November 4, 1920
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
November 4, 1920
First up in this issue of The Leader was the Board of Trade whose first order of business at its recent meeting was word from MP J.C. McIntosh that no immediate funds would be forthcoming from Ottawa for repairs to the Cowichan Bay wharf or the Lake Cowichan landing, despite the latter’s having been recommended by the government’s own engineer.
Repairs to the Mill Bay wharf were underway despite the popular belief that nobody used it. Better, sniffed the Board, that the $1500 had been put to the Cowichan Bay wharf which was used regularly for business purposes.
And negotiations continued at various levels to finance a telephone on the Malahat Summit and a branch line of the CNR into Duncan.
Two new games wardens had been hired—but they lacked any means of transportation, and the Victoria Board of Trade hadn’t replied to a request for more information on the construction of a new lumber loading facility at Victoria’s Ogden Point wharf. Nor had the BOT yet received a report on commercial fishing as promised from Ottawa. The importance of the commercial land sports fisheries was denoted by a request to the federal government to make two RCMP officers available to protect fisheries officers if it became necessary while they were performing their duties.
The recent visit of the Imperial Press Conference had paid off with glowing press coverage in England and the BOT had 199 members, half of them in Duncan, the rest scattered about the Valley.
Renowned Westholme farmer L.F. Solley had written a pamphlet on raising poultry, the E&N was to be informed of improvements needed at its Chemainus station, and member and MLA Kenneth Duncan reported that, until Chemainus had sufficient students of age to justify a high school of its own, the province would underwrite their daily transportation cost by 50 per cent.
To S.R. Kirkland, who’d been urging a Somenos Lake drainage system, it was pointed out that this really was an issue for affected landowners to solve.
The Board wanted the E&N to complete a railway crossing and deal with mice in its Cobble Hill freight shed. And the road to Skutz Falls needed fixing.
North Cowichan Council had little business to deal with; at its last meeting it was agreed that Reeve Herd accept an invitation to join with other municipal leaders in crafting a common approach to the province for more funding. Clr. Hilton wasn’t too sympathetic to the cause, saying he thought municipalities had brought the problems of insufficient provincial financing on themselves.
An appeal to contribute to the National Red Cross fund for relief for Great War veterans was placed on hold to await further developments and a new road in the Glenora area was to be named Vimy. Total expenses to be paid amounted to $2237.31.
The winter schedule of the E&N took effect as of this date. With numerous stops along the way, a train trip from Duncan to Victoria took two hours.
As the provincial election neared it looked more and more likely that it would be a contest between incumbent MLA Kenneth Duncan, running as an Independent, and the Conservative’s George Cheeke. The local Union of B.C. Farmers executive had bowed out, saying there was insufficient time to organize a campaign and to field a candidate. Local Liberals, while expressing their support for premier John Turner, chose to stand aside.
At the annual general meeting of the Cowichan Branch, Canadian Red Cross Society, held at Cowichan Station, Margaret Moss, OBE, gave a “most interesting and inspiring” report of the Society’s activities through the year and reported a balance on hand of $118.83. In the election of officers that immediately followed she was unanimously re-elected president and given a hearty vote of thanks for her unfailing energy in pursuing the Society’s goals. The membership then approved a $50 donation for famine relief in Europe which was still recovering from the Great War.
That’s it for the news of the day; not so much as a word in follow-up to the Temperance Plebiscite which, I’m sure you’ve guessed, went down to defeat. Prohibition was out, provincially controlled liquor distribution was in, although it would take some time to implement.
Over two columns of the front page for November 4, 1920 were devoted to an account of a talk given at Somenos by Reeve Herd wit the impromptu help of fellow ‘pioneers’ of the old days in the Cowichan Valley. “Those who heard Reeve Herd,” glowed The Leader, “are much indebted to him for throwing apart a portion of the veil which has hidden most of the local past” and predicted that when he gave a second instalment at the next meeting of the Farmers Union there’d be standing room only.
Alas, for readers of The Chronicles, the raconteur reeve’s reminiscences will have to await another day.
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