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i etwbunethursdayoctobermik editorials action to save cn station should come from community there seems to be a strong feeling around stouffville that the old railwaystation should somehow be saved canadian national offered the building to the town but council has refused it and if there are no takers it will be demolished the station dates back to the 1880s and it has long been a wellknown stouffville land mark we can understand councils reluctance to take on the building as they have recently fair contests were an excellent idea the markham fair last week endeavored to have something for everyone and aside from the multitude of agricultural exhibits the midway and the needlework there were numerous contests for old and young to enjoy both as spectators and participants the inclusionof the contests we believe is an excellent idea while some of them drew few contestants only two boys in the yoyo and three oldsters in rocking chair com petitions other contests went over quite well all the events were well publicized hot only in the newspapers but in flyers sent to schools and senior citizens residences perhaps next year will see even more par ticipation in thecbntests as people get used to the idea of their being a part of the markham fair 5 also some of the organizational wrinkles that inevitably arise with such activities will be ironed out undoubtedly by next year we have one suggestion in that regard and that is that perhaps bulletin boards could be prominently displayed around the fair j grounds that tell people whatis occurring and v where they would beiespecially hel should tliere beachange in the location of an v event but allin all the contests and the fair as a whole were a success and we expect even better things next year residents should study official plan with three public meetings scheduled for next week on the new whitchurchstouffville official plan draft ratepayers would be well advised to become familiar with condensed version of the document copies are available now free of charge at the municipal office involvement by informed ratepayers at this stage is very important indeed for a number of reasons ward 1 councillor art starr points out that by having public reactions now to the draft it might avoid costly amendments to the t plan later on hopefully at the public meetings or dinary ratepayers will be as well represented and informed as those who are interested in developing a particular parcel of land often developers are the most vocal and coherent participants at such meetings so that a wrong impression is given of the publics feelings on a subject the three public meetings are as follows monday oct 18 atlatcham hall stouffville wednesday oct 20 at the community centre in ballantrae and thursday oct 21 at vandorf hall all commence at 8 pm purchased the arena leased the old post office and guaranteed a tidy sum for the new library if the buidling is to be saved the impetus should come from the community and not from council the building would quickly turn into a white elephant if the town took it over without a firm committment from the citizenry to make it work perhaps a historical society could be formed in the village and the station used for a local museum working together with the existing museum a really fine establishment could result l the problem would be much less if cnfe would allow a community group to take over the structure and operate it on the present site this could be negotiated but we recollect that the railway in other dealings of this- nature has been adamant that the buildings be removed from cn property moving the station would be expensive although by leaving the freight sheds on the back the cost would be considerably reduced there are several locations around the village that might be suitable the town park the property to the north of the new library or the flood control area north of the high school whitchurchstouffville conservation club at one time spoke of starting natural museum in the flood control area and this building might suit their purpose we spoke to jean barkey about the possibility of a historical society and she wasnf optimistic as most of the pioneer households have already broken up this we feel is not an insurmountable problem it does mean collecting artifacts would be a slow and expensive process to do anything with the building is going tobe expensive and wiureguire agreat deal tof work biilif tfiebuilding is worth saving it is fy worth someeffort jfnotihen it mighljuslas well be torn down now and be done with it t the station might make a good com- munity or service club centennial project but action will have to be taken quickly cn work crews have already been spotted on the property doing some preliminary work and it is likely the building will come down shortly v news itmsbqopeduqonr useofsirsr i a n sugar and spice school critics are all wet smiley says by bill smiley ei vs thirtyyears ago this week excerpts from the tribune from october 17 1946 turn on the music prior to the war many towns and villages had their bands and other musical organizations but with the coming of the war they largely faded out when so many of the boys had to join the armed services now that peace has returned bands are once more reorganizing making their contribution to the musical life of many communities what about doing something here in stouffville we have some good material without a doubt but of course the expense of band in struments presents a real difficulty an or chestra is within the range of possibility if sufficient violin players are available probably some of our newesidents would be interested please hand your name in at the tribune office that strong gust of wind you felt in early september as the nations schools reopened wasnt a warm front moving in from the west it was hundreds of thousands of mothers giving a simultaneous sigh of relief at getting their offspring out of the house and out from underfoot for five days a week