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THE ERA DECEMBER 28 VOL NO Must Decide Now York County municipal governments are being pushed slowly towards regional government by the province like it or not and in the time will have come to face the fact and prepare for it Municipal legislators must decide where their interests lie and how they are going to work together to protect those interests The alternative will be to wake up some day and find very little function left for them to protect Municipalities have already been edged almost entirely out of the air and water pollution control fields childrens aid public health control of water resources and now education Last Nov 14 Premier John indicated that education would become the responsibility of elected county district school boards on Jan 1 This policy applied to York County will consolidate into one elected board 21 existing units 15 of which are elected and six- appointed County Council was told last week the shift will create a situation wherein the 14 elected councils and the appointed planning boards which control planning and development in the county will split tax- revenues with a single educational unit The problem this will create is obvious longrange school planning hinges on controlled development arid it will be well nigh impossible to integrate 14 separate development policies including residential subdivi sions with one school policy Yet if its not done municipalities which do plan carefully and responsibly will end up paying the school bills for those that dont County Council planning committees solution ask the province to take planning and land use control away from the municipalities and give it to the county government and we agree this is the next logical step But we also think that before any more power is eroded away from the countys municipalities they should join now to decide where they will switch and where they will fight Skate Not Fight Hockey team sponsors are whining a lot lately about the small fan turnout Sponsors of Junior teams are among the loudest whiners York Steel in the Junior B league plays at George Bell Arena in Metro and averages only spectators per game and they are in second place in the standings Aurora Tigers lower in the standings arent doing much better at the gate The reason for the poor turnout is quite apparent Junior teams arent playing hockey theyre brawling on the ice Last game at Aurora was a perfect example of hooliganism on skates A fight broke out on the ice and just about every player on both benches joined in the melee Shortly after a fan jumped on the ice and he too joined the fracas People pay good money to see hockey played when they go to a hockey game If they want to see a fight they will stay home and watch television Its up to the sponsors to insist that their coaches insist that their players play hockey and not fight For if hockey players stick to playing hockey then maybe hockey fans real hockey fans will come out to the arenas again Readers Miwl Dear Editor Late last week the Newmarket area had some snow and before halfinch had fallen the snowmo biles were speeding across my pro perty I went outside to stop them from ripping up my grass but the men driving them just laughed and said they werent hurting it I dont like to call the because they seem to be having such fun And they do occasionally give children rides I noticed that one of the snow mobiles has a license and the other doesnt Shouldnt all snowmobiles be licensed THE ERA Serving York County Since 1852 Incorporating THE POST THE HERALD DAVID ft HASKELL Editor and Publisher WILLIAM J Advertising and Business Manager GEORGE News Editor Published every Wednesday at Charles St Newmarket Ontario by the Em Express Company Limited Subscriptions for two years for one year Single copies each Mem ber Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulation Authorized as Sec ond Class Mail by the Post Office Ottawa for the payment of postage in cash Phono Newmarket 30 Charles St Phone Aurora St S Phone Keswick If these men dont stop ripping up my lawn and knocking down my small shrubs then 1 WILL call the even though they are giving children rides Lucy Clarke Editors note All snowmobiles must be licensed and insured if they travel on roads and private property is private property Dear Editor Thank you very much for bring ing us John In The Garden every week My wife and I have been listen ing to Mr on the radio for years and reading his column in the Toronto papers It is nice to read Mr column in The Era every week as lie always has some good information to give We have been gardening for more than 20 years and we always learn something from listening to him or reading his column We also enjoy reading Bill column every week Thank you once again for bringing us such an interesting newspaper 1 Newmarket Dear Editor Congratulations to the Newmar ket Childrens Drama Club and the Recreation Commission for the Christmas Pageant at the Town Hall My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed minute of it even though none of our children were in it Some of our little neighbors were in the Pageant and they were just wonderful In fact the whole evening wonderful and those adults who such long hours making it a success should also be congratulated Mrs George Foster Win and please God make this New Year a happy one for everybody TNS Photo Neighbors can be a nuisance But not if you cultivate them properly I have a good neighbor and by handling him with kid gloves dur ing the summer I receive from him the only Christmas present that really impresses me Its a crafty piece of work and I hope he doesnt read this What I do is this I let him beat me at golf all summer I gasp with admiration when he hits a tre mendous slice off the tee I shake my head in positive disbelief at his approach shots I shout a resound ing Well done old boy when he sinks a 14inch putt By the end of summer have him right in the palm of my hand He hasnt realized for a moment that any time I wanted to I could take him out on the course and give him a terrible drubbing What I have done is to inculcate in him the idea that he can do things much better than I And just before Christmas I spring the trap I buy my Christmas tree lug it home and get the usual com ment from my wife that its the scraggliest tree in town and cant I even be trusted to buy a decent- looking Christmas tree No matter It doesnt bother me I merely invite her to take it back and gel a better one Then I begin the experience that has driven me closer to a stroke than anything else in my life putting the rotten conglomeration of gum and prickly needles in an upright position There arc very few things that I will admit according to my wife 1 am arrogant smartalecky and opinionated In her opinionated opinion I will fight until the last dog is hung she says and by the way who ever heard of anyone hanging a dog over a matter of principle such as who threw the chowder in Mrs Murphys overalls But theres one thing I will admit humbly I cant get Christ mas trees to stand up straight They dont just lean a wee bit You can remedy that with shims under and foot of the stand and ropes and bailing wire But my trees dont lean They genuflect They kneel in prayer to the fireplace This used to drive me into wild rages which were very hard on me Cursing sweating roaring with rage at my family knock ing all the skin off every knuckle on both hands sawing and chop ping like an insane woodsman And thing still bowing with the grace of a debutante making her first curtsy And this is where my sum mers humiliation comes in Oh I still go through the motions I saw various lengths of trunk off the bottom I hack away a few- branches I swear and