,

Williams Lake Tr

NEWS EXCHANGE OF THE CARIBOO

Volume 22 --- Number 12.

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. Thursday, March 25, 195

54.

Single copy 10c. $2.50 per year.

OVER 100 ATTEND
ANNUAL BANQUET
OF TRADE GROUP

Over 100 people sat down tothe
Bourd of Trade’s annual banquet
Jast uight to hear reports of the
trade group's activities and witness
the installation of new officers.

In giving his brief annual report,
retiring president Bert Roberts stat-
ed that one of the board’s main con-
tributions to the district's welfare in
his opinion had been the unceasing
support given to the proposal of ex-
tending the Pacific Great Eastern
Railway into-North Vancouver. This
is now about to become an accom-
plished fact, and Mr. Roberts told
his listeners that in the years to come
when the*railroad is looked on as a
vital factor in the development of the
central Interior, they would be able
to point with pride to the part played
in the fight for the original exten-
sions by the little town of Williams
Lake.

In 1953 the board instituted an
agricultural field day observance in
conjunction with the Cariboo Cattle-
men’s annual meeting in May. This
constituted a’ two-day program -in-
eluding the showing of films on ag-
rieultural work, arranging for speak-
ers, a cocktail party for the ranchers,
and a farm ‘white elephant’ auction
sale, A salute to ranching was given
by another district industry when J
& W Logging Company sponsored a
luncheon on the second day.

Mr. Roberts said the board was
backing the village commissioners in
their fight to secure a new airport.
and considerable headway was made
last year when a detailed survey of
a site was carried out. Early in the
year the board met with Hon. Ralph
“‘Chewynd and Hon. Erie Martin to
talk over industrial trackage prob-
Jems and the hospital situation.

The board is compiling a tourist
folder through the trade & industry
committee that will be ready for pro-
duction this spring. Development of
a park site on tlie lake to give access
to hoat launching spots on the shore
hhas been investigated and presently
awaits the result of highway work
along the lake to see what changes
will be made in the contours of the
original site.

The board of trade is trying to do
all possible for the town and district,
Mr. Roberts stated, and for this rea-
son it should be up to every resident
to give it active support.

FROM VILLAGE

Speaking on behalf of the Boara
of Village Commissioners, chairman
Stan Goad told the meeting that the
community needs an active-Board of
Trade to work hand in hahdi with
the commission. “It is through com-
bined effort that we can get things
done for Williams Lake,” he stated.

Following Mr. Roberts’ report,
Rev. Father J. Naphin installed
James Shaw and Tommy Larson to
their offices of president and vice-
president.

The in-coming president told the
audience tht he felt the board mem-
bers: had bestowed a great honour
on him. He said it was his belief that
the future held great promise for the
town and he would do his utmost to
see the board took a full part in this
development.

‘Unmasked’ Marvel
On Fight Card

First wrestling card to be staged
here since last year's cattle sale is

scheduled for two nights at the Elks

Hall starting tomorrow.

The popular local boys, Bill and
Felix Kobnke will take on Buddy
Knox and Tommy Nilon in individu-
al matches, with a tag team mateh
winding up the card Saturday night.

Knox, the former-Masked Marvel
on the coast circuit, can be depended
on to put up a good show. Weighing
210 pounds, the unmasked marvel
has been wrestling with the best of
them. Just before Christmas he lost
out in Seattle to Lewis Thez, world’s
champion. Nilon is an unknown
quality, but hails from Sidney, Aus-
tralia, and has been wrestling all
over the world.

Felix Kohnke has just returned
from Honolulu where he wrestled
under the name of Logger Larsen.
‘Prior to that he completed the fight
cireuit in the States and eastern
Canada.

District Engineer
Posted To Vancouver

District Engineer Ray Cunliffe,
who has been in charge of the local
public works district since January,
1950, leaves within ten days to take
up a new position with the depart-
ment as district engineer at Vancou-
ver.

