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Ave IF

POPULATION NUDGES 90,000

Burnaby’'s problems of growth
puts burden on taxpayers

T IS ALMOST 15 years since

Burnaby restored local gov-
ernment. Declared bankrupt
in 1933, its reeve and coun-
cil were replaced by a com-
missioner appointed by the
provincial government. During
this period of economic de-
pression every third family
of Burnaby’s 30,000 popula-
tion was on unemployed re-
lief.

Tax collections hit an all
time low. Over 40 percent of
properties reverted to the mu-
nicipality in tax sales.

The period also reflected the
mood of the people. The un-
employed were well-organiz-
ed and militant. One demon-
stration to the municipal hall
held Commissioner Fraser cap-
tive until the demands of the
unemployed were met.

Many of that generation
wilt recall that it was the war
and its effect that brought
changes to Burnaby as else-
where. It has been said that
democracy is precious and
dearly bought. The taxpayers
of Burnaby experienced it in
1943. It cost them $3 million
to refund the debt of the de-
pression years -in order that
they could once more elect
their own reeve and munici-
pal council. That sum is on the
taxpayers’ cuff and annual

SCIENCE

payments of principal and in-
terest must be met to retire
this debt by 1965.

With ominous signs on the
economic horizon, how does
Burnaby stand financially to-
day compared with the depres-
sion years?

its population, now nudg-
ing the 90,000 mark, no long-
er fringes the original trans-
portation arteries of Kingsway
Hastings and the old inter-
urban tracks. During the post-
war boom residential sub-div-
isions have replaced acres of
bushland.

The influx of industry has
added 40 major, industries,
among them Shell, Standard,
B.A. refineries and the term-
inus of the Trans-Mountain
oil pipeline.

Taxable improvements have
grown from $13,497,585 in 1945
to $128,485,000 in 1957. It is
also significant that while the
percentage of improvements
taxable in 1945 was 50 per-
cent in 1957 it is 75 percent.

This has also been accom-
panied by several re-assess-
ments of properties (mainly
on homes) and increasing the
mill rate in an attempt to
keep revenue in line with ex-
penditures. This year the tax
rate was increased by three
mills.

The majority of home own-
ers find the Socred govern-
ment’s $28 tax rebate small
compensation as taxes continue
to rise. Burnaby’s financial
plight today is precarious. Its
debt has leaped from $3 mil-
lion in 1943 to $8 million to-
day. It is precarious because,
in spite of the debt, essential
services still lag behind Bur-
naby’s rapid development. Its
master sewer plan was esti-
mated to cost $10 milion three
years ago. It has yet to be
constructed.

Considerable sums of money
are needed for road construc-
tion and maintenance. The ol-
der areas such as Capitol Hill,
East and Central Burnaby and
Lochdale suffer from the worst
kept roads in the municipality.
Yet home owners are taxed as
high in these districts as in
the newer sub-divisions.

It has been the policy to de-
lay road repairs in residential
areas until the taxpayers are
compelled to pay for a paved
road under local improve-
ments. In newer sub-divisions
the cost of services paid by the
contractor is passed on to the
home owner in the purchase
price. No wonder the taxpay-
ers’ load in Burnaby has
reached the breaking point.

WILLIAM TURNER.

What is this strontium 90P

BY THE continued testing of

nuclear weapons our at-
mosphere is being gradually
poisoned with a deadly radio-
active substance, strontium 90.

What is this strontium 90
about which we read so much
today?

The tremendous energy re-
leased when an atomic bomb
explodes arises from the split-
ting of uranium atoms.

New elements are formed
whose atoms are about half
the size of uranium atoms, and
these new elements are also
radioactive, continuously emit-
ting radiation.

Some of these new elements
are very short lived — their
radioactivity might decay in
a matter of a few minutes,
hours or days, so that in a
short period they are no long-
er dangerous.

Some of the new elements,
on the other hand, retain their
radioactivity for a very long
time, and among these is stron-
tium 90, a radioactive form of
the element strontium.

The length of time
radioactivity lasts is nee
by what is called the half-life
period. This is the time tak-
en for the element to lose half
its radioactivity.

For strontium 90 the half-
life period is about 28 years,
so that if some is formed today
as a result of an atomic ex-
plosion, in 28° years time it
will be half as active as it is
now. =

hus, when strontium 90 is
re-eased into the atmosphere
its deadly radiation. decays
only extremely slowly. It is
blown about by the winds of
the upper atmosphere and then
deposited on the earth by rain
and snow.

As an element, strontium is
very similar in its properties
to the well-known element
calcium, an important consti-
tuent of our bones.

