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VOLUME 71 NO. 155

PRESEN: WOT RU

by Donna Forsber;
The Thornhill Volun-
teer Firefighters

‘responded ‘ta a fire call

located on Paquette Read
Sunday night around 9:20

.m. This reporter was
‘fortunate’ enough to be
along for the ride in the
fire truck. No matter how
much imagination. is

<.° Princess-Pat

" VANCOUVER — CP

-Rail’s Alaska cruise liner

Princess - Patricia will
rate its final season
jong the Inside Passage
in 1978, it was announced

today. «

A full schedule of 18
cruises will be operated,
with the first sailing from
Vancouver on May 15.

, Departures are every
eight days, with the final - will

cruise leaving on Sept. 28.
Calls are -made at

Ketchikan, Wrangell,
Glacier Bay, Skagway,
Juneau, and Tracy Arm

in Alaska and prince

Fireman at A-frame house fire on Pa
night. No one was home at the ime o:

a

quette Road Thornhill, Sunday
the fire, and the names of the

20¢

occupants were unavailable at press time.

Fire on Paquette

applied to this sort of
situation, there is nothing
like reelity!! My adren

‘glands worked overtime

as we raced along slick
streets, dodge a
stranded Volkswagon and
arrived, lights flashing,
siren screaming, at the
blaze. Although little
time had elapsed between

Rupert and Alert Bay,
Be :

In announcing
planned withdrawal of
the ship at the end of next
season, B.C. Margetts,
general manager, coastal
marine operations for CP
Rail, said earnings, have
steadily declined in
recent years, and
forecast cost escalations
i make future
operation -uneconomic.

The decision to operate
in 1978 was made in
recognition of a long-
standing association wit
many tour ceprators and

POSTAL STRIKE

TORONTO (CP) -~ A
postal strike azu Toronto
mail-sorting plant has
reduced the flow of mail
in the city to a trickle.

Post office spokesm n
Ed Roworth said Sunday

the key to the stoppage is -

the truck drivers.

There is no mail
coming in or going out
because they. will not
cross picket lines,
Roworth said, adding
that mail should be
backing up all across
Canada.

“T’'m prepared to go to

ilover this one," Eileen

udiow, acting president

of the Toronte local of the
Canadian Union of Postal
Workers (CUPW), said
after Toronto’s. CUPW
workers voted on the
weekend ‘to expand their
strike to all. postal
stations in Metropolitan
Toronto.

Tke strike could con-
tinue through the
Christmas rush, she said.

Postal workers at one
of the sorting plants went
on strike Thursday to
protest the suspension of.

nine workers,
That night, the Letter
Carriers Union of

Canada, which includes

the truck drivers, decided |

not to cross picket lines
set up by the inside
workers.
Postal authorities and
CUPW representatives
negotiated _un-
successfully Sunday for
nine hours: and
resume talks later today.
The union has said it
will remain on strike until

the strike has
from the Vancouver area.

the nine workers are
reinstated. .
Meanwhile, Mr. Justice
J. D. Cromarty of the
Ontario Supreme Court,
postponed until today a
decision on whether to
rant an injunction
orcing the postal
workers back to~ work,
The delay was made after
lawyers on both sides
asked for more time for
further negotiations.

EXPAND STRIKE

At Saturday’s CUPW
meeting, attended by
about 20 per cent of:the
union membership, the
workers, voted 384 to 334
in favor of expanding the
strike in Toronto.
‘In Halifax, Wayne
Mundell, spokesman for
CUPW in the Atlantic
region, said a full-scale
strike is likely if the
Toronto disputé is not
settled. i
ost ‘office had
ing disciplinary
action against: union
executive members and
stewards and, dt some
point, it has to stop, he
said,

A union spokesman in
Toronto said-support for
s0 come

“Everyone calls us
strike happy,’' said Les
Williams, a CUPW
worker on the picket line
Sunday.

