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LESION GALA NIGHT Once Was Worth Document Reduced To Ashes In the course of an evenings proceedings that were conducted with precision and facility a group of four gathered around a document to which one member of the quartette applied a cigarettelighten The docu ment burnt slowly at first and then suddenly became a mass of flame to moulder into a tiny heap of ash- t i G SINCLAIR Editor HALL AURORA OFFICE TELEPHONE PA PAGE NINE THURSDAY THE THIRD DAY OF MARCH NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTYFIVE It was a historic moment in the history of the Aurora branch of the Canadian Legion for it signalized the clearance of the mortgage on the local Legion hall it was a night of triumph and ail- con cerned with branch 385 had solid reasons for pride group of four gathered for the cremation of the mortgage past president of the pro vincial command off the Canad ian Legion A Patrick Biggs provincial secre tary Jack Flood president of Aurora branch and Mrs Ernie They were part ners in a fire not of destruction hut of construction for the fire symbolized victory data Night This was a gala night in Scroll of Memory containing the names of men of Aurora and district who gave their lives in defence of their free laud with words beautifully spoken by branch chaplain Rev Victor Woods Mayor Henderson expressed some fitting words and Reeve Murray spoke veterans keep ing a torch held hh and the value of their flag as he pre sented a Union Jack to the Local Legion on behalf of the town President Jack fittingly acknowledged the Mrs George received a Certificate of Merit from Ontario Command on behalf of the Ladies Auxiliary a signal honor since it was the first such an award had been given history of Aurora which An outstanding address by Mr place on Wednesday February Ray Mann The beautiful Legion hall of the Ontario Command was crowded to capacity and it would be quite impossible with in our space limits to enumerate all the outstanding townsmen and visitors who were present including Alex MaeKenzic MP P Mayor Henderson Reeve Murray and members of cIL The chairmanship of a rrect ng can play a decisive prt in making it a success or otherwise must therefore be stated that meeting was in the hand of a skilful and versatile chair man who is better known as From start to finish the meeting of one hours duration went with a swing and an en thusiasm which left it as fresh at the end as at its beginning Few men can equal Mr as an extempore speaker and fewer still we think can surpass him as a chairman He did the job in wonderful style on Wed- night February Variety Of Events Following a benedictory Invo cation there was a variety of events presented In due order and with deep such as the dedication of the was greatly appreciated by his attentive listeners in the course of which he paid tribute to the services of their past president Mr Praise Is Due Praise Is due to many people for a successful evening Among others to vocalist Murray Hunt ley and his accompanist George and to Guy Wat son at the Hammond organ Praise is due to the Auxiliary for their splendid ser vices in the decoration of what Is now a beautiful and praise Is due to the veterans who have given their time and ser vices In the renovation of the downstairs premises In the latter work Norman acted as foreman and Alex Heard painter assisted by Frank Chapman and many others whose names we do not have at hand To save expense the boys have made tables and other equipment for Legion ser vices as a voluntary labor The now debtfree Legion hall is a fine tribute to the coopera tive effort of all In the achievement FESTIVAL AWARDS Aurora Wins Many Awards At Kiwanis Musk Events Insisting that he had not missed a Festival in years Mr Harris conducted his choirs at the Ki Music Festival despite an illness which overtook him during its proceedings and while under medical care Despite this unfortunate handicap his choirs and pupils won outstanding awards First places and Kiwanis clubs winning of the shield in Shields were won by Aurora High school glee club in the class Aurora Public school girls choir Aurora Public school choir and Aurora Public school twopan Second place was awarded to Aurora Public school hoys choir and third places to Aurora High school mixed glee club junior choral under 21 Aurora High school Girls glee club and Aurora Public school triple trio In the vocal classes gold medalists were Jean Barnes girls under Dennis boys under and Alice Charl ton girls under Sliver Medalists Winners of sliver medals were Nancy Stocks girls under Dennis boys under Peter boys under Barbara under Girls duet under and Janice Carter Bronze Medalists Winners in the bronze medal ist classification were Janice Carter contralto open class Bill Baldwin boys under and Andrea Nicholson girls under Outstanding Success competition with Rivcrdale Oakwood and other Tor onto collegiate choirs in which they gained three move marks than the second award winners in recognition of their triumph they have been invited to sing at the Stars of the Festival concert in Hall tonight Thurs day EDITORIALS WHATS WRONG WITH COUNCIL The above question was put to us not by a critic but by a partisan of the present council What are you beefing about he said tell me whats wrong In trying to answer his question we do so not in any spirit of omnipotence but as one man trying- to size up a situation that does not seem to us satisfactory Four meetings of regular council business have now been held in and we have attended all of them If we were asked what business has been accomplished of a major character it would be hard for us to find an answer Probably a lot of business has been done But if that is the case we are unaware of it The reason why we are unaware of it is because nothing has come out in open council to prove it The minutes of council show that something has been going on But there have been no