Page 4, The Herald, Tuesday, December 11, 197%

TERRACE/AITIMAT
daily herald

Genera] Office - 635-4357
Circulation - 635-6357

GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland
EDITOR - Greg Middleton

CIRCULATION. TERRACE - 435-4357
KITIMAT OFFICE - 632-2747
Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street,
Terrace, B.C. A member of Varified Circulation.
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FOR
THE
RECORD

By ED YUDIN

Terrace’s Chamber of Commerce is in deep trouble.

The total lack of interest demonstrated in the
organization's recent election of officers is ample
proof of that. Many a nook and cranny was searched
for a suitable candidate for the chamber’s presidency.
There were no takers. Finally Juanita Hatten, an
active chamber member, put her name forward and
was elected by acclamation,

A number of chamber members are known to be
upset with the choice. A member of the executive has
already resigned because of it.

Hatten, who runs an employment agency called the
Golden Rule, is far from the ideal choice. The fact she
is not a popular choice, and that she is not a business
representative in the true sense of the word, will make
her job more difficult.

The real problem lies, however, not with the choice

of Hatten, but rather with the lack of interest shown by:

the community. The organization was formed to
promote community commercial and industrial ac-
tivity and tourism. Business people though, seem not
to care about supporting an organization which is
promoting their welfare.

George Clark, a chamber vice-president, says
people are simply not interested in getting involved,
especially if things are running relatively smoothly.
While there are 70 chamber of commerce members,
there are barely seven or eight active ones. Clark
thinks the chamber is in real danger of folding
because of apathy.

On a similar note, Clark also wonders if the apathy
is spreading. He says there is a real problem these
days in getting people interested in the activities of
such service organizations as the Jaycees, the Lions,
and the Kinsmen.

It would seem logical the existence of an active
chamber of commerce is the sign of a vital and
growing community, But as in the case of Kitimat a
few years back, the chamber may die off leaving
people to wonder why.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that absence makes
the heart grow fonder.

ATRILL THINKS

by Thomas Attrill

‘ . The cause of death was a horse wandering on the
highway.”

The news report told about a single car accident in
which one man was killed. He had been driving on a
dark, ralny night and did not see the horse until it was
toa late. No one was blamed for the accident.

I did not quite agree that the man had died as a
result of his own carelessness, or that it was simply an
act of God, assuming that God would do a thing such
as that. '

I thought back to the many near-misses that [ had
experienced over the years, Cattle, horses, dogs,
moose and various other types of wildlife have often
crossed my path, sometimes uncomfortably close.
And I also thought about a practice that is all to
prevalent in my area, that of allowing domestic
animals to roam at large, unfenced and uncared for. It
is not difficult to imagine the damage and annoyance
that these beats can cause, I have often asked the
owners if they would at least keep their animals off the
highway. I have talked to law officers and warned
other motorists of the danger. I concluded that most
owners of livestock in this area are indifferent to the
fate of their animals.

There is an amusing quick to this indifference. Let
me ijlustrate:

Al Forbush owned several horses, None of them
believed in fences and Al didn’t provide many for
them to contemplate, in any case. Oneday I asked him
to come over and remove them from my fields. He
refused, saying that he did not own any horses; they
must belong to someone else. Some weeks later one of
them was run over by a skidder and killed. Al was
there within minutes, to try to collect for one dead
horse!! '

I wonder if we will see the time when all people will
be held responsible for their livestock, fencing and
feeding and caring for them and paying for any
damage they cause to others. Owners would be fined
for allowing their animals to roam on any public high-
way.

Al Forbush and his like would disagree, of course.

Letters welcome

The Herald welcomes its readers comments.
All letters to the editor of general public interest
will be printed. We do, however, retain the right
to refuse to print letters on grounds of possible
libel or bad taste. We may also edit letters for
style and length. All letters to be considered for
publication must b+ signed.

CYRIL SHELFORD

Hon. Rafe Mair
Minister of Environment
Dear Rafe: .

I've just returned
from a day inspection
tour of the Nechako
Reservoir which was
one of the best hunting
areas of the province.
Five of us went and
spent about six hours a
day walking in good
game areas (8 days in
all). In all this time we

‘never saw or heard
another hunter, and I
would say that hunting
pressure is not a factor CYRIL
in this area, Even in the
Conservancy Area in SHELFORD
Tweedsmuir Park where there is no hunting, the game
population has nearly disappeared.

