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VICTORIA GROSS J. . T BUT IS NOW_Nl|88|N I saw by the paper t.-hat you had a` son wounded at the same timeas mine was, the 8th Oct. I had, a letter from my son (Limit. Simmie) telling me about the fight, and'I wil1`give you part lot what` he has to say "about Corp. Brown, and I expect that- is your son. After telling about. driving the Germans back` twice, he says: We had collected most of the grenades and `ammunition from the support trenches and we were getting short of material to fight with, and I could _not [spare a "man `to send `back to Headquarters for supplies.` The. Signallers had failed to get any ;;toi'pInunication and the only way 2-we had of sending a message was a "runner. Graham was one` of| -1 L11. the best runners and he got, hit_ ""`i"r 1,-_t,_he arm, but~I sent him back. In""t'he meantime, the Germans were being reinforced by the Ma- rines. These are supposed to he the best ghters that Fritz- has, and they did "their best to bomb us out but could not do it. I had lost allmy men but eight, and worst of all my twosergeants were badly wounded, _but they both got `back to the dressing sta- 3 .tion, and both got the'D.C.-M.', What men we had left were in ; charge of one of the finest fel-' j lows I ever met, CorporalBrown. _When the Germans made their attack in the afternoon, after be- .ing- reinforced, he fought until ` `he was played out,._and then got ` a bullet through the stomach-. `I lwent to him -and put a shell-' dressing on his wound, but it was" ' impossible to get him out of that in such a condition, `so we had to leave him to the mercyhofthe, Huns. I will never forget the grateful look he gave us for stay_ _ in.g todress his wounds. . He was recommended * for the V.C. and God knows he earned it." V ' Won Military Gross Lieut. Simmie, of the 3rd Bn., referred to above, has been awarded the Military Cross. The official despatch says that Lieut. Simm-ie organized a battalion grenade supply. Later although twice wounded he personally held a very important `block for eight hours." The brief "message in. dicates great courage and hero-` ism on the_part of Lieut. Simmie. Since that time his name has" ap- peared in the casualty list. Another Br-other Also - Another brother of J. A. Brown has been very seriously wound- ed. This' is Charles W. `Brown, who _was, in his brother's oice here, when he enlisted. After go- -.\ ing .to'aN_iagara he was drafted into the 58th ,Bn..and_ went to corp. D. Barclay Brown _ I. A. Muclaren. Editor W. C. Walls. Buainqu Manager /13, \/ ...\,u V-.. .._, M1-. Simmie "wrote" as counIc|L To FIGHT Be'lAleve It GI-oyssly Uhfair tht Town Should Pay Hospital Fees `For Inmate of G.` A.-Shelter. After. considering the nding of Judge Denton, who "placed up- on Barrie the .liability for the maintenance of` Hazel Thomas in the Weston Consumptive Hos- pital, the Town Council asked W. A. Boys,` K.C., for his` opinion as to the advisability of appealing the case.` `His opinion, presented at the meeting on Mondaynight, favored carrying the case to a higher court, and the Council un- animously approving his sug-. gestion, authorized him to pro- ceed with_the. appeal. Mr. Boys advised as follows :`--` ` l I am_. of the opinion that the judgment is wrong and if allow- ed to stand would afford a bad precedent. If, -hybany chance, an appeal is taken and dismissed, I think that immediate steps _sho_uld then 'be,taken to induce the Legislature to amend the Act for if a legal and fair construe- tion of the Statutes as they now exist, is to make the Town of Bar- rie responsible for indigents who reach this town through the pro- cess of. law, it is manifestly" un- `fair. Barclay Brown,-fol-merlvy of Bar- rie, left on the Field Bad|'y wounded-l-Ierolsm `Recognized I Inimy opinion it would be just as reasonable to hold-the Town responsible for a criminal com- mittedto the Barrie `Gaol from an outlying municipality, which criminal. in turn was sent from Barrie Gaol to the Free Hospital. Surely a persons cominitted to Baririe Gaol or Central Prison does not thereby become a resi- dent of either Barrie or Guelph, although living there. during in-" carceration, and if this be so, how can an infant committed by a magistrate to an institution such as the" _Children s Aid Shelter, thereby become a resident of Bar- rie? The child. gets no wages . and is not a free agent and is surely not a residentin the ordin- ary meaning of theword. '1? do 11'ot'ihesitate to advise an immediate appeal and'n1ay say that the decision on appeal will -be nal whether favorable or otherwise and if notice is given at once it would come on for hearing` at the January sittings of the Divisional Court and thus leave time to briiig the matter before the Legislature if neces- sary i 1ru'__ 'I';-.I..._--..