out of the next 10 months there was another gust of hot air at the same time this one came from the critics of education who are numerous as the sands of the desert and who wonder in print and aloud what the taxpayer is getting for his education dollar a well for one thing he or she is getting sme for the next 10 months i will devote pmyself at a nominal remuneration to the task bf trying to teach young people how to- read write and speak their own language with some degree of accuracy like you know its t crazy man but thats the way the frisbee flies t far be it from me to bite the hand that feeds me but most of the critics are all wet some with extrabright children are furious that the public school system does not provide enriched courses for their kids so that theyll emerge from high school with the equivalent of a private school and a university education but they dont pay any more school taxes than i do and i have no children in school im helping pay for their kids education others too lazy or scared to discipline their own kids expect the schools to do it then are the first to sue a teacher who finally being human cant resist giving their darling a whack on the head a growing number of critics take up the chant of getting back to the basics when they find that their kids cant do long division without a calculator cant write a servile letter and know more about sex than they do about science v what these people really mean is why dont them there teachers give the kids a real good training in the basic elementals like what i got n these are people who cant do short division unless its two into four use the dash as their only punctuation mark when writing a letter and know nothing about either science or sex theres another type of critic this is the type who deals in figures he is infuriated when he sees that the town council spent 46 per cent of its budget on education and only 22 per cent on the works department hed rather spend money on straightening out roads than on straightening out his kids heads there is one critic for whom i feel some sympathy this is the misnamed senior citizen he or she never got much education because in those days you had to go to work and only the elite the sons of doctors and lawyers and such had a hope of going to college these people feel a righteous indignation that their moderate incomes are taxed to support those overpaid teachers and those expensive buildings and all those young layabouts who should be out working when they themselves get absolutely nothing out of their education taxes well tough toenails oldtimers you helped elect the governments that are bleeding you and another point we all have to pay sooner or later you and i are leaving these kids so far in debt theyll never get out the critics dont bother me i work hard at my job and 99 per cent of the teachers in the country do the same we are not alleither a socrates or a jesus but we do the best we can with what we have you know were not turning out pulpwood or sausages or cake mixes we are not producing a product whatever the manufacturers and business people think we should be doing we are dealing every day for several years of their lives with that most intricate of mechanisms a human being and we are doing that at the most sensitive and delicate stage of its metamorphosis into adult try that on for size and were not doing it that badly the old mindless authoritarianism which attracted the weak and the bullies into the teaching profession along with many firstclass people is gone thats good the old system under which kids from professional families went on and kids from poor families went into service or factories or common laboring is gone thats good were trying to offset the mindless gar bage of television by teaching kids to be curious and skeptical and challenging of the shoddy and insidious and thats good let me give an example i was in the bank during the summer right behind me was ed a boy id taught about three years ago hed been caught drinking beer in a car in the school grounds and was expelled for a week asked him how things were going oh pretty good mr smiley im in construction with mose remember mose i did mose was a large goodnatured fellow who had staggered through the twoyear course in high school ed showed me the cheque he was cashing i almost fell on the floor of the bank those two guys were making each almost as much as i was after years of education and ex perience r thirty years ago theyd both have wound up on the end of a pick or shovel nuff said it may be costing you an arm and a leg but education today is doing more than churning out cheap labor for the masters of society k more facts needed on agriculture issue countdown stouffville centennial 18771977 wonders never cease to amaze one in the socalled debate over the loss of good agricultural land two facts keep emerging in this issue the first is that the 26 acres per hour figure now has assumed the status of being written in stone that is if you keepjepeating the figure and reinforcing it in the public mind then nobody but nobody has any right to question just how useful thf figure is it helps to prepare public opinion for drastic state action freezing farm land above all else you paint a picture of the ndp knight in shining armour saving ourselves from ourselves in opposition a political party has the luxury of certainty about what it proposes to do colours and dilemas cannot be included when you are presenting neat abstract statements these are mere realities to be ignored when you have the totally ideal solution the second- fact is that only govern ment can act to resolve an issue either through a blanket freeze or land banking this attitude is automatic in that somehow or other only wisdom and knowledge can be found in the public sector such an unrealistic attitude is akin to saying that only government and not pioneers developed canada this trusting attitude in believing in the resourcefulness of government to preserve farmland flies in the face of some world