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or tel

’ Terrace and Kitwanga.

- liams admitted that,

2 Terrace Review — Wednesday, October 7, 1987

— Strange tale ends in ‘Skeena

TERRACE — A strange and
tragic story that began in the

Appalachian Mountain country _

of the eastern United States
came to an inconclusive end
recently in the Skeena River near
Terrace.

Lester White, 43, and his wife
Tricia, 19, both of Wheeling,
West Virginia, were stopped by
Terrace RCMP on the afternoon
of Sept. 24 for a routine vehicle
check on Highway 16 between.
The
RCMP computer indicated there
was an FBI warrant out for
White’s arrest, but according to
RCMP Staff Sergeant Len Jar-
vis the warrant was unen-
forceable in Canada.

As RCMP sought their own
warrant for White’s arrest,
however, he took matters into
his own hands and, the same
afternoon, made a suicide pact
with his wife and both leapt into
the Skeena River near St. Croix
Creek.

At least that’s what Tricia
White said when, at 8:30 that
evening she emerged soaking wet
from the bush near a rest stop on
the highway and told her story
to a truck driver parked there.
The driver flagged down a pass-
ing RCMP cruiser, and Tricia

Forests ——= continued from page 1 :

$31 million to get a chunk of
that farm licence back and the
company paid nothing for it
originally,’’ he added.

Williams explained that ‘the
way forest lands: had been allo-
cated to the forest industry in
the past, ‘‘is the root of a lot of

-our problems.”’

“*Too often we've granted too
much to our major corporations

- and they don’t manage the land

well. That’s been documented,”
he explained, predicting that
under Social Credit’s new forest
Strategy the situation would be
no different.

THE STRATEGY IS
NOT ALL BAD

Referring basically to changes
in the stumpage system, Wil-
“Some
changes that are occurring are
worthwhile in terms of new rev-
enues from the companies.”

_ He said that the province had
lost enormous sums of money in
the past because reforestation
costs alone added up to $2

_ million more annually than

stumpage revenues and “‘that is
going to change.”’

**That’s the beginning of a
good direction,”’ said Williams.

However, he accused the gov-
ernment of setting new stump-
age rates in a “rather arbitrary
manner’’ and some logging com-
panies were “rightfully scared.”’

Williams also said that the
new strategy wouldn’t correct
flaws in the industry to make it
more profitable on the interna-
tional market.

“If we were managing our
land better we could be employ-
ing. countless more people,’’ he
claimed.

**We have a lot to learn from
the Scandanavians in terms of
what we can do in our forest in-
dustry. They currently get 35 per
cent of thir annual cut out of

' commercial thinning and that’s
a 35 percent increase we could

have in British Columbia if we

‘were doing the job properly,”’

According to Williams, the

_Seandanavians get four to five

times the wealth out of a single
tree than B.C. industry.

‘ing a

White was taken to the Terrace
detachment headquarters.

Staff Sergeant Jarvis said
Tricia claimed she and her hus-
band jumped into the river
together, but she made it back to
shore, Jarvis sdid her testimony
is the only evidence of White’s
disappearance, ' ‘She . said she
saw--him in the’ current,” Jarvis
said.

She wasn’t arrested, Jarvis
said, but she spent the night i ina
cell ‘at the RCMP building and
was taken away by social service
personnel the following day.

White was indicted by a grand -

jury Jan. 12 of this year on eight
sexual offense counts, including
incest, statutory rape and forci-
ble rape. Patty Kutsch, county
prosecuting attorney for Ohio
County, West Virginia, said
White skipped out on a $40,000
bail bond andthe local
authorities sought and obtained

a federal fugitive warrant. Until .

the recent notification by
RCMP, no one had any idea

White was in Canada. ‘‘There’s .

speculation here that he was pro-
bably headed for Alaska,’
Kutsch said. ‘“‘I think the only
person who’s really concerned
about his apparent death is the
bondsman.”

‘The searcli for White’ s body:
was called off due to high water

in the Skeena on Sept. 25, and
his status remains as missing and
presumed drowned. Tricia
White, who is mentally retarded
and showed the effects of phys-
ical battering and abuse, was at
last report:on her way back to
Virginia with an escort from the

British Colunibians for Mentally

Handicapped People.

The ‘incident is under. in-
vestigation by Terrace Coroner
James Lynch, and county pro-

secutor Kutsch said authorities _

in West Virginia will be ques-
tioning Tricia White .when she
returns home.

Postal talks resume

A late report Oct. 5 indicated
that bargaining talks have
resumed between the Canada
Post Corporation and the Cana-
dian Union of Postal Workers
(CUPW).