“We honestly “hate
doing this,” he said. “But
if we don’t we suffer, our
families suffer. It’s a
terrible situation to be in.
Believe me,”

aa elgg ev

ricia

the

‘with a segment o

the emergency call and
the firemen’s arrival, it
must be stressed that all

rules of safety under such -

conditions were

judiciously observed, ie.,
the sound timing of the
siren altered” when
passing through in-
tersections to ensure the
public’s attention and

travel agents who have
already begun booking
and se space for the
coming season 8 “and in
addition, to ac-
commodate the many
former passengers who
have expressed the desire
to be a part of the Prin-
cess Patricia's final
season,” he said.
Despite intense com-
petition on the Alaska
run, the 320-passenger
Princess Patricia has
continued to he ular
e
‘Canadian and American
travelling public seeking
aninformal cruising style
and a smaller ship,
Although the expected
heavy passenger
response in 1978 is
forecast to improve
season results, longer
term prospects for the
ship are less favorable,
said Mr. Margetts,
“An effect of the in-
tense competition has

All Pitch In

Stealing C

observance and speed
was used with discretion.
Upon our arrival,: the
fire truck was backed
into the driveway and the
firefighters were ready to
perform their duties.
Operating as a well co-
ordinated unit, they had
the fire under control
within minutes. "

been to make it in-
creasingly difficult to
fully recover cost in-
creases without raising
fares. beyond what
frayellers will pay,’’ he
said.

Extensive capital
improvements to the
Princess Patricia would
be required-to enable the
ship to conintue in service
beyond the end of. 1979,
after which all vessels
entering U.S. waters will
require self-contained
waste disposal systems.

The company has now
determined that the
ship's economic
prospects make the
required major
modifications
prohibitive.

Since the retirement of
Canadian ‘National’s
Prince George in ‘early
1875, the Prineess
Patricia has been the
only Canadian-flag vessel
in West Coast cruise

TUESDAY. DECEMBER 33, 1977

Speaking later to the
fire chief, Jim Piper, I
was informed that the
fire and started in the
kitchen area and caused
50 per cent damage to the
downstairs. The reason
for the blaze is sitll under
investigation.

T6 Be Pulléd Out

service.

The 6,000-ton CP Rail
liner was built at Govan,
Scotland in- 1949. Major
refitting was carried. out
to prepare the ship for
Alaska cruise gervice in
1963 when it replaced the
well-known Princess
Louise. . .

Approximately 90 of-
ficers and crew are in-
volved in the operation of
the Princess Patricia, 45
of whom are permanent
employees. The
remainder are seasonal
staff hired on a year-to-
year basis. |

At the conclusion of the
season in the fall of 1978,
most of the permanent
employees will be able to
either exercise their
seniority . in other
operations of CP Rail’s
coastal service or take
advantage of job-security
provisions in their union
agreements.

hristmas Back |

From “Grinch”

SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) — Corporations,
fruckers and even a
wandering wino are
itching in to steal

ristmas back from a
“Grinch” who looted a
$15,000 cache of toys
intended for ° poor
children,

By late Sunday, the fire
department reported it
had receive about
$40,000 worth of donations
and toys to replace those
stolen or wrecked last
Wednesday.

Firemen had been
using a vacant fire
station to store its gifts,
which they had planned
to give to 70,000 needy
children this Christmas.
Bul someone broke in and
loaded a pickup truck
with more than $10,000
worth of toys.

Police arrived early
Thursday to find a dozen
teen-agers playing
among another $5,000
worth of wrecked toys.
The youths said the thief
told them to help

themselves.
The cubprit,
reminiscent of the villain

in the Grinch Who Stole .

Christmas, a children’s
story by Dr. Seuss,
remains at large. -

But his crime inspired
an overflowing of
seasonal charity that
Lieut. Dan McDermott,
head of the fire depart-
ment's 25th annual to’
drive, called ‘utterly
fantastic,"

WING HELPS OUT

“T want to write you a
cheque before I'm too
drunk to write my
name,” an unnamed wino

told firemen. He signed
and donated a $50
traveller’s cheque,

Truck driver Terry
LeBlanc— known on the
highways ‘as Terrible
Terry—hit the CB radio
waves and told his
buddies he needed their
help to fill a truck with
toys. He got it.

