spark plug behind the Cowichan Utility Poultry Assoc. and Mrs. Read had been active in local social circles and amateur theatre productions.
The Cowichan Fall Fair would be opened by the Hon. Dr. S.F. Tolmie the federal minister of agriculture, seed and poultry farmers were gearing up for the annual event as were horse and cattle breeders. Somenos farmer A. Davie had taken possession of a new International Harvester threshing machine and cutter, both to be driven by an International Titan tractor.
Motorists were reminded to sound their horns when approaching blind curves for the benefit of oncoming cyclists.
The Cowichan Electoral District Health Centre was to hold its first meeting of the board composed of representatives from each school board.
Today’s small E&N rail yard between Canada Avenue and Duncan Street is just a ghost of what it was like years ago. In August 1920 it was reported that downtown Duncan was to have a new roundhouse. Planned for the corner of Canada Avenue and James Street, it would accommodate two locomotives at a time. It was another sign that traffic on the new Lake Cowichan Subdivision, presently seeing two logging trains a day, was expected to grow.
The new Tansor Lumber Co. Mill had been sold—to Mayo Singh of Mayo Lumber Co., Paldi. He planned to expand the mill with more efficient machinery (probably electrical as it was steam-powered). The mill’s real value lay in its timber lease on the John N. Evans property.
There’d been another fire at Cobble Hill.
As reported last week there’d been a series of fires, most of them highly suspicious, in recent weeks. This one was only a quarter of a mile from the previous blaze and was still being fought when The Leader went to press. This latest fire appeared to confirm suspicions of an arsonist at work, having ignited in three places.
MLA Kenneth Duncan and Duncan Board of Trade director H.F. Prevost were finally able to place Valley concerns about the fisheries before the Hon. C.C. Ballantyne during his visit to Victoria. The Leader dryly noted that “the usual consideration was promised”.
For bootlegging, Melvin Collinson was arrested, charged, convicted and fined $50—all in the same afternoon—by Magistrate James Maitland-Dougall. (Who said justice grinds slowly?)
The last news item on the front page of the Aug. 26, 1920 issue of The Leader is also the most dramatic, being headlined, “Marvellous Escape From Death.”
At a camp picnic Miss Christine Bazett escaped uninjured when a large dead arbutus tree fell across her tent. “It smashed the tent down and broke to atoms the table on one side of the bed and a chair on the other and left its occupant unscathed. The fork of the tree just happened to encircle the bed.
“Mr. C. Bazett was working nearby and rushed to the tent. The tree had brought down large limbs from a nearby fir and, after a while, he extracted his daughter unhurt. There was no wind blowing at the time.”
Fortunately, all went well with the 60 children of the Duncan Methodist Church Sunday School at their annual picnic, also held at Maple Bay. The highlights of their day were a boat ride to Sansum Narrows and a visit to the abandoned copper smelter at Crofton.
With the belated arrival of summer weather even Duncan Council held an abbreviated meeting. After going on record with a resounding “nay” to a proposed “local government board,” they turned to the continuing problems of the City Waterworks. The water level at the dam was so low they voted to ban the use of water hoses, meaning residents were to forego watering their gardens. Water shortage or no, the Rideau Lumber Co. was granted permission to draw water for fire protection through a three-quarter-inch main for $2 per month but the application for a street light on Marchmont Road was denied.
The Beverage Bylaw dictating the hours of sale of near beer was finally passed.
Mayor Pitt reported all was ready for the visit of the Imperial Press Conference to which the City had contributed $50.
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