discussions in open council on the nature of such business Motions have been moved and seconded and passed automatically This would appear to indicate that matters have been thrashed out and conclusions arrived at in com mittee before they reached open council The rest was therefore a rubberstamp procedure We maintain that that Is what is wrong with the town council It means that decisions are arrived at in private Con sequently the taxpayers have no means of knowing the reasons why such decisions are made Such we maintain is not in conformity with demo cratic procedure In a totalitarian country such methods would be in accordance with such a system But Canada is not a totalitarian country And any attempt on what ever level of government to subvert democratic pro cedure must be checked COUNCIL SIDELIGHTS Of Cartoons Replace Comment On Council The fourth regular meeting of the town council has come and gone The only major difference between it and its predecessor was that it finished five minutes earlier In other respects it remained true to a closed- mouth pattern BOOST FOR AURORA York County Council Agrees That Court Locate In Aurora A matter which came before the Aurora town coun cil at its regular meeting on Monday February came to full development at a meeting of York county council held on Friday February when agreement was reach- for the Juvenile and Family relations court to locate in Aurora At its regular meeting on Feb- mined matter across its front ruary 21 Reeve J Murray page told the members of the Aurora Question Now Settled town council that there was The recommendation that the possibility that York county Juvenile court should locate in AURORA Social News Mrs Jean Moffat first vicere gent was present at the Legion Hall an Wednesday night Feb as representative of the I O at the burning of the mortgage ceremony Mr and Mrs Carl Fielding have returned from their vaca tion in Florida Dr Crawford Rose former ma yor or Aurora was present at the ceremonies at the hall on Wednesday last Mr and Mrs J Dunning loft on Sunday last for a vaca tion in Florida It is learned that Mr Harris is confined to his home GOVERNMENT BY COMMITTEE Following up our argument of what is wrong with the present council we would emphasize that any form of government by private committee is wrong The answer we would receive on that is that committees can not officially decide anything Everything must be finalized in open council we shall be told In answer to that we will quote from the minutes of the last regular meeting of council held on February 21 A committee report on roads and streets involving expenditure of was presented to council moved and seconded and carried There was no discus sion on the report Why Because it had all been gone into before it came before the open meeting of council at a committee meeting held on Friday February On that report the minutes state All items of streets were discussed and an estimate cost of was set The report was presented and carried in seconds without question or discussion in open council If that is not government by committee will someone us what it is Such a method of carrying out public business clearly illustrates the points wc are trying to make that important money business is being settled in committee and not in open council The democratic method ob viously would have been for the committee chairman to have brought his committees recommendation to open council where it would have been debated right out in the open But all items were discussed in committee with the mayor reeve deputyreeve and five members of council sitting in on the private meeting Everything was settled outside of the open meeting of council and the fact that the report was carried was a simple rub berstamp procedure We understand that there is an intention that ail contention and argument shall be kept away from the council If that is so then the boys are taking the wrong road The surest way to provoke argument and con tenlion is by keeping a tooclosed mouth on public affairs If the citizens are kept reason ably informed on what business their local parliament is engaged suspicions do not arise But once they suspect that things are being done behind the scenes cause is then created for argument and contention One Extreme to Another In comparison to last years council this years council is a cell for silent men with the head man ready to rap anybodys fin gers who dares to utter a squeak For instance just before council closed its brief meeting one dare devil rose to ask if anything was being done about the disposal plant The headman snapped at the rebel in a moment to remind him that everything had to be done in its place Another voice timid ly ventured the statement that something or other was waiting to be done about an agreement with Collis Leather And then all was silent It seemed for a moment that the Banner editor was going to have to do what theyre told Yet another cartoon would show the headman with his fol lowers lassoed and masked with the caption reading Peace in our time If Picking and Sinclair want news theyd better go to the board of trade Thats where all the excitement is Enlivening Moment There was one enlivening mo ment at the last council meeting over a request from the Lloyd Profit building company in con nection with the installation of a culvert on Yonge street south Hurricane Hazel and the came under review whereupon one councillor exclaimed that a hell of a lot of water ran from near the arena past the Gospel Hall A damned lot of water said another councillor Said the mayor Youre in council boys Hearkening to this censorship the boys subsided from the language of Shakespeare to the more cultivated lingo of the Lions club Cablegram Report There was a report from the town planning committee which was so brief that it resembled a cablegram It merely said there had been a meeting with the sub- divider and still another meeting would take place The report