In the metropolitan centre Mr.
Cunliffe will have under his charge
the upkeep of> arterial highways
leading into the city and all of the
provincial govern i He
will also become much more familiar
with the Bella Coola road question,
since that coast village is in the Mc-
Kenzie district, which is included in
the Vancouver district engineer's re-
sponsibilities.

Mr. Cunliffe has been active in
community activities during his stay
here. He is a past president of the
Junior Chamber of Commerce and
currently is a director of the His-
torical Society. He has given freely
of his engineering knowledge and
artistic ability when approached by
village organizations. He has just
completed sketches’ for a proposed
Board of Trade pamphlet.

Replacing Mr. Cunliffe here. will
he J. W. Pomeroy, who has been with
the department since 1948. Mr. Pom-
eroy’s last position has been as a
resident engineer in the depart-
ment’s Victoria offices.

PGE Chief Speaks To Board

Shuttle Finals Next Week

Finals in both the senior and jun
ior division of the local badminton,
club championships are scheduled to:
be played a week from tonight. The
games are open to the public.

MAILING RATES UP
ON APRIL Ist -

Due to disappear from common
use April 1 is the three-cent stamp,
as the post office’s new first class
mailing rates go into effect.

On that date it will cost four cents
to mail a letter to anyone in Wil
liams Lake. For delivery to all othen
post offices in Canada and to foreign
countries that. could be reached be-
fore with a letter for four cents, the
rate will now be tive cents. Ratéis on
the first ounce or fraction thereof. <{|

Posteards in Canada and. to all|
other countries will now cost four
cents.

All first class mail to other post
offices in Canada will now go by air
where such service is available. Out~
side of Canada the previous aimail

rates will apply.

missioners,

‘The topic was village boundaries,
and it started out innocently enough
over a recent decision of a rmquest
to construct a sawmill within the
present boundaries. When the mill
question was being tossed across the
board table, one commissioner sug-
gested that even if such a plant was
built on the other side of the line,
on property over which they have no
restriction control, it would still be
too close to residential lots:

This led to the thought that the
land in question should be brought
into the village if possible. The pres-
ent boundary at that point crosses
Railway Avenue at the old Fix-it
shop, and it was suggested that the
entire area bordered by Railway
‘Avenue, as far as the bridge and ex-
tending over the road paralleling
the creek on the other side of the
Stampede grounds should be taken
into-the village.

Commissioner Gardner said it was
his opinon that the boundary ques-
tion on all sides of the village should
be investigated. With the town burst-
ing at its present boundary seams, he
eaid it would not be long before we
were surrounded by a number of
small settlements that would have to

Student Staff Guests
Of Tribune Publishers

Wind-up of the special issue publi-
cation project last week when high
school students took over editorial
jobs on The Tribune, was a dinner
Friday night sponsored by the pub-
lishers.

Fourteen members of the school
Publications Club as well as the
regular Tribune staff were seated at
the dinner. Attending as teaching
staff representative was Mrs. J. Har-
mia, who guides the work of the pub-
iications club.

Speaking to the students, editor
Clive Stangoe said the issue had been

an experimental one, and the fact
that it had turned out so successful-
ly he attributed to the work and
ability of the students themselves.
| He thanked Mrs. Haramia for the
active interest she had shown in the
project and addresed a remark to
her on the work accomplished, said
he thought the publications club
deserved an ‘A’ for effort and results
in the first annual students’ issue.