-..l.' ' His Honor Jddge Denton dis- missed the action against the Township of Vespra, (in which m\unicipalityV the child lived be.- fore being coinmitted to the Shel- ter), upon the facts. With re- ference to the County, he said that the liability of the County depends upon the meaning to be given to the word municipality as found in Sec. 23 ofthe Hospi- tal and Charitable-Institutions _ Act. It seemed to him quite clear that the. municipalityvreferred to -is the local municipality as dis- tinguished from `the County. He therefore dismissed the action a- gainstthe County. ` v With reference. to Barrie s lia_ bility, the_ judgment went on to say: LL117, # L1__'- :_...I:'.........' ca` A n n n 1\ n uvv`, - Was this indigenntperson a resident of the Town of Barrie at the"`time of her admission to the hospital`? -Mr. Boys pressed me hard for a nding that she was not. This gir1 s history and` BARRIE, CANADA. DECEMBER 7,1916 The Judgment 111: 1'HoIvIAs cuss` couI\IcIL GRITIGIZED ` THE HYDRO METHODS Muse Have a Lotllore Informa- tion Before they will ~EnteI`ta`in a New Agreement. . --__.--_.. Jas. A. Brown, P-lant Chief for the Bell Telephone C.o..here, re... cently received particulars of t.he engagement on October 8th, in which his brother, Cor- poral.. D. Barclay, Brown, dis- tinguished himself so that he was recommended for the Vic- toria Cross, the highest decora- tion a British soldier can win -for bravery. In the battle he was badly wounded and nothing fur- ther has been heardlof him. Bar- clay Brown was but twenty-one years of age. He was employed by the Bell Telephone Co. in Bar- rie, but left here five years ago to take up farming in Saskatche- wan- Among those who earliest answered their country's call, he enlisted at Regina and had been in the trenches fteen months when he was so badly wounded. ' -x -\ -I-\ , A1gr`__ _At the Vmeeting of the Town Council -on Monday night, a com- munication was read from the` Hydro Electric Commission re- questing that the Council submit a bylaw to ' the electors asking the approval of a new agreement with _the Town. The agreement submitted was in blank form and so it was impossible to form an intelligent opinion as to what it really means. Asked as to what advantages would accrue to the Town from the change, the Mayor said he really didn t know, nor had he been able_ to ascertain from Chairman Brown. The H. E. Commission had asked the 10- cal commission to send a dele -. gate to `a conference and Mr. Brown had attended, butwno in- vitation whatever had come to. the Council. There had been no meeting of the Barrie Comn. to deal with it. C The Reeve-If the Comn. has not taken any action, why should they ask the Council to tackle it? It`s their place -to consider the question and make a recommen- dation to the Council._ From our . past experience with the H. E. Com.n., I would. not enter_into any new agreement unless it was un- derstood that it was binding on them as well as us, and that they would have no power to seek leg- islation aifecting such agree- ment without rst getting our consent. The present agreement has been over-ridden in scores 01 ways. This bylaw if passed would simply be giving them power to do absolutely as they pleased without regard to our rights. ' . Deputy Robertson - This old agreement has ten years to run and yet they ask us to rescind it, without even deigning togive us any information. - The Reeve-They undertook to supply us with power at a cer- tain rate, which included our pro- portion of maintenance, sinking fund, etc., and we were to have absolute control of our own plant. They promised to supply annual- ly denite information as to the costs`in the three different de- partments of lighting, but have not done it. They have taken $3500 a year out of the consum_ ers for a sinking fund, while 75 per cent. of our debentures are for the steam plant which will never be renewed; but what is worse they have been using this sinking fund for other purposes, which is absolutely illegal; They have increased the cost of in- stallation and have appointed `outside inspectors. In fact we the facts as to her residence are very unusual. But I think it must he held that during the time she lived with Mr. Smith and Mr. Gordon in their homes that she became a resident of the town. as that word resident `is ordinarily understood, evenyaithough she was during the same period a ward of the Society and received no wages. And the circumstance that during the six months` im.. mediately preceding her entrance into the hospital she was in the Shelter in Barrie did not have the effect of making any change in her place of residence. There will be judgment against the Town of Barrie for such amounts as the plaintiffs may he found en- titled to. L Rev. G-. R. Turk, who has lledl the pulpit of Collier St. Metho_ rdist. Church with much accept- ance for the` past four years, has accepted, subject t_o the approval` `of the stationing committee, an! `invitation from the Bellfair Ave] Church, Toronto. | As his successor in Barrie, thel Collier St. Church has invited Rev. B. J. Fallis of .Eglingt0n.l Mr. Fallis has had pastorates in Dundalk, \Vest0n, 4Newma1'ket, College St. (Toronto) and North` Parkdale, in each case lling on! his full term. He is highly spo- ken of wherever he has been sta; tioned. have lost all control of our own; plant. 