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J gSL SvJiV-7- THE ERA WED JULY VOL No 28 r -V- i v The numerous complaints from Newmarket residents during the recent rainstorms about basements and recreation room a flooding leaves no doubt that the towns sewage system is inadequate Apart from the damage to contents and possible structural dam age to homes the chore of having to clean the filth left in the wake of these floods is far from pleasant and hours after an odor resembling that which emanates from an outdoor privy is quite apparent While all will agree conditions of late have been extreme the fact remains that the existing sewer network considered adequate 10 years ago now carries almost double to what was considered average flow earlier Add to this the heavier demand created by continuing heavy rainstorms and its understandable but not acceptable to many households that flooding will occur -p- HI Ill I As Canada moves ahead with Canada has generally a divorce reform and other social rate but it has the highest changes there remains one great per capita area in which government policies the civilized are unsatisfactory both to the tadfcV ignores this and to society ignores the problem of The field in which there has sating the victims of been very little HOLIDAY HAPPINESS Vacation time swing into high with the arrival of July and million of Canadians enjoy the beauty of their surroundings Camping is now a major repeaters who make up per- cent of the prison population ifrN i tfirs country as families bypass lodges and cottages lor a tint Many will testify to that old saying Theres nothing like the great outdoors TNS I J J In view of this it is mandatory that Newmarket council get down to business and plan a further system of sanitary and sew ers to protect taxpayers from more damage expense and odor r SPICE By Bill Smiley By Dead Reckoning The annual cost to the country is per prisoner not count ing welfare aid which often has extended to his family while he is in jail Unless the prisoner mends his ways this is wasted money Colon Crier Smileys To Expo Contest Because no genuine rehabilita tion is carried on in bur prisons inmates harden their antisocial attitudes They plot the crimes they will pull when they get out Often as not they are apprehend ed soon after release and are sent back to prison to continue the end less chain of crime and punish- By We all have seen signs in ious that Not for or stolen articles maybe thought about the difference that Is indicated in this description i It has been suggested that Toronto drivers are far from the best In the world To drive south on Highway on a Saturday afternoon in the summer and meet the northbound traffic would do little to change that opinion Most of the basic traffic rules are ignored and many take advan tage of the straight stretches of highway to take chances on passing two three or even six cars ahead We were about the one lonesome vehicle travelling south during the past weekend and it developed into a frightening experience on more than one occasion A car travelling at well over the speed limit would suddenly attempt to turn out of a fairly tight line of traffic and just as suddenly find he was facing difficulty getting back in On two occasions in less than miles our southbound vehicle was forced to take the gravel stretch to allow an oncoming car to use the west side of the highway before it could find an opening to sneak back in This highway is one of the main routes to Lake Simcoe and in view of the number of fatalities which occur on both it and the Don Mills Road a crackdown complete with charges by the OPP some Friday night or Saturday should be started to influence a few of the maniacs who are sure the Highway Traffic Act does not apply to them Buggy I It is a sad commentary on our times when mothers have to block off their street with baby buggies to keep their homes clean But that was the case last week when residents of Bay view Aye in East Township blocked off the street in front of their houses to stop huge trucks from spewing dust onto their lawns porches and into their living rooms The trucks have been carrying fill from a subdivision to the north of them and leaving blobs of mud on Bay view Ave More trucks flat tened the blobs and with three or four days of dry weather the area soon became a dust bowl But even before the dry weather it was im possible for residents to walk on the street without tracking mud into the Bayview houses In vain Ave residents tried to remedy the muddy and then dusty situation They received no satisfaction from the builder from subcon tractors from the York County Bonds Department or from East Township Each body had what they felt were valid reasons for passing the buck to someone else Dont tell me there arent any creative writers in Canada The country is crawling with them More than entries for the SmileystoExpo guest column have arrived and theyre still pouring in My wife thought all along it was rather an illconceived project or as she put it a dumb ideal and Im beginning to agree with her One of the chief hitches is that I forgot to organize some judges So Im it So first of all I must read them all some twice some thrice This is going to absorb about hours and the whole idea in the first place was that Id get a holi day Something wrong there some where Secondly all those who dont win along with their families and friends are going to hate me for life Its easy enough to make enemies without deliberately alien ating about 2000 people And thirdly its costing me acquire 100 hours of work and 2000 hostile nativesSort of silly isnt it I I And thats just what happened the buck was passed until Bay- view Ave residents took matters into their own hands To his credit East Reeve Garfield Wright took im mediate action and ordered the street cleared of mud at the builders expense But all this was If the council which approved the subdivision In had written into the agreement that public thor oughfares be kept clean at all times as in Metro Toronto It is hoped that East Gwillimbury Council will learn by the mis takes of its predecessors and pass a bylaw Immediately to this effect to avoid a repetition of the babybuggy blockade However I and Im glad The Toronto Telegram News Ser vice has kicked in another and a lot of people have had lot of fun taking a whack at writing a column And I shouldnt complain about it being work Its fun Especially delightful is the fantastic variety of both writers and subject matter The writers are of all sexes and all ages from to And they from pheasants to families from taxes to toenails Thanks too for the many warm and friendly personal messages en closed Its kind and even thought it wont win a prize Whnt the columns have proved to me once again is that theres great deal of good humor good spirit and good intelligence in our country The entries vary in many other ways Some are quietly humor ous Others are sardonic or Ironic Some are dead some angry some passionate Not that way Mum Some were written on ordinary ruled paper while the breakfast dishes rotted in the sink Others were immaculately typed submit- ed flat in manuscript form with return envelope enclosed Some writers want a pen name used others want their names in big bold type They come from office workers farm wives students and grand mothers Some people submitted as many as three columns Some are and hilarious Others