“Will Moby Doll
end up in U.S.?

ome

By MAURICE RUSH

The killer whale rose slowly to the surface, blew out.
Spray and glided smoothly back under the water’s surface at
the temporary pen built for it at Burrard shipyards in North
Vancouver as I stood and watched andtalked last Wednesday
with the hearded young man who harpooned the creature
and brought it back alive to Vancouver,

Sam Burich, who led the expedition to killa whale, then
take underwater photographs of it to determine:it’s exact
Shape for a life-size plastic model for Vancouver’s aquarium,
told me he had been a commercial fisherman and a member
of the United Fishermen and Allied Worker's Union,

“This fellow is really famous now,” Burich said as
We both watched the only killer whale in capitivity swim
and dive menacingly through the water of the Burrard
drydock pen which was hastily prepared for it while the
pen at Jericho was made ready for Friday,

Moby Doll, as the whale is now known since its sex
has been established as female, is reported to be about 17
feet long and weighs in the neighborhood of five ton.
“There is a great deal we don’t know about this creature,”
Burich told me, He added that scientists around the world

are. interested in what a study of this live mammal can tell

“For one thing,” said Burich, “the killer whale is able
to dive to tremendous depths and withstand great pressures,
Also, tests on the functions of its breathing apparatus, lung,
heart and brain, could tell us a great deal.”

Scientists are also interested in the noises emitting

from the mammal, It is believed that killer whales have

~ Some way of communicating and tests are being conducted
Which may prove of great value, Burich told me,

Burich, who had studied the killer whale for the exped-
ition he was undertaking, said that there are signs that
these mammals are highly intelligent andhave some form of
Social organization, Working as a group they will herd
Seals onto a rock much as cowboys round up cattle, then,
When the tide comes in and the seals are driven into the
water they close in for the kill,

- They are also known to attack giant whales in groups,

While some attack the whale to force open its mouth
another will seize and devour the tongue thus killing the
whale, Burich told me that when the harpoon he fired
hit Mony Doll she began to sink and would have drowned
in a few minutes; At that moment two other whales appeared
under her and lifted her to the surface so that she could
breathe, ;

“I had no idea I would bring back a whale alive,”
Burich told me, He spent a long time practising to fire
the harpoon at cardboard boxes so that he would be able to
kill the whale he sought, After boning up on harpoon-firing
the expedition set out for Saturna Island and after nearly a
two months wait a school of whales appearedclose to shore,

“My shot passed right through her shoulder and after
She was subdued she just followed along behind our boat like
a puppy dog, I figured the only thing to do was to bring her
back alive if possible. I had no idea when I set out on the
expedition that it would lead to all this,” Burich said
modestly, :

Moby Doll has attracted world wide attention, Already
Some groups in the United States are anxious to buy her,
Much as the U.S, dollar is used to buy up our natural re-
Sources, No doubt there are some in Vancouver who would
like to unload Moby Doll for a profit and save the trouble of
having to build permanent quarters for her, ifshe survives,
But those connected with the capture of the rare creature.
and with the city aquarium say “nothing doing, she’s not for
Sale,”

Most Vancouverites will agree with them, The expense
. involved in keeping the whale would be more than compens-
« ated for by the attraction it provides and the value of
extensive scientific research which the live capture of the
Whale makes possible, Above all, there will be a big
Uproar among many Vancouverites if Moby Doll is sold to
Some U.S, interest and shipped off to some place in the
United States,

Letter rate increase to
subsidise U.S. magazines

Postmaster -General John R,
Nicholson has indicated that
legislation will be brought before
Parliament shortly to increase
mail rates, Reason given for the
move was an annual deficit of
some $35 million,

Rates. to be boosted include
first class (abolition of the local
four-cent rate and increasing it
to five cents), and third class
rates, C,O,D, and special de-
livery, The biggest increase in
revenue would come from upping
the local rates,

T, C, Douglas, National NDP
Leader, has made clear that his
party will fight the proposed in-
crease in first class rates onthe
grouncs that the deficit was
caused by second class rates
(used mainly by magazines and
newspapers) and that increasing
first class rates discriminates
against ordinary Canadians at
the expense of business interests,

Cont’d from pg. 1

opportunity for direct talks be-
tween the parties was possible,

Additionally the municipalities
suggest the 1961 Sherwood Lett
ruling that the B,C, Electric is a
national utility makes ultravires
order-in-council 1692 passed by
the provincial government this
year separating the transit sys-
tem from the electric utility for
the purpose of establishing rates,