“I think it’s a dirty
shame that’ someone
would go out and rip off
little kids,” LeBlanc said.

“And people with
quarters and 50 cents
have been coming in all
day," McDermott sald.

Postal Holidays

Postal facilities will be
closed throughout British
Columbia on Christmas
Day, December 26,
December 27, New
Year's Day and January
2

There will be no mall
deliveries on these

holidays, however

Hmited service will apply
to Special Delivery items
on December 26,

December 27 and
January 2,
Street letter box

collections will only be

made on December 27,

Bob MeClelland

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VICTGHIA, “ites
V3a7-Li4

#61

Health Minister
Here on Dec. 21

Health Minister Bob
McClelland will be
arriving in Terrace

y, December
2ist. to meet with rer-
pesentatives of the ad-
ministration and staff of
the Skeenaview Lodge,
MLA Cyril Shelford’s
“Purpose of the visit 1s

2 0 visit is
said to be to enable the
minister to have a first
hand look at the highly
controversial situation
existing there.

Last week employees of.

theTerrace

Psychogeriatric ir
stitution picketted it and
barred staff from en-
tering or leaving. They
were protesting the
transfer of a number of
longtime residents to
Maple Ridge Hospital, in
southern B.C., scheduled
to take place later that

utation
Cyrit
Shelford’s office, and a

phone call by Shelford to
the Hon. Bob McClelland,

Minister of Health, the .

transfer was § nded
— at least until after
Christmas.

Shelford stated he is
anxious to have Me-
Clelland meet
representatives of the
staff as well as the ad-
minstration, since there
appears to be a diversity
of opinion and a com-
munications gap,

The Health Minister
will be departing Terrace
on the Wednesday
evening flight.

Bella Bella Is Cold Cold

BELLA BELLA, B.C.
(CP) — The cold that

lagued the 1,100
inhabitants of this
isolated midcoast

community gave way to
rain during the weekend
as a crew hired by British
Columbia Hydro worked
to restore electric power
that had been off since
last Tuesday.

Cecil Reid, chief
councillor for the native
Indian band that com-

rises most of Bella.

ella’s residents, said
that band members were
confronted Sunday with a
new problem: the frozen
pipes that burst were
thawing and. flooding
some basements, and the
winter supply of fish and
beef stored in freezers
was in danger of thawing.

Hydro spokesman
Mickey Allum, the power
districts manager in
Terrace, was optimistic
that the crew, braving
choppy waters, coul
have one of three cables
in place by today, al-
though they could not

restore full power until
Tuesday. — :
Bella Bella, 500

kilometres northwest of
Vancouver, lost its

Mr. Jim Ellis, District
Justice Council co-
ordinator will be ad-
dressing a meeting of the
Justice Council, tonight
at the Terrace Hotel in
the Skeena Room at 8

p.m. -

‘Featured will be a film
and —_ discussion on
“operation Coun-
terattack’' based on the
use of the 12 “‘Batmobile”’
mobile breathalizer vans.

Meeting Tonight

electric power supply
when a tug boat's tow
chain apparently cut the
underwater cables laid
across the mile-wide
channel between the town
of Campbell Island and 2
substation on Denny
Island.

Reid said band
members . are _ bitter
because B.C. Hydro took
too long to respond to the
call for help, and because
the accident bore out the
band’s fears expressed in
the late 1960s when the
substation was built.
SWITCH LOCATIONS

“Hydro should have put
the generator on Cam
bell Island, fed the cable
to Denny and put an
emergency generator
there,’’ Reid said.

Denny Island is home
to fewer than 100 persons.

“People are more
bitter about that (the site
of the generator) than
they are about the slow-
ness of Hydro to
reapond,”” Reid said

unday.