We spent the same number of days seven years ago
and we saw a great deal of game at that time (deer,
caribou and moose). There was never a day when we
didn’t see deer and moose, some days aS many as 30
deer, Now there is no deer and we saw no caribou, not
eyen any tracks, and we saw only 10 moose in 8 days. I
found five wolf kills; two calves, a two-year-old cow, a
big dry cow, only just killed, and a big bull killed less
than a week ago. We heard wolves every day and
covered an area of over 100 miles,

I think it is a great shame that due to false education
and misleading information on radio and TV we have
edueated a generation that knows little about game
management, and the realities of wild life in general,
which in the end stops our managers from managing.
With reasonable predator control programs (without
eliminating the wolf) we could still have just as much
game as during the 1950's and 1960’s when we. had
game management and control programs. Your staff
in Fish and Wildlife gained a lot of respect and ex-
perience on how best to carry it aut. Now, with the
false education system on Wildlife Management, and

Commentary

' By NADINE ASANTE

, Special t The Herald
I read with interest the editorial page of the Daily
Herald of Dec. 4, containing columns by Cyril Shelford
and regular contributors Stan Persky and Tom Atrill.

Their diverse viewpoints are the very meat upon -

which an editorial page should thrive. The only

missing ingredient was the letter to the editor from -

Bill Homburg. ;

The writers represented the extreme right and the
extreme left with a ‘‘?" in between.

1 disagree with all of them and would like ta com-
ment on the columns,

First, Mr. Persky’s column.

.° ‘The emotion his columiii etoked in ime'wad fear. His”

words are bright and breezy and full of smile-
provoking innuendos. He is readable. But in his
column he succeeds in questioning the integrity, in-
telligence and motives of Dennis McDermott, the
Director of Canada’s largest Trade Union
Organization, The Canadian Labour Congress. Why?
Because Dennis McDermott stated publicly he thinks
labour unions have too large a Communist element
within their ranks, He is quoted as saying that he
urged the individual union leaders to fight back
against such infiltration because otherwise they
(Communis¢s) will destroy’ the labéur movement and
the country if they have their way.

Hurray for Mr. McDermott. A large segment of the
population, including many union members to whom I
have spoken, agree with Mr. McDermott but haven't
the guts to say so publicly.

[think the credibility of unions has been strained by
the - methods employed by their leaders.

People remember the need for labour unions but
many believe that unions have lost sight of their
original goals. .

When I am convinced that union members aren't’
seeking, by devious means, the overthrow of my
government, I will wholeheartedly support them.

I wonder why Mr. Persky — a teacher who shapes
the minds of the young — finds Mr. McDermott’s
words worrisome enough to denegrade them in 35
column inches.

Column 2.

I am afraid I must question the validity. of the
heading of Mr. Atrill’s column ATRILL THINKS. But
now on to Terrace’s answer to William F’. Buckley Jr.

In his column of Dec. 4, his tirade is against
protestors.

[am a part-time protestor and I take umbrage at
Mr. Atrill’s viewpoint.

Atrill has searched and found the true motivation of
“those who are forever protesting what would
otherwise be known ag progress” to use his own
words.

Good for him.

I often question the subconscious reasons for my
own motives without presuming to question the
motives of others. But since Atrill KNOWS he is right,
we must agree with him, He has found TRUTH bless

“The policies promoted and advocated by protestors
would, if implemented, almost certainly bring our
civilization to a standstill,” says Atrill. I wonder if
Atrill has heard of the protestor called Galileo?

Mr. Atrill says we protestors would abolish con-
ventional forms of power. ] am glad I don’t think
nuclear energy is conventional, with its attendant
hazards of waste disposal and its threat to human and
animal well-being. But the Mr. Atrills of our world
discard such problems as minimal.

We would phase out the family and substitute Day
Care and state indoctrination instead. “The state
would be the new God,” avows Atrill.

That is presumpuous lunacy Mr. Atrill.

Everyone I admire in the protest movements to
which TI belong spends time, energy, and often money,
not for themselves, not for gain, but because of their
children and future generations.