The publishers were thanked on
behalf of the students by their editor-
in-chief, Eddie Kozuki, who said
they had all enjoyed working on the
paper and felt they had gained a
| great deal of experience,

Commissioners Give Thought
To Village Boundary Extension

As sometimes happens at a meeting of the village com-
the most important piece of business discussed
was not on the agenda and no definite conclusion was reached.
But the fact that the subject arose, and caught the undivided
attention of the five commissioners,
foreshadowing of things to come.

indicates that it was a

be eventually taken into the village,

owhed it was to, yee e to do amything
abodt controling any tendungy t6

shaek-town growth:

If any such boundary revision is
contemplated, permisson must first
be obtained from the property own-
ers affected. Since the Pacific Great
Eastern Railway Company owns most
of the surrounding property, this
mainly boils down to convincing the
PGE. Commissioners decided to get
in touch with company Officials to go
over the entire boundary problem.

The new water rates by-law re-
ceived first reading after minor
changes. One of these was the in-
clusion of another general connec-
tion charge rate for winter connec-
tions. If connections are made be-
tween November 15 and March 15,
ordinary rates will be jumped 50 per
cent. The idea was taken from Kam-
loops where it is part of the rate
structure.
PLAYGROUND

A request from the Parent-Teach-
ers’ Association for the donation of
playground equipment on the corner
lot beside the Fire Hall was granted.
One of the P-TA projects is to install
playground equipment in the elem-
entary school yard, and since little
use is being made of the fire hall
corner play area, the group felt that
children would get more use out of
the equipment if it was moved.
OFFICE

Commissioners are considering 1
proposal to put an addition on the
fire hall building that could be used
as a combined village office ani
board room. Suggested size is about
18x30 feet. Commissioner Gardner
is drawing up tentative plans. The
present village office at the rear of
the fire hall has room for Village
Clerk Gibbon, his desk, a filing cab-
inet, safe, heatér and one customer.

PERMITS

Residential building permits were
granted to Mrs. H. B, Huckvale and
HH. T. Fourt.

Mrs. Huckvale
nothing in originality. Along
her plans were two elevation views
of the proposed house — done in
water colours.

Commercial permits were granted
to Chas. Moon for alterations to the
former post office building. Value
$2000.

Approval was given to sketch plans

application 1

for the proposed United Church
manse.
Recent visitors at the home of

Mr. and Mrs. J. M, Anderson were the
jatter’s sister and brother-in-law,
Mr. and Mrs. EB. F. Sherman, of San
Francisco, Calif.

MUSEUM, LIBRARY
PLAN APPROVED
BY COMMISSIONERS

Authority to proceed with plans

a a building to house the Historical
| Society's museum, a library and art
society room was given Tuesday
night by Village Commissioners fol-
lowing the presentation of a brief on
the project.
The brief, presented by historical
ciety president Henry Windt, dealt
with the community’s need for each
9f fhe three organizations, a detail-
ed break-down of cost and the re-
sponsibility of the village.

With regards to a museum, the
brief points out that it will soon be
100 years ago (1958 is centennial
year) since gold was first discovered
in the Cariboo, in the vicinity
Horsefly, and nothing has yet been
done in a public way in this district
to. gather and preserve articles of
storical and sentimental value. The
brief emphasizes that many of these
items are now being taken out of the
country for private collections.

_On need for a library, it is pointed
out'that the present library associa-
ticn has just completed a drive that
added 1500 volumes to the shelves.
At present the library is being push-
ed around every few months in
search of new quarters, a situation
that should be rectified, it is asserted
in the brief, and a library housed ina
Building to which the community
could point with pride.

The art society is a fast growing
group which draws its interest from
a Jarge area and should be encour-
aged as much as possible.

Besides becoming a cultural cen-
rte for the community, it is susgest-
a the brief thay such a structure

al point for te:

stribution of oo of ie

terest to tourists’ and it continues
(continued on back page)

COMM. ABBOTT
CLEARS THE AIR

Commissioner Benny Abbott got a
couple of things off his chest Tuesday
night that have evidently been both-
ering him for some time. One con-
cerned his allegation that Village
Clerk EB. H. Gibbon had been doing
some electioneering on village time.
and the other concerned the chain
of command in his own waterworks
department.

