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~ THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1998 GRAP Bon Voyage The Georgetown Children's Cho- rus -- including 14 members from Acton and some of their parents- leave today (Thursday) for Europe on a two-week Ambassadors of Peace tour to honour Canadian soldiers who died liberating Holland. The Chorus, which added the Dutch national anthem and some tra- ditional Dutch pieces to its repertoire for the trip, will perform at Vimy . Ridge and lay wreaths at three Ca- nadian war cemeteries. Sightseeing plans include a visit to Ann Frank's house and a zoo. The New Tanner will get a spe- cial photographic travelogue of the tour as Chorus member Jennifer Grierson, a Grade 4 student at Robert Little school, and her mother Susan, have been outfitted with cameras to chronicle the trip for readers. Fees waived for concert A proposed youth drop-in centre in Acton could benefit from proceeds from a Punk Up Your Life concert scheduled for May 30 in Georgetown. The Halton Hills May- or's Youth Action Committee will stage the drug and alcohol-free event at Memorial Arena in Georgetown. Acton's representative on the committee, Anne Marie McGeragle, a Grade 12 student at Bishop Reding in Milton, said that punk bands from Acton would be invited to play at the concert. : Town council agreed to the com- mittee's recent request to waive an approximate $500 rental fee for the VINE arena. Book Battlers Congrats to the senior team from McKenzie-Smith Bennett that com- peted in a recent library-sponsored Battle of the Books in Georgetown. The team of Cassie Hunter, Synnoeve Stockinger, Dawn Stevenson, Hayley Green, Rebecca Lewis and Jenny Keats won two of the their three book battles, but got stumped on a few tough questions. The Acton squad came home happy, having beaten the Stewarttown team that eventually won the eight-school competition. Teams received points for correctly identifying book titles and authors. Life after the gridiron Former CFLer John Malinoski will stress the importance of a good education when he speaks with McKenzie-Smith Bennett students next week as part of the school's Education Week events. Malinoski, who is the Tim Hortons' franchisee in Acton, played for Calgary, Win- nipeg, Toronto and Hamilton during his decade-long CFL career. Originally from Vancouver, Malinoski said his football scholar- ship to Michigan State allowed him to have a life after pro football. "Usually during Education Week you read to the kids, but because I played pro football they want to talk about athletics and sports and how reading is the key to being able to -- learn and.reach your goal," Malinoski said. "Our Survey Says..' How well do you know your parks? This week we asked: 1. Where is The Laura Dietrich Memorial Garden? 2. Where is Sir Donald Mann Park? " where. 1. By the Band Hall, in Bovis 2. Glenlea Park, behind the liquor store Wendy VanDam, Acton 1. By the Band Hall 2. By the liquor store Dave Buttson, Acton 1. 1 don't know 2. In Glenlea Vera Waldie, Acton 1. It's a neighbourhood park, I'm not sure 2. Glenlea Park eestese The Laura Dietrich Memorial Garden is the parkette in front of the library, at the corner of River Street and Main Street North. Sir Donald . Mann Park is in Glenlea Subdivision off Mowbray Place. THE NEW TANNER UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Crews are busy at work on Wallace Street at Commerce Court. The 6 week project for upgrading the road includes curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and re-positioning of the stop sign. - Angela Tyler photo By HARTLEY COLES The New Tanner The New Tanner carried a re- port recently about a plan to de- velop a new plan for the Credit River fishery, spearheaded by the Credit Valley Conservation Au- thority and Natural Resources Minister John Snobelen. The Credit watershed is undergoing so much change a plan is needed, asserts watershed planning man- ager Charley Worte. The plan is not just about fish but about the water and the land that supports human, animal and Marlene Bogart, Acton fish life, Worte says. The alarm bells are ringing again for the Credit, the most fished river in Ontario. I say again, because it isn't the first time the Credit and its tributaries, which include Fairy Lake, the Black Creek and Mann's Creek, to name a few, have raised disturbing ques- tions. About a decade ago a draft report warned that the Credit would be turned into an open storm sewer in as little as ten years unless some tough controls were placed on development. It pre- dicted the end of the cold water fishery which houses brook trout, brown trout, Pacific and Atlantic salmon as well as rainbow trout. Fortunately, thanks to timely in- tervention it never happened. Neverthless the report was a chilling document about the 88- kilometre (55 mile) long river which rises in Caledon and Erin townships from a number of small streams as well as tributaries in Halton Hills. The first report on the Credit and its watershed was issued in 1956. It went a long way in rescuing the river from the pol- lution early settlers and their de- scendants, unaware of their im- pact, inflicted. When the first settlers arrived in the early 