Mr. Atrill commends for reading ‘The New Left:
The Anti-industrialist Revolution” by Ayn Rand. Since
he takes such stock in the words of a female writer,
may | suggest an alternate source for quotes by

is vanishing

how the balance of nature works, the pressure groups.
have made it impossible for Wildlife Managers to take
action tosave what littleisleftofourgame. °

I hope I make myself clear, I don’t blame those
working in the Fish and Wildlife Branch as I’ve seen
first hand the abuse they get if they even try to carry
out control methods in cattle areas, and it would be ten
times worse if they were to practice control in our
game areas where nothing has been done for over 10
yeara. Jack Radford, Sam Bawlf and yourself have
had the dubious honor to preside over-the destruction
of our game. I’ve always asked for more money for the
Fish and Wildlife Branch, however. They are so
limited in their actions on management and predator
control, due to the uninformed actions of the pressure
groups and news media, that I’ve come to the con-
clusion we will lose nearly all our game animals left
and heavy expenditures would not be justified.

In many areas the wolves have destroyed so much of
the game there is little left to eat so hopefully, they teo
will die out, When the game starts to come back in 15
to 20 years, and if attitudes and education change,
then will be the time to enlarge the Wildlife Branch.
It’s like trying to build a cattle ranch while at the same
time rustlers are being encouraged by the
management and the masses of consumers.

I have talked to dozens of hunters and nearly ail
have the same report of little game across the whole
central plain, I’ve had very few reports of any calves.
The five of us saw 10 moose in 8 days, as I mentioned
before, nine cows, one bull and no calves. You should
send out a questionaire to all hunters to try and get a
clear, more accurate picture of what is going on.
There are still moose around and some hunters are
getting moose around here, mainly from the new
access roads, The late cow season can not be justified
except to try and convince people that management
isn’t all that bad if you can take cows after the season.

It’s a disastrous picture in game management and I
think we should admit our mistakes, take our lumps
and start back on the road of game management
rather than leaving everything to chance.

Yours very truly
Cyril M. Shelford

on columns

COMMENT |

college classes I teach and tell me

PERSKY'S
PERSPECTIVE

By STAN PERSKY

good. They can’t write
' r heard of the .

SALT II, or the Clark-Loughest 4

Ayatollah Khomeini,
plan to make us pay $2-

4
know all this is true. They come into the first-year‘3

they haven t read j
ks, haven't wrilten any essays, and when I;
any tion Zimbabwe, Petrocan, oF farmland in i
Langley, they look up with the innocence of an an: ;
telope gazing into the crosshairs of a telescopic rifle :
sight. it
L also know most of this is true because Frank ;
Mankiewicz and Joel Swerdlow in Remote Control — --
their 1978 indictment of the effects of television on the
human mind — point out that Standard Achievement ;
Test scores (and the tallies of every other measure of .
academic accomplishment known to pedagogues) *°
have steadily declined since 1963. 4
The authors of Remote Control, by the way, firmly *
believe that television (they're really referring to our -
entire culture) has negative effects on the develop-
ment of a literate, thinking citizenry. They're .
probably right. But as these critics note, “The -
television-induced reading crisis will not be so easily
solved. Its cause lies not in classroom teaching...It lies
in almost every North American living room.” Of
course, ‘most people connected with education, par-
ticularly the office-seekers, find it easier to promise
property tax reductions than to challenge parents to .
pull the plug. But if the parents don’t read and discuss, '.
why should the kids? .

Since there’s something obviously and dreadfully -
wrong, it’s only natural to look forward to the annual .
provincial school board elections with anticipation. :
The most promising of last month’s contests for the
hearts and minds of our kids occurred in fabulous”
Shangri-Langley. There, the Back-to-Basies Bunch of *
school board trustees, who had successfully stormed *
the little red schoolhouse four years ago, were pitted ;
against the self-proclaimed moderates, Citizens for,
Better Government. : .

To appreciate this debate between‘humanists and ©
traditionalists, both sides must be divested of their,
misappropriations of the English language. The«
traditionalists (who are often Tories and Socreds) like -.
to hiss that their opponents are guilty of “‘per-'-
missiveness” (which, when properly pronounced, is?
meant to insinuate that the humanists want to turn the ..
schools into brothels). They're also prone to hint that.
they possess an exclusive patent on a commitment to
the fundamentals of reading and writing.

The humanists reply that their foes are out-and-out -
reactionaries, or, as in the case of Langley this
autumn (where the Liberals and NDPers ‘ap-:
propriated the label of “moderates,” which is about as”
informative as flying the Liberian flag on the high ;
seas), that the traditionalists are “radicals”.