9:11., 1:, , , . nu. ,,_- -- ,__;_,'1'r__ The Mayor_`-There is new'Hy-! dr-0 iegislation coming all the time and we do not -know where we are at. A The Reeye--Things have come to such a pass that the rst thing we` know they will be able to force anything they like onus. VVLILJILL-I\JLlt VV riting` to D. B. Br wn of 01'. angeville, Corp. Brown's father, Lieut. Simmie refers to the en-. gagement and his son's hero.ic' conduct as follows: ' `LALL I ( E Mayor Craig---It s mighty dis- couraging to sit at that Board and see how little power the local` Comn. has. Unfortunately there 4 are employees of the Dept. vyhogt are more interested in looking` after the interests of the Hydroi` than those of the Town. Theregi are many things they could do to II accommodate the citizens with-" out infringing the `regulations, 1 but they won t do it. ` Action. was deferred on the matter, and the Hydro Comn. will be asked to send a man here to enlighten the Council as to what they really want. Light.ing P. 0. Square From the W. & L. Commission a suggestion `was received that` the, lights on the P. 0. Square be reduced from 500 to 300 `candle power each. If this is agreed. to! the Commission will consent to` furnish light as requested and to keep up all supplies -for $200 yearly. a'_1__,-' __ _ matter was taken up in. Committee of the Whole and threshed out at some length. Ald. Thompson thought it ab- surd for the \V..& L. Comn. to ma.ke_this `request, when they al- low street lights to burn all day and semingly have power to throwaway. Reeve Bennett - When this` matter was discussed, nothing vas said about. the lamps. They wanted to charge us by metre and guxjedout the cost at $203. We offered them a at. rate of $200 which they accepted. No- thing was -said about the lamps. Tlvm Mayor--If the c11rreut costs them $203, are -they not losing money if they. sell it for $200 and supply lamps ?` i Reeve Bennett--They furnish t.he lamps for the streets. `At $200 `(they are just charging use the regular commercial rate. We have noidea what the cost is, they keep that in the dark. When the proposition was laid before us by the Comn., the Chairman had his _stat_ement all written out so there was no guesswork on his part;` When I reported the price to Mr. Hastings, acting. for the Govt., he said it was "far too high but agreed to_ it. Having entered Rev. Geo. II. Turk I Kalfjiwc WC. CUCI "Pot canal} [in ulvunaol IIJO they made. I had lost both my ` trench so that the Huns would ` V./LIIILILLIJII tint.) I-\}I|\.Ivv~4 Have just returned to my batt- alion from hospital and the batt- alion has had your son marked missing. I am very sorry to have to tell you that he was badly wou-nded, but there is. achance that he would live. It nearly 1 broke my heart to have to leave I him to the care of the Germans, 1 but there was nothing else could ` be done. You will be glad to-l know that he has been recom_ < mended for the Victoria Cross. 4 Will try and tell you a little about 1 our ght with the Huns. _We had < no trouble taking the German 1 trenches, but they got reinforced l by Marines, and the Grenadiers 1 had an experience that they will ` always `remember, and they 1 should be proud ofthe stand that] I l C Sergeants and Brownie (as we called your son) found` hin1sel,{;I in charge of the Grenadiers. did the part nobly and the men 1 would do anything for him. 1`he;..; Huns tried four times to driv`'I this bombing post from the right ' ankof the battalion, but there ` was a true British soldier`in charge and he and his comrades ` left the trench full of dead Ger- 3 mans. Finally, we had no gI en- 7 ades left and retired to put a block in the communication 1 have to` come up on the top of ` the ground and then our machine guns could hold them. It was getting back to this trench that Brownie got a bullet through the abdomen on the left side. We. immediately dressed his wound and left him as comfortable as? possible. We could do nothingl except to let him lie quiet until he could be taken out` carefully on atstretcher. We had a ter.. rible lot of casualties, and we had no grenades and very `little ammunition left, and the whole battalion was forced back to the starting point. These trenches have been retaken, but if your.