1800s, forest covered an estimated 95 per cent of the Credit watershed.. As land was cleared for farming and villages over the next 100 years only about 10 per cent of the original forest cover was left. To compound the impact, there were more than 40 dams and mills along the river which restricted the movement of fish. Atlantic salmon, once plen- tiful in the river, were wiped out. Most of the dams are gone now and reforestation has contributed another 10 per cent of forest cover, so improvements have been made. Salmon have been reintroduced '|¢ and the success of the progrsam has meant the return of brook and brown trout as well as pike and bass in such areas as Fairy Lake in Acton. cc Tt has only been in the last 60 \ The Credit's worth saving years we have realized how impor- tant the water in the Credit and its tributaries is to our quality of life. And the river and its tributaries have never been cinsidered of prime im- portance. Because of the topography of the upper part of the watershed with the almost mountainous terrain of the Niagara Escarpment, the Credit was never a navigable river like the Grand. In fact, several early maps drawn after 1632 don't show the Credit at all, although this was a time when French missionaries and fur traders were "discovering" Up- per Canada (Ontario). However, one map drawn by a Monsieur Du Creux, published in 1660, shows a river with sources inland at the base of two ranges of hills, which represents a fairly accurate picture of the Credit. The origin of the name for the river is one modern day people will well understand--credit. It seems to have come from the French Riviere au Credit which appeared on a chart made by Boucher de la Brocquere, a naval officer, in 1757. Early maps called the river Ononront, suppos- edly an Indian word, but certainly not a Mississauga one. This tribe called the stream "Small Pine River," using a word that could be written as Chinguacousy, once a township in neighbouring Peel County. Surveyor Augustus Jones, in a list of Mississauga names for rivers com- piled in 1796, calls the river "Mes.sin.ni.ke." He translated this as "Trusting River -- Credit." This name appears to have been adopted by the Mississaugas, who felt the river was important and used it for trading furs. Obviously they got "credit" for the pelts. Consequently, when we look back on the river and its small tributaries we realize how important it has been in the development of all the towns and villages within its influence. It continues to be an important part of our way of life, even when we just turn on a tap for water or flush a toi- let. When the river is treated well it supplies much of our most precious resource--water. So the big question is how can we maintain a healthy aquatic ecosys- tem in the face of urban development which is now at 16 per cent of the land base and expected to increase The Way | I See It with Mike O'Leary | will return next week a to as much as 40 per cent by the year 2020? It's a question we all might ponder. KKK KK In the effort to publish The New Tanner sometimes we miss those "typos" which infuriate and also titillate readers. My favourite story about those slips that pass in the type starts with a classified advt. in a U.S. daily one Monday. It read: For Sale--R. D. Jones has a sewing machine for sale. Phone 958 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who lives with him cheap. The next day the following appeared: Notice--We regret hav- ing erred in R. D. Jones' advt. yesterday. It should have read: One sewing machine for-sale. Cheap. Phone 958 and ask for -- Mrs. Kelly. She lives with him after 7 p.m. Wednesday, the paper included a bold face notice in classifieds which read: R.D. Jones has in- formed us he has received several annoying telephone calls because of the error we made in his classi- fied advt. yesterday. It stands cor- rected as follows: For Sale--R.D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale. Cheap. Phone 958 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who loves with him. The sequence developed the next day with this notice: "I, R. D. Jones, have no sewing machine for sale. I smashed it. Don't call 958 as the telephone has been taken out. I have not been carry- ing on with Mrs. Kelly. Until yes- terday, she was my housekeeper, but she quit." KKKKK No wonder we're cynical about statistics, especially those from government sources, and the slant put on them. Last year the Com- mission of the RCMP accused of- ficials in the Department of Jus- . tice with misrepresenting RCMP firearm statistics by exaggerating the number of firearms involved in violent crimes. The RCMP investigated 88,662 violent crimes during 1993. Only 73 of these offences (0.08 %) involved firearms. But the Department of Justice issued a release showing 623 firearms were involved in violent crime. Was the Department misinformed or were the statistics manipulated to distort the picture in favour of more restrictive laws? The Commission of the RCMP requested that the government correct the data or remove it from circulation. Whether the intention was good or bad over the passage of the controversial Bill C-68, the Firearms Act, the use of slanted statistics is wrong.