Although it was a little difficult
to pin down the actual instance of
electioneering being referred to in
Mr. Abbott's discourse, he did say
that he didn’t think the clerk was
playing the game when he gave
opinions on the candidates in a civic
election, particularly not when the
opinions were voiced on village time.
Mr. Abbott thought the clerk should
| stay out of civic politics. Mr. Abbott
also inferred that the incident con-
cerned himself, since he went on to
ask the room in general “what is
wrong with being a publican?” He
went on to say that some of the best;
people were publicans; that several
municipalities had elected publicans
to their chief civic posts. |

Leaving the field of politics, the
new commissioner then wanted to
know who was in charge of the vil-
lage. In the case of the one perman-
net outside man, who looks after
he village water system, Mr. Abboit
wanted to know if he was respon-
sible to the village clerk or to the
commissioner in charge of the de-
partment.

Chairman Stan Goad said the ¢!
of command had to. go throu
clerk's office,
for a commi
at all times.
order sheets explained to the
new commissioners and it was de-
cided to bring the tem into
again. Under this plan each commis-

The once-used sytem of

was

sioner has a pad of these sheets and
if he wants work done for his depart-
ment he makes a note of it and turns
the sheet in to the clerk, who in turn
passes it on to the outside crew.
Having had his say on the two
points, Commissioner Abbott said he
felt much better about things in
| general, having as he put it, ‘cleared
the air

NEW MANAGER ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT
FUTURE OF PROVINCE-OWNED LINE

A tremendous era of development for northern British
Columbia, with the Pacific Great Eastern Railway taking part
in the growth,.was forecast by the company’s new general
manager, R. F. P. Bowman as he addressed the annual banquet
of the Board of Trade last night.

“Paddy” Bowman, who left a po-
sition of acting superintendent with
the CPR to take over operation of
‘our provincial-owned line, impressed
listeners with his sincerity as he
traced the chequered history of the
PGE from its earliest days to the
place it is taking in B.C.’s modern
economy.

Grading on the southern extension
route will get underway soon and in
the north location surveys are being
made to the Peace, the general man-
ager told his audience. Now the PGE.
is all lined up to start somewhere
and go somewhere, and he predicted
that when both extensions were com-
pleted the economy of the province
right long: the line would benefit.

The history of the railroad closely
paralleled that of the country it has
served, Mr. Bowman stated. It start-,
ed out with high hopes, and through
no fault of its planners, instead of
becoming a feeder line to the coast
for the old Grand Trunk Pacific, it
was left-on its own to try and pay its
way on local traffic. Through the
years of the depression and right
into the 40’s the line Was an un-
profitable business with little hope
seen in the future. This was the case
of the country it served, Mr. Bow-
man stated, in those years when the
ranchers and farmers found! produc-
tion unprofitable.

Here the speaker digressed to pay
tribute to those same primary pro-
ducers who pioneered the ‘settlement
of the.country and hu: u
the—blackest years to deve} yp. they,
land. “We owe them a greater tri-
bute than we can ever pay,” he stated.

With the coming of a brighter
economic picture, the railway started
to expand too, and the speaker stat-
ed that between 1941 and 1953 traf-

fic on the PGE had increased 12
times.

To handle this increase, heavier
rail is being laid. There is 25 miles
down around the lake summit to the
south the same weight rails is down
on the Quesnel-Prince George exten-
sion, Besides this another 50 miles
of rail is now on the high seas being
delivered from England. Change-
over from steamers to diesel engines
is continuing and now the line has
18 diesels and only six steamers left.

The Prince George extension gave
the railroad a healthy shot in the
arm, Mr. Bowman asserted, and now
between one-quarter and one-third
of the railroad’s car traffic goes in
and out of the north end. But even
with this proportion going north,
the barge service at Squamish handl-
ed more cars last. year than the one
previous, indicating that traffic
growth right along the line is in-
creasing.