use impeccable English but are dull Some are religious others ribald One gentleman writes amusingly of his two pheasants named John and Lester because he didnt think theyd be around long Jim Kerr of Red Deer vents his dislike of teachers in no uncertain way A former students of mine Hi there Mary Graham tells what a char acter her grandpa is One entry consists of his first letter home from a lad serving in Viet Nam Arid they come from all over the country which makes this thing a real centennial kick Put them all together and youd have a book It would be raggedy and uneven but interesting and would present a pretty good idea of what Canada and Canadians are really like Trouble is so many of the col- limns are so good that Im in a quandary right up to my navel started to make two piles the good ones and the rejects The pile of rejects is two inches high the other one two feet Perhaps the sensible thing to do would to write a guest column myself under a pseudonym sub mit it to me and declare it the winner It wouldnt be cricket but it would save a lot of agonizing over that final decision Not to mention bucks One wonders where the Hoe is 9 A Dont worry chaps Ill find a solution Perhaps what I do with my exam papers Take an armful to the top of the stairs and hurl them The one that lands on the highest step gets top mark with mo while I Hope to announce the winner next week Meanwhile we have our police chiefs collectively arid individually urging a gettough attitude Be cause the present system has fail ed to reduce crime they would have prisoners kept in jail for longer periods Lacking an understanding of social pressures too many police men fall into vindictiveness cling ing to the concept of punishment as the only sure cure for anti social behavior Thus It was that at the annual meeting of the Ontario Associa tion of Chiefs of Police the blame for crime was put on laxity in homes schools and courts Their president Chief J Tor rance of said police must cope with the products of broken or undisciplined homes of our schools where discipline went out the window of our courts where probation is meted out to second and third offenders Police must of course cope with such problems this is what they are paid for and their jobs are difficult and thankless But it is a little tiring and not a little frustrating to hear these constant complaints rather than suggest- tions for constructive action It is unfortunate that our police departments cannot be looked to as sources of useful suggestions on how we might better deal with the problems with which police must cope But police are policemen they are hired to arrest persons suspect ed of crimes It here their duty ends And as long as their duty ends at this point police tions would be well advised to re strict their comments to the mat ter of arrests rather than punish ment and justice which is beyond their province But police do have a great in fluence on our lawmakers and judges Their influence however Is aimed primarily at making the jobs of policemen easier and police men more efficient This neglects that much greater and more dif ficult field of crime PREVEN TION and prisoner REHABILITA TION For this we must turn to en lightened law makers informed social workers and intelligent opinion Rather than there being too many accused let off by the courts actually too many are being sent to jail Because criminals usually hut not always hurt themselves more than they hurt we spend little time worrying about them drawn for instance when an disappears on public premises where we ate these signs most of- ten in dressing and other places bare except for seats or benches would that be classed as tost or stolen It Is not easy to i decide Lost items are never found again while something stolen may turn up in and locations i Among the things going off and on in our neighborhoods its hard to tell which fall In what category A set of sound equipment taken from the Curling Club and found again mid field in the Fair grounds in mud and rain maybe even the mystery of a Greyhound bus missing in Newmarket and re turning up down in Toronto were 1 n 1 they lost Still harder to decide though is the status of the dozen or so of so- shopping carts that one encounters at the roadside or dump ed Into the ditches around the tow A few are lying in the river below the bridge on Timothy Street for ages now entangled in grass and slime and claimed by no one These carts must be regarded lost the mo ment they leave the stores and parking lots but were they stol en At any rate here in particular It Is apparent that some art not as suming the responsibility for items be they lost or stolen and that one can interpret a harmless phrase in many ways It seems that people art afraid to call things by their right name The wont stolen is such a dirty one that nowadays there is a circle of expressions through which can run rather than describe things as removed or lifted taken displaced damaged broken ruined tost ab andoned recovered which then is the happy ending to story of a piece of private properly l I rft f- Dear Editor As an urban dweller for a couple of decades and a farmer before that I am seriously thinking of taking up farming once again If press reports of the past few years are any indication of the trend I couldnt lose Recent heavy rains and flash floods have again been followed by a rash of briefs and urgent ap peals to all levels of government to provide aid for lost or partially destroyed crops Not many years ago a reverse situation prompted another de luge of appeals for price support because of overabundance and re sulting lower prices What other business gets the cushion at both ends The urban dweller seems caught In the squeeze If the crop Is not up to standard or In short supply up goes the price if the market is swamped with dairy or field crops in steps a f government agency with a price support program presumably ex tracted from the taxpayers contri butions which in turn keeps the price level up for the city resident Farming today is recognized as a commercial venture but few oth er commercial or business areas find such valiant support from public taxation as does the Cana dian farmer today There must be as many men In other spheres of business who nurture a fervent wish that the government will step in and buy their surplus and hold it until the price warrants its re lease Next time my wife ant I pur chase some of these basic com modities we will at least know that although the mortgage is overdue and the old jalopy wont traded this year our taxes are still helping to keep the lettuce succulent and green down on the farm it THATS IT UNION CARDS LUNCH PAIL WRENCH BLUE COLLAR BEER OPENER AND NOtSEMAKER It a more and mart ac ceptable game for those who dont know better or regard as their way of sharing with equal rights In the abundance of this so- while the public conscience looks at sign that says wtrt not 1 Back to the m THE ERA Serving York County Since Incorporating THEPOST ttrpirfs THE HERALD DAVID HASKELL Editor and WILLIAM J Advertising and Manager GIL SHEPHERD News Editor T every Wednesday at 180 Charles St Newmarket Ontario by the Newmarket Era Company Limited Subscriptions for two yean for one year Single each Canadian Weekly and w Audit Bureau of Autnorlzed Second Class Mall by the Post Office Ottawa for the payment or In cash I Phone Newmarket St Phone Aurora I Yottfl 474822