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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY JANUARY 19, 1983, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Voice of the County Town Michael lan Burgess, Publisher - Managing Edito The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. rP PO. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. Reglstratlon No. 5351 blished every Wednesday by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. LESLIE BUTLER Community Editor ELIZABETH NOZDRYN Advertising Manager Second Class Mail Regist ration No. 5351 Council used prudent judgement in 1983 budget Credit, like censure, should be given where it is due. And we believe the staff and elected repre- sentatives of the Town of Whitby deserve recogni- tion for bringing the 1983 budget in early, and below the five per cent guideline suggested by the Ontario government. The budget, which was approved Monday night by council, is the culmination of efforts to keep tax increases to a minimum while maintaining the level of service Whitby taxpayers have come to expect. It would appear council has succeeded on both counts. With increases limited to 3.4 per cent for urban residents and 2.8 per cent for rural dwellers, the town has embraced the philosophy of fiscal re- straint being stressed at all levels of government. This undoubtedly comes as welcome news to ratepayers who are expected to live with pay in- creases of as low as five percent this year. The traditional tax-cut debate usually centres on there being a trade-off between th.e level of ser- vcie and amount paid by taxpayers. The logic is that as tax levies are decreased, so the level of service will suffer. If the town has in fact managed to maintain the level of service while imposing these marginal tax increases, they have indeed achieved something rare. Town administrators explain that they were able to keep increases down and services up by making use of federal and provincial grants, and by increased revenues from building and plumb- ing permits expected in 1983. By iimiting capital projects (i.e. expenditures for new building projects), the town has created a "hold-the-line" budget in a period of economic slump. To even hold the line in such a period shows LETTERS TO THE EDITOR council has used prudent judgment and a good dose of economic realism. As Finance Chairman Tom Edwards aptly pointed out last Monday, gone are the days when staff would bring in inflated budget estimates expecting that after budget cuts they would still be left with enough to run their departments. Staff have brought in what appear to. be accur- ate and lean est imates of their financial needs for 1983. The result is that the budget process has been wrapped up earlier than ever before. This will elh- minate the need for the town to borrow money to keep the wheels rolling until tax revenue is received. Again, we believe town staff and councillors have done a crack job in managing their finances for the coming year. Let's hope we truly can "hold the line" until the general economic situation im- proves. Dear Sir: On behalf of the patients, staff and volunteers at Whit- by Psychiatric Hos- pital, I would like to thank all those in the community who quest for Christmas gifts. The continued support and inter- est of the communi- ty is a great contri- bution to rehabilita- tion in the hospital. responded to our re- A special-thank AIlspecialt thank you to you and your newspaper for print- ing the article re- garding Christmas gifts for Whitby Psychiatric Hospi- tal. Ali the best in the New Year. Sincerely, Cindy Newman, Co-ordinator of Volunteer Services, Whitby Psychiatric Hospital- Dear Sir: As a long-time resident of Whitby, my family and my- self would like to express our sincere thanks to the Whit- by Fire Department, especially Captain G. Burns and his fellow firemen from the Garrard Station. We had a chim- ney fi rea few weeks ago. We phoned in the alarm and we re- celved prompt at- tention. The fire was put out quickly and without any mess. Our Fire Depart- ment is number one in my books, and l'm sure i'm not the only one who thinks that way. So here's a spe- cial thanks to Whit- by's finest - Thank- you. Mary and Harry Town, Whitby. Some months ago, i commented on press reports of a speech by Dr. Joseph Macinnis, the President of Undersea Research Limited, a Toronto-based consulting firm. I was impressed by what was reported of the speech, because it indicated that Dr. Macinnis, in addi- tion to being a medical doctor, a diver and an entrepreneur, was something of a poet. Thanks to Joe MacInnis himself, i now have more evidence. He was here at Global recent- ly, apparently to do an interview with THAT'S LIFE. I'm chagrined that I missed him. But he left something for me. A copy of his new book, THE BREADALBANE ADVEN- TURE, suitable inscribed with a trail of bubbles going up the page beside his signature. The Breadalbane, you may recall, was a British sailing ship which sank 127 years ago in the frigid, ice-choked waters off Beechey Island in the Northwest Passage. The book is Joe Maclnnis's story of the search for the Breadalbane and the incredible moments when they found her, and photographed her, with a remote controlled camera. I dipped into the book early one afternoon and nearly missed the Six O'Clock newscast because of it. It's a fascinating book, and Joe Macînnis emerges in my view, as one of those men for all seasons who make life worth living. When I was a kid I revelled in the books of Richard Halliburton, a man who sailed and walked and climbed and dove his way around the world, probing the past and testing his nerve in the present. He sailed into the South China sea in a junk, some years ago, as I recal it, and was never seen again. Thor Heyerdahl, who came a bit later, had some of the same qualities. But he was and is more serious than Hallibur- ton, and all his voyages, in balsa rafts, reed boats, whatever - have expanded the horizons for ar- chaeologists by establishing the unsuspected seawor- thiness of many primitive vessels. But Joe Macinnis, in my view, is better value than either of them. Part of it is his primary area of interest, under the seas, which with space, as Walter Cronkite puts it in the introduction, is one of man's last two frontiers. Part of it, perhaps, is that Joe MacInnis is a Canadian, and a Canadian who has had the courage to make a living out of what interests him. And part of it is simply that he writes much better than Halliburton, Heyerdahl and broken down anchormen. Joe MacInnis takes you with him, not just into the unforgiv- ing depths of an arctic sea, but into the past, into the rank atmosphere of the messdeck on a wooden ship in the 1850's. But don't take my word for it: read his. That's THE BREADALBANE ADVENTURE by Joe Macinnis, Op- timum Publishing. That's not news but that too is reality: a 'rIWA zzy ez, Ee /W.