The Reace River extension will
mean much to the people of that part
of the province, who have been iso-
lated from the remainder of British
Columbia for so long. But the speak-
er raised his eyes beyond the horizon

District Rancher
On Beef Council

Lord Martin Cecil, president of the
Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association, ha
been named a director on the new’
formed Canadian Meat Council. The
district rancher will be one of six
representatives on the council from
the Council of Canadian Beet Pro-
ducers. The other five are from the
prairie provinces.

Formation of the council is an-
other step in the preparation of a
new- promotional program for the
industry to be financed by a volun-
tary deduction of 5 cents per head on
cattle marketed. The cuuneil will re-
ceive the collections and direct the
educational program. The counejl is
corstitited as to include pork and
jam) as well as beef as soon as pro-
ducers of those other

jready to give support.

meats are

of the Peace when he envisioned de-
yelopment farther north that “might
not come in your time or mine but
will assuredly develop.” He said he
could envision the PGE extending up
the Rocky Mountaia Trench to the
Yukon and possibly Alaska,

“Development depends on @ rail=
road, either with or ahead of settle-
ment,” he concluded, “‘and the PGE
is going to share in this develop-
ment,”

The speaker was introduced by
Judge Henry Castillou, who gave his
listeners a thumb-nail sketch of Mr.
Bowman's career. He said he had al-
ways been interested in knowing how
a man became the general manager
of a railroad and he found that in
Mr. Bowman's case it was done by
being not a hostile engineer, but a
-eivil engineer. He started at Cran-
brook for the CPR and rose to the
position of roadmaster before join-
ing the engineers in the Second
World War. He served for 5% years
and rose to the rank of major and
was awarded the MBE. Following the
war he returned to the CPR and was
four years in Medicine Hat as acting
superintendent.

‘The three initials preceeding ‘Bow-
man’ stand for Ronald, Fraser, Pat~
rick. Judge Castillou informed the
audience.

Town Players
Bring Back
Three Titles

Williams Lake badminton players
continued their starry way this sea-
‘son when they captured three titles
in the big North Central B.C. cham-
pionship play at Prince George on
the weekend.

Ralph Woodland won the singles
crown and figured in the other two
wins as well when he teamed with
Eddie Gaspard Jr., in the men’s dou-
bles and Mrs. Mary Borkowski in the
mixed.

Finals in two events were spoiled
by an injury suffered by Don Currie
of Quesnel. The strong rivertown
contender had a slight edge on Wood-
land in the deciding game of the
men’s singles when he pulled a liga-
ment and was forced out of play. The
two players had split the match with
one game apiece and as play. wore
on in the final game Ralph battled
from behind to bring the score up to
14-11 when the accident occurred.
Currie was forced to forfeit the game
and he and his partner had to for-
feit their next scheduled match
against Woodland and Gaspard in
the doubles finals.

Ralph and Mary Borkowski, who
have teamed up to win the mixed
title three times, downed Drew Os-
well and Jean Clark of Prince George
15-9, 15-7 in the finals of their com-
petition.

In men’s singles play, Eddie Gas-
pard reached the sem: mals before
being knocked out by Currie, 15-14,
15-8.

Only other competitor from Wil-
liams Lake, Wilbur Hannah made a
strong showing in the B flight com-
petitions. He reached the quarter fin-
als in the men's singles, teamed up
with Stan Carling of Quesnel to
reach the semis in the men’s doubles
and played with Bileen Evans of
Prince in the mixed to reach the
semis again.

Ralph Woodland has won the men’s
singles title four times and he and
teammate Ed Gaspard have won the
men’s doubles four times.

Along with the entrants on the
trip were Joe Borkowski, coach, and
spectators, Mrs. R. Woodland, Mr.
and Mrs. E. G. Woodland, Mrs. E.
Gaspard; Jr., and Miss Rosemary
Hannah. From Lone Butte were Mr.

and Mrs. Roy Woodland and Mr. and
Mrs. Jack DeVries,