realities just look at recent election results in sweden to demon strate the questioning which voters have by william hodgson mpp about giving more responsibilities to government than government can already handle this magical reliance on government to resolve things is even more disturbing when the political party seeking office develops policy based on inaccurate and outdated in formation the ndp claims that a land inventory needs to be undertaken the ontario agriculture and food ministry has already completed a county-by- county land inventory and those results should be available shortly then we will have a new dimension to the debate and more complete information on the type of policy actions required to address this challenge fair coverage disappointing says reader early reeves of stouffville born on a farm in markham township hiram johnson stepped in the reeves chair in 1894 and held the office for three years during mr johnsons second year in office a bylaw was defeated which if it had passed would have placed electric lights on stouffville streets 81 years ago however there was not enough support for this progressive step although there were reports oft numerous people bumping into trees because of the dense darkness up to this authentic costumes stouffville is having a birthday and we i all want to join in what did men women and children in our area wear 100 years ago is j the question asked us by pat evans of rr4 stouffville mrs evans has asked the tribune to issue an appeal for photographs sketches or patterns that clearly show the type of clothing j favoured back then if anybody in the community has anything j of this nature or has any ideas of how ac- time as far as we can ascertain there were curate reproductions can be arrived at we absolutely no lights on the streets but the cost of illumination evidently frightened off the ratepayers y v mr johnson was a baker and merchant when in stouffville and owned the large brick residenceimmediatdy across- from the p hartney and gw kemp the clerk was a a brown who followed uriah hamilton would appreciate hearing from them anything submitted to us will be held for the owner singer to participate heath barrie the popular local crooner could play a large part in the centennial celebrations the girls hockey league are trying to arrange a concert featuring mr barrie and he- will be involved in the cen tennial queen show either as emcee or per forming v dear sir ive got a beef with the tribune last weeks coverage of events at markham fair was very disap pointing in that you failed to feature pictures of those who had won as well as also rans surely the photographer could have caught up with more than one first prize winner what makes a small community like stouff- ville unique is the fact that its people know one another and in times of need or celebration we are united without hesitation or shyness we look forward to the tribune each week being a little nosey and very curious we want to know whos up v to whatever and why the tribune has for many years been a source of community news and pride now however we and i know im writing what has been voiced by many people find the quality of the paper is diminishing gradually for example the shot taken at mr and mrs rick spang of stouffville over the tribunes disagreement with the judges in choosing their son dean over the tribunes choice the owen baby of unionville reslly angered me and ill bet the spang family were upset too the spang babys from stouffville after all the reporter is entitled to ios or her opinion cer tainly but shouldnt the stouffville paper feature the stouffville- area i il12 winners and competitors for the stouffville residents to see if the reporter misses these people at the competition send him to their homes people love being made a fuss of and most of us are big hams when it comes to having our pictures taken i for one treasure this fast disappearing closeness found in communities like ours and feel our voice our town newspaper should speak out in defence of our stouffville people with pride and not discrimination youn sincerely joanne redshaw rtngwood editors reply the markham fair as we all know is the largest agricultural fair in on tario and as many people probably dont know features more than 3000 winners to photograph all the winners and runnerups would be an almost impossible task almost all exhibits are judged before the fair begins and usually without the entrants present so there is no opportunity in many cases to catch the winner on the spot furthermore many of the results had not even been tabulated by the time the tribune went to press also there is no way of knowing in ad vance if local people are entered in particular competitions for these reasons coverage of the fair is mostly a matter of catch- as catchcan it is un fortunate we didnt realize the spang baby was entered in the baby competition the photographer in this case also the editor stayed for a good deal of the contest but failed to come across any local entrants since be didnt recognize the spangs by sight and since with all those babies the contest was a pandemonium it is impossible to ascertain where everybody was from you accuse us of taking a shot at the spang family but this is absolutely untrue what we did say was that we had picked the owen child as the winner in the 13 month old category the rest of the remark was an attempt at humour which ob viously fell on barren ground we only learned that the spang baby was the overall winner late tuesday afternoon what we attempted to do with our coverage was give an overall im pression of the fair wej felt it was more im- portant to stress par ticipation than winning we are sorry you feel the quality of the paper is diminishing but we have spoken to other people in the community who ha ve told us they are very happy with the content obviously it is a matter of opinion many people are unhappy because the paperhas changed but then so has stouffville and there are many who are not happy about that either