May 12, 1921
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
May 12, 1921
There’s no mistaking the lead story of this issue of the Leader; it’s smack in the middle of the front page: NORTH COWICHAN COUNCIL – Plans For Permanent Road Work – No More litigation – No Daylight Savings
After an all-day-long meeting Council had decided that the contentious “Mainguy Island case” had gone on long enough and it was time to move on. This decision, it should be noted, came with a firm nudge from the Court of Appeal which had rendered its final verdict in favour of the owner of Swallowfield Farm whose land had been expropriated to accommodate a road for the benefit of his neighbor on Mainguy Island. In short, taxpayers were stuck with the settlement and court costs, North Cowichan was to pay up. (The amount wasn’t given.)
There’d be no help from the provincial government this year, all monies earned from motor licenses, amusement taxes, personal property tax and liquor sales to go to hospitals.
With nothing more to be done, or even said, Council quickly dealt with a resolution from the Duncan Board of Trade to adopt Daylight Saving Time. Perhaps gun shy after the Swallowfield Road debacle, Council demurred from becoming involved.
Another legal matter, this one between two property owners, also came up. F.C. Lloyd, Westholme, had previously won a suit against his neighbor, Capt. Alec Matthews, whose inadequate ditching had caused water damage to Lloyd’s property during flooding conditions. Matthews replied that he thought the settlement unfair because no matter how much he ditched his land it did no good because his other adjoining neighbor did nothing with his.
In this case a Solomon-like solution was arrived at between the two: Matthews agreed to reduce the offending slope and improve his ditching, and Lloyd was to put up $250 towards the cost.
Roads, as ever, were the big topic of the day with an anticipated three-year program to cost an astounding $150,000. (Always remember inflation, readers; this was the equivalent of just over $2 million.) This would require taxpayers’ approval.
An interesting element is that it was cheaper to barge in crushed rock from Vancouver than to procure it locally!
A Richards Trail poultry farmer complained that the road was in such a state of disrepair that he couldn’t get his eggs to town without breakage and Mrs. F.G. Sondergaard wanted highway access from her property after having paid taxes for nine years.
Noted Westholme farmer L.F. Solly wrote Council to say that the war memorial proposed for Mount Sicker required only 3-4 acres rather than the suggested 100 acres. Council passed his letter on to the War Memorial committee.
The skirmishing over war trophies between North Cowichan and Duncan was still underway. The latest development was a letter from the Director of War Trophies, saying that as far as Ottawa was concerned, Duncan and North Cowichan were one and the same, so one gun, one trench mortar and two machine guns were sufficient.
All of the trophies had been addressed to Duncan—but North Cowichan had appropriated the German field gun. As the Leader noted with a sigh, “The war is not yet over.”
In deference to Duncan’s primary role as the Valley’s commercial centre, the Ottawa bureaucrat gently suggested that the city should have the gun and he said he’d try to send North Cowichan a German naval .77mm gun in its place. Cyril Dart, Somenos Lake, complained that stray cows and horses on the road posed a danger to the public; he was the second to make this charge. Council having previously instructed poundkeeper G.G. Henderson to deal with the matter, they decided he wasn’t up to the job, canceled his appointment and advertised the position.
The final roads issue of the day was the use of the Chemainus courthouse as a lunch room by road workers who always left it in a “very dirty condition”.
R.M. Smith, who rented “the municipal cottage” next to Somenos Cemetery hadn’t paid his $4 month rent for almost a year; the Clerk was instructed to give him two weeks to pay up then, if he failed to do so, eviction notice.
Duncan Council had its own challenges with a proposed tax increase of no less than 29 mills on land. School costs were said to be responsible for much of the fiscal hit. Interestingly, roadworks were budgeted at a mere $790. Fire protection was down, too, a new fire truck having been the previous year’s major expenditure. It was also projected that the City Waterworks would show a deficit of $700. Further expansion of the City-owned power system was on hold until finances warranted and as for Daylight Savings Time, Duncan was in favour if North Cowichan was. (After you, Alphonse; no after you Gaston...)
It was a full house for a quarterly directors’ meeting of the BoT with attendees from almost all points of the Valley. Various issues (many of which have been reported previously in 100 Years Ago) were discussed and it was proposed that the public camping ground in Duncan be cleaned up. A more contentious issue was the forthcoming retirement of federal fisheries minister Galbraith and whether it was politically acceptable for the Board to make a recommendation for his replacement.
Both the Duncan and Vancouver BoTs expressed indignation that a judicial report on the state of the fisheries was still held up in Ottawa without any hint of when it would be made public.
The subject of Daylight Saving Time had come up here, too, because Nanaimo and Victoria had opted for it, creating scheduling problems for those living in non-conforming communities. The meeting ended, remarkably by today’s standards, with a sing-song!
Nine enumerators were to canvass the Valley for the latest Census, the Women’s Institute had enjoyed a “very sociable and entertaining” afternoon instead of reading reports, and the Cowichan Chapter of the IODE had staged a Cabaret in the Agricultural Hall.
It was, WELL DONE, SCOUTS! (and Wolf Cubs) who’d demonstrated the skills they’d leaned before an audience of 400.
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