yell a bit But this is only a cover for the familys sake When Ive had enough of play acting I call my neighbor John and in dulcet tones ask How is the best little old Christmastree putterupper in the whole coun try Hes over to our house in seconds I know what goes through his mind He thinks Poor sod He cant even play golf The least I can do is give him a hand with his tree which is childs play Ami it is to him I havent mentioned that hes a specialist in mathematics and physics He pops over looks at the tree gently points out that the butt is inserted in the stand at a 45 degree angle corrects it and up goes the ruddy thing In three minutes Standing there Solid steady not a quiver It hasnt fallen down once since we became neighbors Every time it happens its like a fresh miracle to me look at the blasted thing and there it sits graceful dignified and not truss ed up with ropes like a runaway calf as my trees used to be before John Its pretty hard to take that licking in golf all summer But what you lose on the bananas and John has a beautiful banana ball thats one that goes off the tec in the general shape of a banana you make up on the Christmas trees as Hugh that grand old Welsh bard of the century used to put it Putt it No put it Golf wasnt even invented in the century Have it good New Year golfers and neighbors all I 4 THIS WEEK By Ray A Question To Ponder The breath of life used to be the measure of human conscious ness If the heart was beating man was alive Now that the era of human transplants is upon us our con cepts of life and death face as radical an overhaul as in the days when it was thought evil spirits gripped the body at times of ill health The historic Cape Town heart transplant operation on 55yearold Louis is of course the cause of the new medical atti tudes toward life and death But for all the awesome im plications of human transplant operations the ethics of the new procedures are not likely to be as complicated or as difficult as the medical procedures themsel ves First there is absolutely no doubt that it is the recipient not the donor who lives In the Cape Town case that was Wash not the fatally injured heart he received The only circumstance under which this could change would be if the brain itself was transplant ed and that is still a faroff science fiction nightmare But if a living human brain could be transplanted from one body to an other there seems little doubt it would be the donor who would live The personality mentality and character of the person who had first possessed the brain would be transferred to the new body along with the organ itself And it is this recognition which is forcing doctors and the public to restate their definitions of death Medical science has generally held that death occurred when the heart stopped beating But the ability to revive dead hearts has made this concept obsolete Instead say doctors the function ing of the brain which can be measured by checking its electrical activity is a more precise means of measuring the breath of life This means in reality that per sons whose hearts have stopped beating may not be dead but those whose brains have ceased function ing are no longer alive Because popular folklore has always associated the heart with the most important of human characteristics it may be difficult for many to accept this hew view After all havent we all referred to persons as warmhearted or cruelhearted Havent we pro mised to love with our all heart Havent our hearts leapt at the prospect of good news or have we not had a lump in our heart at the receipt of bad news In reality these were emotions that belonged to the brain not the heart and it was the brains reac tion to or danger which would make the heart beat faster There need be no ethical con flict over the use of human trans plants to prolong life Doctors individually and in groups can attest to a persons inability to sustain life And when the death occurs it will become com monplace to recover any healthy organs so that others may go on living The greatest difficulties will arise in securing trans- plants in id dividing who will get them As the average life spans lengthens most of the bodys organs will be in poor condition at time of death unsuitable for transplant The majority of transplants will come from healthy adults killed in accidents Ami then of course only those organs which were un damaged by the accident could be But who would receive them They would not likely go to the aged and feeble whose bodily det erioration had become general Nor because of size could they go to infants Teenagers and voting adults would be the most likely recipients But ironically because they represent the healthiest ele ment of the population this age group would have the least need of transplanted Now that the heart has been added to kidneys and liver as organs which have been transfer red from one human to another work may be expected to go ahead on the creation of mechanical re placements to do the work of nat ural organs And although our concepts of death have been challenged by these advances transplants will not the re3t of the body from wearing out Anyway who wants to live forever I Co ton Crier By Elizabeth Centennial Year is drawing to a close and now we are preparing for another New Year with hopes and plans and good intentions We have laid the groundwork with the help of planners for the re vival and renewal of the town we call our home The project is huge and will be shared by governments on every level three quarters of a million dollars will fall upon the shoulders of our residents and ultimately the profits will be reaped by all in one form or an other For a New Years resolution we should hope to hear from many organizations and concerns how they expect to match with extra effort the share that will deprive the little man of some frills of his life when he is going to meet the tax bill In building a new and better town we certainly can right now in cleaning and renovat ing the foundations We could imagine some Service Club coming to aid the never tir ing efforts of our Horticultural Society to keep the little corners and rondeaus that they cultivate in town supplied with benches where there are none supplied with paint to brighten the few there are some Service Club to freshen the signs on our bound aries supply a light and paint a little Welcome on top of our name The Womens Institute the Old Folks could certain ly be marked for everyone to find some advertising could be had by industry in the donation of furni ture The merchants on Main Street spread out the red carpet how would some waste baskets on them or on the parking meters help to promote the welcome and the so desirable campaign Keep our Main Street clean How much goodwill and funds are needed to clean at least the river if not the lake that could and should be landmark instead of a stream of garbage flowing past the back doors of our best known stores What Is the extra share of our industries of our merchants who will benefit from a renewal what arrangement can be made as soon us possible with Grey Conch to make their step where traffic would not be entirely obstructed mid crossing the intersection a venture would hey be willing to clean up a spot around the corner and provide their passengers with benches for the wail How would the railway company read to the proposal of stepping out of the last century and fitting their station and facilities into a clean modern scheme Can the School Board be con vinccd to spend some money for grass or gravel on he yards if even the new additions may go unenrpeted or not so soundproof for a year or two If great things coming in the future can we rise to start with little things in the next year now ahead it I