False advertising aside, both sides have their;
strengths, The Basics Bunch, for instance, isn’t en- ;
tirely crazy. Many of those at the opposite end of the *
political spectrum have come around to the view that ;
reading and writing are a prerequisite even for those}
intent on overthrowing rather than preserving the ;
system. Where one parts’ company with the:
traditionalists is their insistence on throwing in God, :
free enterprise and a dose of Camp Concentration- j
style discipline amongst the fundamentals, ; 4

If the traditionalists aren’t Neanderthals, neither
are the “permissive” humanists as mushy-minded as {
they’re made out to be. While they sometimes act as |
though any test to see if the system is working con-
stitutes a violation of human rights, their advocacy of |
developing complete persons is a decided advantage :

,
4
a
4

vt

rasa ine

~” qver producing blindly obedient automatons.

NADINE ASANTE

another female author “The Silent Spring” by
Rachael Carson.

Atrill quotes Ms, Rand as saying ‘‘Protestors and
socialists are ‘birds of a feather’ born of the same
bankrupt philosephy”’. —

If I have but one life to live Mr. Atrill I choose to

share my time with those who want a better world in-

which to live and laugh and not with people like you
who reap the benefits of our fights, our discomfort,
and our faith. We protestors are in good company Mr.
Atrill. Many people think Christ was the world’s best
known socialist and protestor and his “bankrupt”
philosophy of love has lasted a long time.

Onward and upward to'Column 3. The "?" Cyril
Shelford and his column's proposal for Forest
Management.

I know very little about the forest except in my
womanhood I feel at one with the regenerative powers
of each evergreen cone that falls in the forest floor to
rise again as new life. In that way, I enjoy a personal
communion with the forest and an interest in its
welfare,

I have written often in protest against the patch-
balding of the forests I see from the highways around
Terrace, the wholesale massacre of everything that
stands in the way of heavy equipment. The obvious
policy is to hell with the future.

1 know it takes two hundred years to grow a cedar
‘forest and fifty years to grow a spruce for profit,
whereas it takes only a thoughtless, uncaring minute
to knock down a cedar or spruce. Maybe it doesn’t
matter what happens to the forest as long as labour
and management make money?

What puzzles me is why, when Mr. Shelford was
head of the Truck Loggers Association, he didn’t
utilize the same amount of newspaper space to
publicize his views.

T would like to reiterate that an editorial page should
present as many points of view as possible because

only then can readers form any kind of enlightened

opinion on the subject matter.
Thank you for adding my opinions also.

While other locales argued lesser matters (among ;
them: teachers’ salaries, cost-cutting, and there was ‘
even one cratchety columnist who devoted a diatribe ;
to complaining about relatives of teachers serving on
school boards), in Langley at least, the battle would be ;
about the 3 Rs. s

Alas, real life intervened. The Basics Bunch, it:
turned out, in implementing their scorched-textbook ;
policies, had managed to alienate almost every*
teacher in the district and the ruckus resulting from :
their four-year running battle with the Langley ‘
Teachers Association was louder than an unruly 4
classroom. Though the government gave them i
bonuses for balancing the books, they had also:
produced one of the highest staff turnover rates in the
province.

The promise of peace and quiet from the Citizens for :
Better Government sounded pretty good to some {
voters, When the ground fog lifted from the verdant ;
vistas of Langley (soon to be an industrial jungle), the ;
Basics Bunch was out and Better Government was in.
Unfortunately, itwasn'tentirely clear if the citizens of 4
Langley had voted in favour of education or simply *
against noise pollution,

LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR |:

Dear Editor,

lam writing this letter in
response to your article
published in The Herald
entited “Faculty look for an
11 per cent pay raise.”

As a student of Northwest
Community College, 1 feel it -
is justified in allowing for an
li per cent wage increase for
the faculty of the college.

If the college has to cut
back on programs
somewhere along the line in
order to meet the college's
staff demands {it wan't just
be because of the pravincial
governments decision nal to

a ee CSS

include wage increases or
allow for the cost of living -
increases, but rather.
because the college board ‘
makes such decisions as’
buying an $80,000 photo copy
machine for the college. ;
Perhaps it is the proposed '

long term plan of the college .
board ta have a photo copy .
machine teach us unstead of |
qualified instructora. Is that ‘
justified at $80,0007 ‘

Yours sincerely,

Viola Thomas

(student),

Northwest Community

College

“