May 5, 1921
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
May 5, 1921
A full century later and Chronicles readers will relate to the lead story in The Leader of this date: CONDEMN “SALARY GRAB:” Big Meeting Carries Pledge Not To Vote For Member Unless Measure Repealed
“Resolved: That the electors of the Cowichan Electoral District, in mass meeting assembled [sic], record their indignation and repugnance at the present raising of sessional indemnities, and ministerial salaries, and hereby pledge themselves not to vote at any forthcoming elections for any candidate who signed the round-robin, unless the act be immediately repealed.”
Proposed by H.P. Hooker and seconded by Col. G.E. Barnes, CBE, the resolution was carried by an overwhelming majority at a mass meeting in the opera House, two days before The Leader went to press.
This meeting of provincial taxpayers, it should be understood, was not arranged by any political party and MLA Kenneth Duncan, who’d won election as an Independent, didn’t attend. The stated object of the protest was to “show that the mass of the electorate condemned the actions of all, irrespective of party, who grabbed at a chance to increase their salaries.”
(Can you remember when B.C. voters last rose up in arms against MLAs enriching themselves at public expense?)
Those who’d panned the meeting were accused of being “of the dormant type”. L.W. Huntington of Cowichan Bay, originally of Lancashire, England, compared the situation to that of the Old Country and said he hoped taxpayers “would set an example to other constituencies and impress on the members that they were the servants of the people, and not their masters...”
H.P. Tooker, also of Cowichan Bay, accused the government of indifferent delivery of services to municipalities, of refusing financial aid to hospitals and of reducing the wages of civil servants—yet they’d given themselves a hefty raise. He accused the parties of meeting secretly to agree upon the wage hike. Only three members of the standing house—Kenneth Duncan wasn’t one of them—had refused to agree to the increase.
Perhaps adding insult to injury, the House had approved the raise on April 1st —April Fool’s Day. The premier’s stipend had gone from $7000 per annum to $9000, cabinet ministers went up a full 50 per cent to $7500, and members from $1600 to $2000 per session. All made retroactive to February 1st.
Such an affront to the electorate was the “finest fertilizer” for Bolshevism, raged Tooker. It was time to make members toe the line and to elect men of more elevated principles “with real love of country” in their place.
“The Radical pot, the Conservative kettle and the immaculate white Independent saucepan have all got black bottoms,” sneered H.J. Ruscombe Poole. The government had the people by the throat with one hand and the other hand in their pockets...
And so it went. The whole raise issue was outright robbery. Voters were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it any more. (Sound familiar?)
Coincidentally, what began as an “indignation meeting” by 70 residents in the Somenos schoolhouse to protest North Cowichan Municipal financial affairs was quickly and easily defused “after a clear and thorough financial” report by Councillor Ashby. He used a blackboard to explain all the costs of running the Municipality and why taxes had gone up by 13 3/4 per cent in a year. He reminded those present that he, the reeve and his fellow councillors were also ratepayers and they did everything in their power to keep the budget as tight as possible. A big part of future budgets would be roads. As Reeve Paitson explained, “Everybody now realized that the day of spreading gravel was over and that permanent roads were essential.”
On a less contentious note the Vimy Social Club had received their certificate of incorporation and Messrs. Page & Lansdell of the City Bakery, Duncan, had installed the largest portable oven in Canada. Portable it was said to be even though it weighed over two tons and had to be moved in sections.
Miss Peggy Jackson of Victoria was visiting with friends at Somenos and had attended the Chemainus Hospital ball, W.J.E. Brookbank pleaded guilty in police court to a charge of riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, was ordered to pay prosecution costs of $1.95 and warned against doing it again. The Cowichan Amateur Orchestral Society suspended practices for the summer and Miss Margaret Gordon had resigned her position as ledger keeper in the Canadian Bank of Commerce to replace Miss Dorothy Ker as commercial agent of the B.C. Telephone office, Duncan.
A meeting of the Cowichan Fish & Game explored the sometimes conflicting roles of benefiting the community as a whole while advancing the more specific goals of sportsmen. The group “fully realized that the support of the community of the district as a whole must be their objective and that the moral assistance of the large majority of residents, rather than the monetary aid of the few, should be the aim of the association.”
The government’s “salary grab” had also come up before the Duncan Board of Trade whose directors washed their hands of the issue by avowing their political neutrality. They’d been accused of political interference in other matters and weren’t taking any chances this time. So it was the usual business: the government wharf at Cowichan Bay, the state of the Cowichan Lake Road, construction of a public landing at Lake Cowichan. Because of slowing business the E&N had backed off from its plan to build a spur into Chemainus and the B.C. Telephone Co. had assured subscribers that they had no intention of switching them from the Duncan to the Chemainus exchange. And the board was corresponding with two “practical men” in eastern Canada with the object of establishing a tile business.
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