` son lives he will be some place in Germany. If you get any word from him will be grateful to you if you let me know. He was more like a brother to me an a sol- dier friend and I woul-lgladlyr have taken his place. ` There were forty-eight picked men from the battalion in our platoon, and just ve came through without wounds. You will think that we hada terrible lot of casualties, but if you could see the hundreds of dead Germans you would `say that we made Germany, pay dearly for our lives. A . uuun - a )\ rI:nMs-sInIo caucus cu. n-_ _.._-__' n- -.:___.-_`I Q. -- `St. Andrew's congregation gave a Very cordial Reception to their New Minister. - INDUCTION SERVICE - ` ~ LARGELY ATTENDED A very hearty welcome was extended on Friday night by the people of St. Andrew's Church to their new minister, Rev. Geo. A. Brown, M.A., B.D. At the induc- tion service the church was lled by an interested congregation, and the able addresses delivered by three visiting clergymen `were much appreciated'., Altogether the service was both enjoyable and protable and the spirit that pervaded the gathering augured well for the new period in its his- 5 tory which the church has just entered upon. 7111. A v - - ~..- \_`.,v... The inducon semnon `was preached by Rev. A. V. Brown, B.D., who took for his text the words,`TFhe nntude of theni that believed were of one heart {and-one soul. The church thus described was better than the church at any time since. It was mnah in inunber but great in zeal; poor in purse but rich in faith; small in pride but great in sancty. TFhe Head ofthe church is divine, but the members being human are subject to deteriora- |Uon. The essenal docuune is _the vital relation of Christ to the beheven every.nnnnber a throb- bing nerve, no dead Hssue. .As a resuh,ofthe reahzaon ofthis vnalinnon an theinenmrs had the nnnd of-Ghrish and enjoyed a brotherly fellowship. not mar- red by" any social kntterness. They were an workers` Putung loyahy to tnust before every- thing else,they were glad to do anyunng for Hinr Today the ' church has fanen far helouzthose standards. If sohhers gave no better obedience to their corn; manders than we today give to Christ, the ag of Britain would soon sink to the dust in shame ,'and ruin. It was no wonder that . ithe apostolic church set the world ;_on re. Nothing could destroy .}or stop in the res of persecu- qtion but serving`to inake inore ,`,pr_ominent its sweetness, strength land purity. The prayer of every . christian should be` that his church nght approach as near _ as possible the ideal set by the i apostolic church. `I\ ' '1 IV ,,,I,_`II 'T`\ A A-fter Rev. `Neil Campbell, 'B.A., moderator, had narrated the steps leadingtup to the call since the pulpit was declared Vacant at the end of May, he put in Mr. Brown the customary questions which being satisfactorily answered, Rev, Dr. McLeod then inducted zMI'. Brown into the charge of St. ,Andrew s and was the first to extend to him the hand of fellow- ship on behalfnf Presbyterir. (Continued on page 5) into an stick by by_ it. Deputy_Reeve' Robertson en- (mired if the Town would he re- funded the $36 already paid for lamps if the new agreement was accepted, but the Mayor couldn t say. Nor could he answer Dep- uty Seules enquiry as to what allowance would be made` for the lights that had `not been burn- ing. In reply to the objection that street lamps are furnished, His Worship said, On the ordin- my street lamps they haven t got it cut so fine. ' A1d.vtei)-l,`et.0n suggested that they split the difference and make the candle power per lamp 400, I Reeve Benett-I s certainly} `not a fair proposition they offer. Copies Weekly if 5602 ;;m`a1.;`e pater larhvpsi use $200 yvorth of current, 300 c.p. lamps would not use more than $120. They would be money in pocket if they were paid $150 for their new proposition instead of the $200 asked. -__v Y..- - ........_- Action on axe letter was de- ferred. --iRead Bryson s - announce- ment on -Page 9. Read the Adlet Column. `(Continued on page 2.) agreement,` `they should No. 49, 53rd Year. - , `Curious Coincidence One day on the train, tM1'. Brown, father of Corp; Brown, got into conversation with a Mr. Simmie of Clavering, Out. In their talk, the fact came out that each had a son at the` Front, but neither knew that the sons were , _I_ -11.-.. IIUIDIIUL J\Llb vv Lblvvv u--\. V- in anyway known to each Other. `Before separating`, the fathers Iexchangod cards.'Str`ange to say, the first news Mr. Brown receiv- ed of Corp. hB1'0wn s wounding was through this chance ac- quaintance met on the train. On In 1|l_. C11.v..~.-sun -uuvnnI-n- no follows: