October 28, 1920
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
October 28, 1920
The big issue of the day, the Temperance (Prohibition) Plebiscite, remained up in the air as the final results wouldn’t be posted until a day after The Leader went to press. Locally, there had been a good turnout with the only reported problem being voters who showed up at the wrong polling stations. Leader readers had to wait for the results; so will Chronicles readers, until next week.
Another outstanding question was whether Cowichan farmers would field a candidate of their own in the December election. First, however, they’d have to find a candidate and hold a convention the following week.
B.C.’s 14th legislature had been dissolved the week before and incumbent Kenneth Duncan had announced that he was running again as an independent against Conservative candidate George Cheeke of Cobble Hill; but the Great War Veterans Ass. was standing down this time.
Final word on the Plebiscite had been that of MLA Duncan who was in favour of government distribution of all liquor via a system yet to be devised by an independent commission, and sales restricted to those of age (21). Liquor would be purchased with dated vouchers that limited an individual’s consumption, near-beer was to be abolished and prices set so as to discourage the need of bootleggers.
Duncan City Council was pleased to report that the City’s Electric Light Service had attracted 20 new customers in the previous month, for a total of 310 customers at the cost of $3330 for extending service along Gibbons Road. These expenses included replacing iron wire with copper, new meters and three transformers. Council charged 20 cents per month per meter.
John Weismiller had been contracted for $200 to repair and maintain the City Waterworks and the unresolved matter of the Great War trophies was going to be taken up with the premier’s office. Based on the enlistment figures, Ottawa had allotted B.C. 35 field guns, 22 trench mortars and 203 machine guns, with preference going to larger communities. For all of Canada 200 large cannon and 500 field guns were to be distributed even though 900 communities had applied for them.
October accounts of $1692.36 were passed and a complaint from a citizen living near the city garbage dump was noted without comment.
At the recent UBCM convention Duncan’s motion to unite all police forces under provincial control failed to gain support, unlike a proposal to raise teachers’ wages by increasing taxes.
Revelstoke’s idea for the province to administer fire insurance was also a non-starter and an evergreen request for municipal councils to serve two-year terms instead of a year was revisited. It was also resolved to pursue superannuation for police and firefighters and that drivers of fire apparatus be held exempt from personal liability in the event of an accident while answering an emergency call. All firefighting equipment would be exempt of license fees and speed limits revised (upward) for emergency vehicles.
In police court, bar owners A. Griffin and T. Marsden were fined $55 for being in possession of liquors that were over 2 1/2 per cent alcohol, a chemical analysis having showed the confiscated liquor to contain 6.8 per cent proof spirits. The hoteliers insisted that the offending bottles came straight from a Vancouver wholesaler and other bottles of the same batch tested out at the legal 2 1.2 per cent. When they also claimed that their liquor license had expired, the Crown prosecutor smugly replied that, in that case, as per the Prohibition Act, they were guilty of having an excessive amount of alcohol in their possession in other than a dwelling house. (Catch-22!)
James Marsh was fined $110 and costs for speeding at night with undue care and attention that had resulted in his striking a horse and wagon and injuring its two occupants; the poor horse had to be put down.
For mine host Griffin it was a double-whammy when he lost to an appeal by the Crown that he’d dispensed liquor to David Quillearleton in August. The result: another $50 fine and costs.
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