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THE ERA WED DECEMBER VOL 116 NO Protection For Residents Laxity on the part of past Newmarket municipal administrations has left some of the best residential sections of the town open to uncontrolled development of any kind Town Clerk Grant Blight told The Era this week that the town has never had an enforceable residential zoning bylaw on the west central area of homes This is the area currently the focus of a controversy over Brown Camps use of a Millard Ave home as an office Mr Blight said council has passed zoning bylaws several times but never got around to sending them to the Ontario Municipal Board for approval a mandatory step if the bylaw is to be enforceable This means that theoretically a vacant lot in a fine residential area of the town which has been left unzoned could be turned into a auto wrecking yard or put to any other obnoxious use and town council could have very little to say about it This situation raises an obvious question How many other areas of the town do not have effective zoning protection Councils latest zoning bylaw which covers the whole town was passed last February and was before the OMB last week but the board has given no indication of when they will approve it Town councils concern for redevelopment in the downtown area is commendable but the many hours involved in getting this scheme com pleted should not be at the expense of the protection of the towns perfectly sound existing residential areas Council should act immediately to ensure their zoning protection Cheap At The Price The final report of a proposed urban renewal scheme for Newmarket is in the hands of Town Council Now its up them to decide whether they will implement all of the reports recommendations some of the recommendations or simply receive and file it Town planners Proctor and Bacon have made an exhaus tive study of downtown Newmarket and space does not permit outlining all the recommendations The Era agrees with the town planners in that downtown New market is too valuable a piece of real estate too good a place to shop to allow it to deteriorate much more The town planners say that many of the downtown buildings are dilapidated theres a traffic problem and theres not enough parking This is something most of us have known and realized for a long time but its nice to be told so by the experts Several months ago The Era suggested that Main St be closed to traffic from Water to Queen St and that the entire shopping area be turned into a mall The planners recommend much the same thing and have gone on to propose improvements for the surrounding area The planners estimate that with government subsidies the redeve lopment of Newmarkets downtown core will cost the average taxpayer an extra The Era feels that the redevelopment of the downtown core is so vital to the town as a whole that this expenditure would be cheap at twice the price ft is hoped that Town Council acts soon on all or some of the town planners recommendations and simply does not receive and file them like so many reports THE Readers ERA Dear Editor How about including a New Books at the public library section in your paper and per haps even an occasional book re view While I do realize full well that your primary function is un doubtedly to do exactly what you are doing rcjiort LOCAL hap penings etc I do feel that your paper lacks CULTURE For instance in England even THE ERA Serving York County Since Incorporating THE POST THE HERALD DAVID HASKELL Editor and Publisher WILLIAM J Advertising and Business Manager GEORGE News Editor Published every Wednesday at Charles St Newmarket Ontario by the Newmarket Bra Express Company Limited Subscriptions for two years for one year Single copies each Mem ber Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulation Authorized as Sec ond Class Mail by the Post Office Dcpt Ottawa for the payment of postnge In cash Phone Newmarket 8952331 Charles St Phone Aurora 21 Yonge St Phone Kcawick Keswick the smallest village newspaper usually includes book reviews as usually does the small rag in the USA Because in a com munity the size of this one the public library is open very few- hours per day and per week I realize that you do not serve in general highly educated or group of readers However there are a few of us who would appreciate some broadening men tally and since reporting on new books at the public library in New market would still be LOCAL you could justify the space from that point of view Also gradually this might en courage a few people to read a few more books thus making New market a more interesting and stimulating community in which to live and thus attracting people with creative minds and thus giv ing local merchants more business etc So you could even justify the book list from THAT point of view I would appreciate your thinking on this idea Mrs J It McCaughna UK Keswick Out Dear Editor I want to congratulate you in being one paper that can still leave a corner for a good Word For The Week I am disgusted with the soculled religious articles in our Toronto Saturday papers Please keep it up Sincerely Mrs Mary Willis It may be cosy near the fireplace hut little can surpass a Winter scene in Canada following a light gentle snowfall before everything is frozen solid and the river is still able wind its way through the trees Beware Tiny Kim Maybe it was the approach of Christmas that got me thinking about money Maybe it was Kim asking me what collateral was In trying to explain I got into gold reserves and depreciation of the pound and inflation and we both wound up refreshingly bewildered Only thing of any value that came out of it was the ridiculous nature of modern money Money or some form of it is as old as man whether it be wam pum hits of elephant tusk or fancy seashells Gold early became the favorite because it was heavy mal leable decorative and hard to gel hold of Silver and copper made up the unholy trinity and we were in business Hut from early times and even into the last century money was real You could feel it bite it smell it heft it look at it shine and listen to it ring It had weight sub stance You could put it in a sock and feel like a banker You could bury it in the ground when you heard the tax collector was coming Try that with modern currency What fun it must have been to go into a tavern with friends spin a gold guinea on the table and shout Landlord Three game pies a haunch of and three gal- Ions of your best brandy And get ten jingling shillings in change Mine host stirs the fire cooks bustle happily offstage and waiters scurry tugging at their forelock and brimming up the tankards Compare Today you go into a tavern with friends Half an hour later when your eyes have adjust ed to the gloom a waiter either surly or insolent hands you a large piece of paper This eventually pro duces a very small drink at a very large price After a suitably lengthy period of in preparation for the coming shock another wait er this one morose or bellicose hands you another large piece of paper Eventually this produces a platter of something which youre lucky its loo dark to see Later he brings another very small piece of paper with a figure on it which youre also lucky its too dark to see In turn yon show him a piece of plastic called a cre dit card and sign a paper Or if youre just a peasant you hand over a number of pieces of colored paper He takes it away and comes back promptly this time with a little tray All your paper is gone and there is a