Subsequent information,
however, indicates the talks
could break off again at any
time. Harold Dunstan, chief
negotiator for Canada Post, said
after 24 hours of discussion that
the two parties are unable to
find any common ground for ne-
gotiating.

On Monday 25 post offices
across Canada were hit by
rotating strikes, among them
Cranbrook, Castlegar, Creston,

- Nelson, Trail and Cranbrook.

On Tuesday morning north cen-
tral locations, including
Williams . Lake, Quesnel and
Prince George were hit by

CUPW and some of the loca-.

tions that were struck -the

previous day were locked out by

Canada Post.

The federal government has
threatened to legislate the strik-
ing CUPW members back -to
work, but Ed Langelier, a union

representative at CUPW’s west-
_ ern regional office in Vancouver
‘ said, ‘We'll wait and see about
- that, There was no legislation
during the 19 days the letter car- -

riers were off.”
Up:to Oct. 6 there have been
no direct effects of the strike on

Terrace mail. |

» |for trial

{Date set

TERRACE — The trial of a

licensed northern B.C.

hunting guide facing an.

astonishing array of. 52

separate charges under the

B.C. Wildlife Act is

scheduled to begin in

_ Terrace Provincial court
Nov. 2..

. Hans Hansen of Scoop:
Lake Outfitters is charged

_with violations ranging
from failure to deliver re-
quired Reports of Declara-
tion within ten days, to
hunting wildlife from an
aircraft. The charges are
based on information
sworn. out by Dease Lake
conservation officer Don

‘Fhatcher,
The incidents allegedly
took place between August
and November of 1986 in
the vicinity of Scoop Lake,
about 160 kilometers north-

. east of Dease Lake. Hansen
has pled not guilty to 35 of
the counts, with the remain- |

" ing counts primarily involv- |
ing alleged violations of
reporting procedures.

“If we could . double the
wealth that we get out of our
forests in B.C., there wouldn’t
be anybody unemployed,” said
Williams. Adding that B.C. had
to move into a ‘value added’
program to. compete interna-
tionally.

‘Basically we’re still..a pro-
vince that turns out a cheap pro-
duct,’’ he said. ‘‘Basically
market pulp and not very com-
plicated dimensioned lumber
and 2x4 studs.”’

BUT THERE ARE
SERIOUS FLAWS

In finding fault with the new &

forest strategy, other than it be-
‘land giveaway,”’
Williams pointed to raw log ex-
ports and privatized scaling as
the most serious.
“They have designated an
area as big as the country of

France for log export,’? J

Williams claimed,

Williams said that everything
north of the central coast,
‘from the Charlottes to up
behind the panhandle,”’ had

‘been designated for export

without conditions.

He said there had always been
a tradition of at least having to
prove the logs couldn’t be used
locally before they could be ex-
ported but this was no longer
true,

“It’s a real failure,’ Williams
said. ‘“We’re exporting jobs, our
raw material, our wealth - with
very little return for it.’’

‘“Never in the history of B.,C.

has an administration exported

raw logs on the scale of this
one,”’ he said.

Williams claimed that the pro-
fit to the logging industry by ex-
porting logs, rather than selling
them in B.C., was $100 million
annually and ‘‘That’s a big in-
centive to exporting.’’

He said that even after con-
sidering the government’s recent
increase to the log export tax,
the extra profit to be earned by
exporting logs was still about
$80 million.

‘It’s got to end,”’ he said. ‘‘It
doesn’t make any sense.’’

In response to a. comment
from Kitimat-Stikine Regional
District Chairman Les Wat-
mough, who said that the So-
cred’s offering of government
controlled log scaling to private
industry was a serious error,
Williams agréed by saying, ‘‘It’s
like being able to check your

own groceries out of Safeway.
We’re bound to be cheated.’’..

Williams said that where there.

should be government controls,

-the Social. Credit government

was cutting back staff.

“Thirty-five percent of the

M| TERRACE DINING

forestry staff was cut back dur- —

sing restraint and they’re talking
-now about at least another 10°

percent under this new
program,’’ claimed Willliams. .

. “With those kind of savings
we're going to go broke real
fast.”?

GUIDE

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—

§ RESTAURANT

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OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
(Econ - Wed 11:30 a.m. — 10: 00 pum,
Thursday 11:30. avn. ~~. 11:00 p.rn, mt!
a SD Fri - Sat 14:30 am, — 1:00. acm,

Sunday 12:00 am. 10:00 p.m
4643 Park A verse

TAURANT 2

635-6111 —

DONU

4717 LAKELSE AVE.
Next to Skeena Mall

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