Thus, he suggested if someone
were to make a case for lower
fares for students or children
they would have to agree to even
higher fares for adults than those
now proposed by the Hydro Com-
mission, if the Commission’s

. figures were found to be accurate,
He suggested 9 tokens for $2,
rather than a 20¢ token fare as a
manner of resolving such a prob-
lem,

Rate chairman C, A, Manson
further elaborated the policy of
the B,C, Hydro and illustrated
the futility of the hearings when
pursuing the policy of the com-
pany in respect to lower rates
for students, He claimed there
might be some sentimental jus-
tification for lower student rates
but no financial justification, He
admitted that the present jump
in rates was merely the first step
in a process of equalizing student
rates with adult rates,

Output up 40%

Only 18 new jobs

Canadian Forest Products Ltd,
is automating its hardboard fa-
cilities at its Pacific Veneer
division in New Westminster, The
new equipment, scheduled to go
into production next month, will
increase output by 40 per cent
but will require only 18 more
employees, six on each of the
three shifts,

Present production facilities
are already so automated that 48
production employees produce
165 tons of hardboard a day,

“No human hand touches any-
thing from the chips until the
finished product emerges from
the press,” said CFF president
John G, Prentice,

“What Mr, Nicholson has failed
to disclose,” said T, C, Douglas
in an article in THE BURNABY
ADVERTISER, “is the fact that
first class mail (letters, post-
cards, parcels, etc.) showed a
surplus of over $10 million while
second class mail (newspapers,
magazines, periodicals) had a
deficit of $29 million,

“Faced with this situation, the
logical course of action would be
to raise the Post Office mailing
rates on the class mail which
shows a deficit and to leave un-
touched the class of mail which
showed a surplus,

“However, that’s not the way

’ politicians’ minds work, The gov-

ernment proposes to increase the
rates on first class mail which
had a surplus and to leave un-
touched rates on second class
mail which had a deficit, This
cockeyed arrangement seems to

Transit probe urged
on provincial gov’t

The Commission wound up its
Vancouver sittings and set adate
of August 5th for a Victoria hear-
ing and a tentative date of August
26th for the resumption of hear-
ings in Vancouver where the
municipalities and other inter-
ested parties would have an op-
portunity to reply to the B,C,
Hydro,

It appears at this time that
the municipalities willnot appear
before the Commission and will
take their case to the courts to
stop the Commission hearings
from proceeding,

be based on the assumption that
the little people who write letters
and send parcels willnever notice
the increase, Big publishing
firms, however, are very con-
scious of mailing costs, and the
government must be careful not
to offend them,

“No one objects for a moment
to small weekly newspapers get-
ting special mailing rates, They
serve a genuine need in a com-
munity and most of them barely
get by financially, -

“It is more difficult to under-
stand, however, why magazines
like TIME and READERS DIGEST
should be subsidized by the Cana-
dian taxpayer to the tune of over
$1 million a year,Small weeklies
may need some help, but surely
this doesn’t apply to the large
daily newspapers owned by Lord
Thomson of Fleet, the McCon-
nells or the Siftons,

“ven if the latter had to sell
one or two of their race horses
it would seem only right that
they should bear their fair share
of the cost of mailing out their
newspapers,

*The New Democrats have
served notice that they will fight
this increase in first class post-
age for as long as’necessary to
get it changed,

“The Post Office deficit must
be met but the cost of meeting it
should be placed where it proper-
ly belongs—on the second class
mail which is carried at a loss
of $29 million a year,”

creasing markets,

New pipeline taps B.C.
gas reserves for U.S.

A vast natural gas reserve of approximately seven trillion
cubic feet in northern British Columbia is about to be tapped
for export to the United States, This is the significance of the
action of the National Energy Board last week in approving an
application from Westcoast Transmission to build a $57.5
million pipeline from Chetwynd to Fort Nelson, Most of the
huge gas reserve is under contract to Westcoast,

Westcoast president Robert B, Stewart informed stock-
holders that two more pipelines are also under consideration.
One would run from Prince George to Prince Rupert, the
other from mainland B,C, to Vancouver Island,

Stewart also told stockholders that growing requirements
in California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho will assure in-

The prime objective of the company, he said, was to
increase earnings and begin dividend payments as quickly as
possible, Its largest customer is B,C, Hydro.

)
j ¢

“Company, advance!”

July 31, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3