quarter and four pennies on the tray He stands glowering until you put another piece of paper on the tray He grunts snatches it and departs On the way out you fork over the quarter to ransom your over coat You are left with four pen nies They dont exactly jingle Point is no real money has chang ed hands There is no personal contact and therefore no satisfac tion in it Every month I receive a piece of paper with figures on it The figure at the extreme left is fairly substantial Then there are a lot of other figures The figure at the extreme right bears no relation to the first one It is one jump ahead of the oldage pension This is known as a pay cheque I take it to a large building write some figures on another piece of paper present both to a nice lady and she gives me back some other papers green blue and brown with figures on them My wife gives them to another nice lady in ex change for a big basket of gro ceries and maybe three pieces of real money coins Once a month we sit down and write things on some different paper put the paper in envelopes and send them to all sorts of people who have previously sent us pieces of paper with figures and the words Please or Last warning on them Its all very logical of course And Die crowning piece of logic is that the whole thing is based on digging gold out of a hole in the ground in Northern Ontario and burying it in another hole in the ground at Fort Knox Kentucky WEEK By Ray An Interesting Book Now that Parliament sits nearly all year around except for Christ mas Easter and summer recesses the daily recordings of the House of Commons as published in Han sard touch on almost every aspect of Canadian events Hansard or to give it the of ficial name of House of Commons Debates is available to anyone at S3 per session from the Queens Printer Ottawa It Is called Han sard after the early century printer Hansard who start ed printing the proceedings of the British houses of parliament The Canadian Hansard is issued every morning following each days sitting in French and English It does not incidentally guarantee an exact verbatim record of every thing said in Parliament Members can change the proofs of their speeches before printing to the ex tent of correcting grammatical or similar errors but some have been known to go a step further and change the actual meaning of what they have said Because no newspaper can report everything which on in Par liament anyone seriously interest ed in public affairs in this country should read Hansard It can be not only a private individuals personal seat in the press gallery but the source of much valuable informa tion which never sees the light of day The House opens its daily sittings with a question period out of which comes much of the major news of Parliament The Opposition will use the ques tion period to attempt to embar rass the government The success of the new Conservative leader will be measured among other things on how effectively Mr Stanfield conducts himself during this daily inquisition While many questions are an swered immediately by government ranks others require much research and the question must be put on the order paper Such was the poser recently from Conservative Hamilton who asked what percentage of Canadian residents have NEVER flown on Air Canada or Canadian Pacific Airlines in any one year and what is the estimated percentage ever likely to fly when advanced sub sonic and subsonic transport are utilized J A Byrne the parliamentary secretary to the minister of trans port totted up the answers from Air Canada to report that an esti mated percent did NOT fly in and that only an estimated percent WILL fly in 1975 In other words the number of Cana dians using airlines will increase from the present percent to percent in the next seven years Airports will get busier Every major government bill such as the one to abolish capital punishment attracts prolonged de bate The government lost its mo tion to increase postal rates be cause debate dragged on and one night just after supper when the Opposition forced a snap vote there were more members of the Opposi tion than government supporters on hand The government will no doubt get its postage increase early next year but one of the boat contri butions to the debute was made by Harry Mather the NOP member from New Westminister BC lie pointed out as recorded in Han sard that in accordance with inter national postal agreements all countries handle free of charge whatever mail is passed on to them from other countries As Mr Mather pointed out this Is in theory equitable But what happens when one country receives ten limes as much mail destined for its citizens from another coun try than is sent to that other country To quote Mr Mather Canadians receive far more sec ond class mail from abroad largely from the United States than they send abroad we ask that the government renegotiate the inter national treaty which has involved us in losses and bring about parity with the US postal service in order that our consumers and pub lishers may not be subsidizing non- Canadian competitors Crier By Elizabeth The Urban Renewal Study on Newmarket is loaded with frighten ing figures and projections of the Towns development in the next twenty years also with the disturb ing finding that conclusions made in a study of Economics and Deve lopment in 1962 already are prov ing wrong We sincerely wish the present authors a longer lasting luck with their predictions Should this be so and postwar baby boom now sprouting into families repeat itself once over and should the Pill turn out a total failure then we will have population within town limits by or even 31500 with the mediate surroundings as the plan vision By doubling the number of dwell ing units in our boundaries can we already see our bungalows make way for row housing and apart ments our 25year mortgages if not as strongly advocated chopped cruelly in their prime and added onto the cost of land and new construction and finally onto the rent or lease All aspects however are not so gloomy For sure we will have a rejuvenated Main Street and busi ness expansion from which all resi dents will benefit if in no other way then by enticement to save the long and costly trip to Metro and do the shopping at their door step If this initial phase should cost all of mills in extra taxes there must be no hesitating in diving right into the task For Side signs are up on some of the back alley properties near Main Street lets hope that Sold signs will soon show with purchaser the Town we may see a new and modern Town Hall a build ing that could show itself with pride and would not have to shim Illumination centennial or other wise By then the subdivision of Fast will probably be an nexed residents finally New marketeers not tread ing our pavement any longer an aliens It may then finally be pas sible to tackle raffle control on Davis Drive to send children ft the school close to settle hydro matters there locally Instead of in Richmond Hill Then of course will be welcome not only to share In our community volunteer work but also will qualify for honors beyond the of doubt As fur as services and taxes in such a union who knows which way the scales may tip with pre sently much lower taxes in the Heights and with the state of our services as the report describes them And then we are not disappoint ed that for all that is apparent we are advised to undertake a second other study and a third and so on in subsequence presumably to bear out the merits of the first