was moved and might vote in favor of the Juvenile court being located in Aurora but that it should not be assumed that there was any certainty in the matter For that reason he requested members of the press to go easy on the matter arid to use their discretion in giving publicity to a matter that still remained to be settled as a matter of cour tesy to members of county coun cil In deference to Reeve Murrays request Aurora News Page made no reference in its report of coun cil proceedings to the subject of the Juvenile court The Aurora Aurora was made by the prop ertycommittee of county coun cil Reeve Murray is a member of the property committee and its secretary and has worked hard to get the court located in Aurora At its meeting last Friday members of county council proved the recommendation of its property committee The Juven- ile court will therefore be moved from Toronto to the rooms above the clerks office The revenue therefrom will amount to per month in rentals The locating here of the Juv enile and Family Relations Court Banner however took a contrary is a boost for Aurora as a matter course and splashed the of prestige and business services WHAT THEY ARE SAYING Through lllTimed Publicity Although little has l heard publicly from Reeve J Murray since the Aurora town council took office his supporters will be pleased to learn of the successful part he has taken in the locating of the Juvenile and Family Relations Court in Aurora bonded and carried and no other all was now peace and quiet again and a moment later coun cil had adjourned As between the present and last years council we have gone from one extreme to the other There was always too much gusty wind blowing from around the head table last year This year about the only wind that blows is from motions that are passed but seldom discussed Cartoons Suggested It has been suggested to us by an imaginative friend that in stead of writing comments we should publish a series of cartoons illustrating the town council as of the present date One of these cartoons as des cribed to us would illustrate the headman with his followers ga thered around him his hands and arms outstretched before him With bowed heads his fol lowers hear him sny When you see me like this it means Shuh Dont speak one word Another cartoon would illus trate the headman as a hypnotist putting his followers into a trance When the council meet ing was over they would come out of the trance and go into another committee meeting and holler their heads off The cap- lion would read The boys have to gel it off their chests but when say the word Dont they still Reeve Murray is a member of two committees of York county council namely the finance and the property com mittees It was the latter com mittee which was concerned in the making of a recommendation to county council that the court bo located in Aurora word was spoken No doubt all the talking had been done in committee cared about the taxpayers Who are the tax payers anyway Only the people who elect their mute representa tives to office Water on Sidewalk There was a report on water running down the sidewalk by the United church But water must run somewhere and theres been a bit of snow The report was referred to committee Report on Cracks There was a report on cracking pavements and it was agreed to write the engineer and the firm of and the con tractors concerned They to come back investigate and re port business that Rev Morris Present Council proceedings were hon ored with the presence of one visitor who stayed from start to finish He was Rev J Morris and he asked a question about street signs and was assured these were being taken care of We wondered what the reverend gentleman thought of the water running by the Gospel and councillors reactions to it Quite an evening at fourth reg ular meeting of council The less they the more we have to write But there was competition for the locating of the court and the committees could easily have been over ruled For that reason and out of respect for his colleagues on county council Reeve Murray in mentioning the matter at town council asked the press to go easy and use discretion in the matter Banner Splash Apparently Reeve Murrays so licitation to the press fell on deaf ears as far as the Aurora Banner was concerned for it splashed the Juvenile court news across its front page Inst week In doing so it included what appeared to be an interview with Mayor Henderson who was reported saying that he was pleased at the decision of the property com mittee statement which was followed by other statements as reported in the Banner Mayor Henderson did not make such comments town council thus it must be presum ed that such were given directly to the Banner Having regard to Reeve Mur rays request to the press the Banners splashing of a pro posal that had not been confirm ed by county council as a whole was as untimely as Mayor Hen dersons own comments The situation would have been ex- WHY HAVE COMMITTEES Each These through which he suffered The most outstanding success w i attending the Kiwanis was the Aurora High school glee Music Festival j ANNOUNCING The Sale of Our SERVICE DIVISION Due to the expansion of onr wholesale heating supply business we have found it necessary to sell our service divi sion to a reputable and experienced local heating contractor We are pleased to announce that Tom Carter Electric Heating OF he has take over turn vr There are ten committees of town council commute has a chairman and two members committees represent in one form and another the whole business of the municipality Their work is to consider the business of the committee and when they conclude it the next step is to bring in their recommendations to open council If that method were followed we would have reason able democratic procedure and the taxpayers would he enlightened through the newspapers But it isnt work ing out like that at all The present procedure follows the