Allum said Hydro hired
acontract crew of about a
dozen men to lay three
temporary cables which
arrived Friday aboard
the B.C. ferry Queen of

The program will be led
by ihe aided by. filn
and pamphlets,

RCMP to date claim to
have found the Batmobile
an effective tool in the the
program to reduce the
amount of drunk driving
in the province. !

A Batmobile | is
currently assigned for
use in Terrace
district.

~Taxi Owners
Not Worried

VANCOUVER (CP) —
Taxi owners in Van-
couver aren’t concerned
about. insurance  in-
creases of between 15 and
25 per cent announced
Friday by the Insurance
Corp. af

British
Columbia, Jimmy
Dawson, president of the
Vancouver Taxi Owners’
Association, said Sunday.
“I don’t believe those
figures," Dawson said,
“They don’t know what
they're t Iking about.

Annual!
Show

Terrace Co-op and
Tilicum Twin Theatres
will be holding their
annual Free Christmas
show for children up to 12
years old.

A great attraction, last
year, the attendance is
expected to be even
greater this year.

The show will be at 1:30
p.m, Thursday, Dec.
22nd. and will be a Walt
Disney Cartoon Special.

Admission will an
article of food, clothin
etc, which will be donate
to the Salvation Army for
distribution to the needy.

The Terrace Co-ap's
participation the the Free

ildren's Show includes
paying a major share o
the ‘theatre rental and
donating bags of
Christmas candies to all
the children at the
theatre.

He said he suspected
#-prees iden w.
speaking about taxi it

abou in-
surance rates for the
whole province when he
made the announcement

He said Vancouver taxi
owners paid $960,000 in
premiums last year and
received $400,000 in
settlements.

As in past years,

Vancouver taxi owners
will negotiate premiums
with ICBC based on past
records—which is to the
owners’ advantage, he
said.
“If we are wid we
expect to pay. We don’
want the rest of the ‘Public
subsidizing us. And they
won't.”

There are about 450
eabs in Vancouver and
1,200 to 1,400 in B.C,
Dawson said,

ICBC spokesman Bev
Penhall said that neither
he nor Gillen could reply
to Dawson’s comments
until they
records today.

examine

Prince Rupert. Regular
Hydro = crews ~=—s were
already repairing a
similar cable problem at

‘Tofino on the west coas

of Vancouver Island. :-

The crew is weightin:
the cable every hun
feet for about 5,000 feet
across the channel which
Allum said is a_time-
consuming job. Hydro
will repair the original
cable later.

The coast guard cutter
Ready brought 75
kerosene heaters
Saturday along with five
drums of fuel, but cam
stoves didn't arrive, Rei
said, and some residents
tried to cook meals on the
heaters.

The band is seeking a
shipment of plumbing
pipes from Ocean Falls,

.C, to replace those that
burst in the cold.

Meanwhile, telephone
contact with the isolated
community was lost
Sunday night. A B.C.
Telephone Co. official in

Vancouver suspected a
-failure of a microwave:

radio relay system and

said the company hoped .
toland a repair crew here

today.

For
Christmas

Lieut. Jack Strickland
of the Terrace Corps of
the Salvation
arrived recently from
Surrey, B.C. He replaces

Capt. and Mrs. Bil
Young who left Terrace
for anyon City in Oc-

r.
Lieut. Strickland is.
busily engaged in pre-
Christmas activities that -
Include caring for the...
Christmas Cheer kettles -
to finance local Corps: «
welfare throughout t

year. .

Donations from the
Terrace Co-op — Tillicum
Twin ‘Theatre Free
Christmas Children’s
show also are distributed
to the needy by the
Salvation Armh.

This year's demands
Strickland says, coupled
with inflation costs make
the Corps work all the
more demanding. Per-
sons wishing io donate
personally to the

vation army can reach
Lieut. Strickland at 635-

BULLETIN

The Terrace School
‘Board Meeting scheduled
for Wednesday,

called off, a Schoo] Board
hone call revealed
onday night. No reason
for the postponement waa
iven. However, the
‘errace HERALD has
been informed the News
media will be kept in-
formed. of further
developments. a