October 20, 1921
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
October 20, 1921
First off the mark for this issue of the Leader is a report on Duncan Council which had had a busy meeting, Mayor Pitt presiding. Ald. Whidden reported that the new concrete pavement of Station Street had been “thrown open” to traffic and all was well but for two drainage outlets which had clogged with fallen leaves despite the installation of wire grates.
City Inspector J.H. Owen had approved the job with a glowing compliment: the pavement was the “equal to any of a similar nature on the whole continent”. He said it was a credit to both Council and the contractors and he made a recommendation as to improve the drainage problem.
Council agreed to pay 50 per cent of the cost of repaving the sidewalk on the east side of Craig Street.
City Clerk James Greig reported that as per instruction he’d invested $6175 of the city’s debentures into 1934 Victory Bonds. With 5.5 per cent interest the City would earn $375.50 interest annually, an increase of $110 per year over the present investment plan.
Because of the dark mornings of autumn Council agreed that the electric lighting plant would begin operation at 6 a.m. An examination of the City-owned meters had shown that no fewer than half of them were under-charging consumers, with 16 new installations on order.
An old by-law that permitted the sale of “products of sea and land” without a license was amended and $5 fee imposed.
The most surprising item of business was that of an appeal by Boy Scouts and Girl Guides to sell Remembrance Day poppies for two days. These were made by orphaned children in France and sold Empire-wide under the auspices of the Great War Veterans Association, the proceeds going to the “alleviation of distress, as well as to help the French Children’s League”.
This required special permission from Council which had recently outlawed ‘Tag Days.’ Duncan’s response?
Sorry, no poppy sale as it would mean Council would be breaking its own bylaw!
Council had been informed by the provincial health officer that his department was in favour of the plans for isolation and tuberculosis wards at the King’s Daughters’ Hospital. He reminded them that these would have to be at least 150 yards from any existing buildings.
North Cowichan Council had met at Chemainus, having driven there in Reeve Paitson’s car; only two spectators were present as Councillors read a letter of thanks from the Cowichan War Memorial Committee for Council’s help in clearing a roadway to the new war memorial on Mount Prevost.
The provincial government had reluctantly conceded to assist in funding improvements to 2 1/2 miles of the Cowichan Lake Road and 4 1/4 miles of Quamichan Lake Road. But it was the old case of given in one hand, taken away with another, so Council “decided to leave the matter alone”.
There was a problem collecting rent from Municipally-owned cottages and the Clerk was instructed to see that “the rent was paid up and paid regularly”. One cottage, at the Municipal gravel pit, was let for $7.50 per month.
The Somenos Farmers’ Union was to be charged $2 monthly towards insurance for holding their meetings in the Somenos schoolhouse. The Board of Trade’s request for free use of the courthouse for their meetings because of their “good work in general” was denied, Council declaring that all users should be treated alike.
The concrete base for the Chemainus Cenotaph had been poured and the memorial itself was to be ready within days; it was hoped that one of the German guns to be assigned to the Municipality as memorials would be placed there.
The matter of the ‘trophy’ guns still rankled. They’d arrived in Duncan but the City had refused to share them! Worse, they hadn’t even had the courtesy to reply to North Cowichan’s letters. Mayor Pitt had, however, agreed to meet with the Reeve to settle the matter.
For 18 years W. Langer of Chemainus had appealed to Council for a right-of-way to his property which, he said he’d been promised when he bought the property. Council agreed to investigate land titles.
Earlier, Council had motored to Swallowfield Farm to inspect the new road to Mainguy Island that had caused so much legal argument and expense; they found it to be in “remarkably good shape” for all of the autumn rains.
The local Liberals had finally chosen a candidate for the next election, T.B. Booth of Nanaimo. Note this description of the nomination meeting by a Leader reporter: “The...convention passed off quietly; of enthusiasm there was none” althought“a new spirit...was evident.”
A problem for all parties, said Nanaimo City Councillor Simpson and R.E. Collis, of Saanich, was that there were “many men of slender means who would be ideal members [of Parliament] but the cost of an election prevented them attempting a contest.”
(Interestingly, this wasn’t the case of one Victoria nominee, a wealthy newspaper publisher, who’d withdrawn his name from the contest for unstated reasons.)
At least T.B. Booth was a man of the people: a former miner who’d sold newspapers on the streets before rising to run the same paper.
School trustees had approved the purchase of a secondhand sewing machine for $12 for a dressmaking class and heard a recommendation that physics be taught at Duncan High School despite a reservation that, perhaps, too many subjects were being offered for so small a school.
School nurse Hardy reported that, over three months, she’d examined 479 children and paid 82 visits to pupils’ homes and had “improved 63 defects”. Two schools had had their “sanitary arrangements” upgraded, all schools now had adequate medical supplies and she was encouraging teachers to take more interest in their pupils’ health.
An alleged report that an E&N train had narrowly missed striking a loaded school bus on the tracks at Westholme proved to be false after queries were made to the railway and to provincial police.
Average attendance at local schools was 526 with 15 “holdouts” by parents demanding their own school at Westholme. Miss Monk was granted use of the York Road School for her private singing classes.
The King’s Daughters’ Hospital had treated 62 patients in September and an inspection by a provincial health officer had found everything satisfactory. Autumns harvests had resulted in generous donations of fruits, flowers and vegetables, the Better Babies contest at the Fall Fair had proved popular, the only problem having been finding a room warm enough for the babies in the drafty Agricultural Hall. The hospital wanted to install flower pots for donated geraniums in hallways and a decision as to placement of the proposed isolation and tuberculosis wards was ongoing.
The care and treatment of two indigent patients totalled $207.25 and this cost had to be covered by the general account. Accounts totalling $2034.03 would be paid “when funds permit,” and a letter of thanks would be sent for the donation of one dozen towels by the Junior Circle, King’s Daughters of Victoria.
The long-awaited report by Mr. Justice D.M. Eberts on provincial fisheries about complaints made against fisheries officers was finally received. He found all criticisms to be “groundless”.
Of the allegations of “irregularities and dereliction of duty and partiality, I say with the greatest emphasis that not the slightest evidence was adduced to convince me that either one [of the officers charged] was guilty of the charges made.”
“I wish here to make the same statement with reference to the fishery officials in the Cowichan district as I did of those in Barkley Sound for their honest and best endeavours to carry out the fishery regulations in a straight-forward manner and without partiality.”
It had only taken him three years to report.
A Victoria firm which, funded by British investors, had proposed offering mechanized services to Valley farmers received a warm reception at the Agricultural Hall. Such a plan, meant to relieve small farmers from the expense of buying their own equipment, would include: drainage, harvesting, ditching, fruit spraying, steam plowing, harrowing, cultivating, threshing, binding, baling, potato digging, lime spreading, lime spraying, hauling, pumping, etc.
A Victoria and a Nanaimo man were fined for hunting violations and, despite a successful fund raising dance, the Girl Guides appeared to be without a suitable meeting place. The Duncan post office, built in 1914, was undergoing repainting, re-varnishing and re-kalsomining throughout, and a re-gilding of the tip of the flagpole. Local contractors had lost out to a Victoria firm that specialized in post office work.
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