line of the mayor and any or nil of the other members of council taking a vocal part in the work of separate committees While only the three members of each committee may vote at committee meetings council vote may bo assumed to represent a majority opinion of those present at committees In this way decisions arc arrived at in committee which are confirmed in open council That can explain why no public discussions take place on re ports in council On such a procedure why have separate committees at all That if not all of council members sit in on committees means either a that the three members of committee are considered incapable of doing their work efficiently or that the new procedure is for council work to be carried out in private committee ses sions and thus avoid any public discussions If the latter is true as the facts appear to support we have a council in office which governs by closed com- and reports its decisions as it deems expedient and that is what is wrong BARBER SHOP TALK Town Wag Forsees A Day When Lid Will Come Off The barber shop is hard to heat as a granary for the local news While the hair comes off the tongue is prone to wag It was there that we heard that an auth ority gave it as his opinion that the Aurora town council has done more real work in a few weeks than the old council did in a whole year That was news to us Only the authority apparently did not say what the work was that had been done Achievements were of a colossal size but were not being made public One of these days the lid would come off and would be amazed at the contents of the can There might even be town perhaps free chicken pies in the park Perhaps another Broiler It was all going on behind the scenes Men who once had been town notorieties because of their fearless attacks on this that and the other had now become speechless as Carmelite They were drilling themselves to keep quiet in case anything got into the local newspapers Hard to Keep Of course these men found it hard to keep quiet Once youve had a newspaper headline youre never the same again It docs something to you You become a man apart People will say Theres the man whos not afraid to speak his mind Well vote for him And when he doesnt talk there no headlines From light you have passed Into darkness People will say Why whats gotten into him One never reads about him anymore Have gotten him into the circle Got ten him tied up Wonder whats happened to him Hut theres new rule Nobody must talk Just wait on events And theyre coming make no mistake about that One of these days the lid is coming off and therell be such a rush of news that the local papers will hardly find to report it Difference In Papers Of course theres a big differ ence between the two local pa pers The Banner is paper It always prints what It should ami never what it know It gives tone to the town 11 never under any circumstances knocks the town- It always boosts it Why you can fall asleep while reading the Banner its so mild and good But its different with Sinclair He prints the stuff and lets it go at that Perhaps thats why they arc keeping quiet They dont want him to hear things case he prints it Perhaps trying to starve him out you know Hear theres to be no contentious ques tions brought up this year at council That should hit Sinclair Lota But theres lot of things going on at council that you dont hear of what theyre goto with plant Leather Guess thats all being done in committee Committee Thats when they get into a hud dle and talk things over among themselves You know you cant print whats done in committee How long will the notalking veto last Theres men on the council wholl have to talk one of these days or bust They wont stay tonguetied forever One of these days the pots going to boil over and the steam that comes out of it will hurt somebodys eyes Once youve gained a name for talking you cant just chuck it away Councils young yet but nomination day will come round In time And you cant go In there with a blank sheet After all theyre only elected for a year to get back to office theyve got to bo elected again News Granary The barber shop is the real town news granary Some things you hear there cant be repeated But other things that can be re peated may contain some grain among the chaff embarrassing if a maj ority of county council votes had turned down the recommenda tion of its committee located the Juvenile court elsewhere We Didnt Report A subscriber called us on the telephone to ask why we hadnt reported the news of the Juv enile court as the Banner had done We explained the circum stances of Reeve Murrays re quest pointed out that the matter wasnt yet decided and we had no wish to prejudice Auroras chances of getting the court by hasty publication We arc always anxious to pub lish news that matters But if we asked at council or by anyone else not to publish news that still has to be determined we accept the code of the good newspaperman and refrain from doing so Enjoy Ida Freedom Former mayor of Aurora Dr Crawford Hose told us at the Legion meeting on Wednesday J last that he was thoroughly en joying his freedom from official office Mrs Rose and I are leaving for New York tomorrow he added and are sailing on the Queen of Bermuda on an eight days cruise and well enjoy that too They will visit Bermuda and Nassau We extended our good wishes to Dr and Mrs Rose for a happy vacation Represented Ontario Miss K Charles was hon ored as sole representative for Ontario at the Park Place and The Bench Atlantic City New Jersey the camp ing convention of the American camping association Region and attended by some dele gates Two delegates from Mon treal were also present Special speakers were Dr How ard A Lane School of Education New York university and Dean Charles Noble of Hendricks chap el Syracuse university As is generally well known Miss Charles has taken a prom inent part in camping activities for many years Era and Express Classifieds Results