This radioactive strontium
is continuously emitting radia-
tion—it goes on emitting it
for years.

The inevitable result is bone
cancer and leukemia.

Children are in the biggest
danger because all the time
their bones are being formed
their intake of calcium is very
high, and if any strontium 90
is present their intake of that
will be very high, too.

Many world famous scient-
ists think that tremendous
damage has already been done.

Prof. J. D. Bernal, FRS,
states: “Thousands will die.
Millions may die from what
has already happened but tens
of millions will die if this mad-
ness is allowed to continue.”

Prof. L. Pauling states that
10,000 people are already dy-
ing or dead from leukemia as
a result of the tests.

These men are scientists of
world repute and not given to
making alarmist statements.

Cessation of the tests will
Zo a long way in helping to
reduce ‘international tension
and securing world peace. -

G. CURTHOYS

OPEN FORUM

My Arkansas brother

CHARLES DE LA GOUGH,
RAS B.C.: The following
verses express my feelings on
the present situation in the
southern United States: s

MY ARKANSAS BROTHER
White trash of the southern
states,

Why persecute your brother?
Your curses and your violent

hates

Will rebound, you'll discover;
Remember that the Master

Is the Master of us all.
Your end will be the faster

And the harder be your fall.

Five score years have ‘come.

and gone,
Since the states were soaked
in gore,
To free and make the Negro
one
With yourselves for ever-
more;
They have done their part in
war, x
In peace, with you against
your foes;
They’ve shone in sports and
politics,
As now the whole world
knows. :

Diplomats and statesmen great
Have risen from the slaves,
But you have turned them into
bait
(Until the whole world raves)
For your lynchings, lashings
And hangings; without trial,

Your jealousies and thrashings

Proclaim you all as vile.

Remember there’s a price to
pay
For the murdered under your
sod,
You can mock your colored
brothers,
But you cannot mock your
God.

Young’s diatribe

READER, Vancouver, B.C.:
The Sommers case undoubt-
edly hung heavy over the
Social Credit convention, but
delegates roused themselves
long enough to “warmly ap-
plaud” a speech by one Percy
Young, Socred theorist from
Dawson Creek.

And what did they applaud?
An anti-Semitic diatribe that
could have come out of Hitler
Germany.

“Zionism” is to blame for
all the evils of the world, said
Young. Zionism controls com-
munism, naziism, socialism,
labor unions, the banks, press
and radio, “everything in fact
except Social Credit.”

That a crackpot should make
such a speech is not too sur-
prising. But when the dele-

gates attending the convention
loudly”

November 1, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—BAGE 4

“applaud Victoria

Colonist) then
took a “second look” at Social
Credit.

Many of the early leaders of

Social Credit in Alberta were
avowed anti-Semites. Some
of this poison spread into S0-
cred ranks in B.C., and Young’s

speech (and the reception it
received) shows that the So-

ered “body politic” isn’t cured
yet. 3
Premier Bennett and_ the
other political careerists who

took over the Socred machine

‘in this province disclaim any

If this is SO

why wasn’t Young slapped
down at the convention?

Little Sputnik

T.B., Ruskin, B.C.: One of
your correspondents, writing
about Sputnik last week,
asked, “Where are the poets?”
Well, here’s one.

LITTLE SPUTNIK
Little Sputnik up so high,
Like a beacon in the sky,

To all people near and far
You are now a leading star.

anti-Semitism.

Proving that the working clas

Free of chains and upper brass

Can attain a giant stride

With science as their hope and
pride.

Little Spunik up so high

Rushing onward through the
sky,

Will the stars above you grit

Welcome you to come on in?

Like the Dulleses on earth
Shun you with a wider berth,
Signal all the stars on high
There is treason in the sky?

Little Sputnik up so high
Yankees gape and wonder whY
You should dare to go up thet®
Without asking Ike the fare-

Will the Senate try to fly,
Call a meeting in the sky,
And with Hoover's ardent ai
Stage a hot subversive raid?

Little Sputnik up so high,
We all know that pigs can’t fl¥
Any fool can clearly see
Soviet technique set you fre®

Dulles and his gang can’t fl¥,
Neither can they dwell on high;
his for certain we may te

They will- henceforth live 1D,

hell.

Little Sputnik up so high,

You are proof all can espy

That the star of peace W
shine.

Armaments and wars deciine

il

May your constant beep, bee?
beep

Open up a wider peep

Into all of outer space —

You have nobly won the race

= : \
it’s time we

Se pops PORT PE oe eter tay, et MEN