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The Acton Freer Press Wednesday April 5 Ontarios beer budget Ontarios budget released by Provincial Treasurer Darcy McKeough lost week will probably go down in the books as the beer budget Mr McKeough announced Increases in the prices of beer spirits and wine on April but he neglected to say that only part of the increase would go to taxes The remainder goes to the producers Of course the first reaction from the press was to pillory Mr McKeough and his party for having the nerve to raise beer prices when they had already taken a modest leap last summer to coincide with prices In the North Then it was discovered that only a portion would go to taxes and the rest would go to the brewers distillers and wine makers The province will receive million from beer price increases the brewers will receive million Liquor increases will net the province million while distillers will receive million Increases in wine prices will benefit the province by 3 million with the wine makers receiving million The Toronto Globe and Mail thundered What makes it plain that deception was intended is that from all the price increases the federal Government will also receive million in Increased excise tax Only to protect its trade friends would the Conservative Ontario Government have neglected to mention that 2 million was really going into the liberal federal pockets Mr defended Ms policies by stating the producers are as entitled as anyone to ask for price Increases But he never fully explained why they were concealed in the form of a tax increase for as the Globe points out brewers and distillers arc reporting MiniComment SCOTLANDMAYHAVEitsLochNessmonstcrbuthowabout was last seen pointing its neck towards Acton although this strange creature observed by Free Press photographer leaving no prints in the snow Jim Jennings along the escarpment at nearby Speyside It Bill Smiley Not too long ago I wrote a column suggesting what would happen If house wives went on strike A long intelligent and often witty letter from Mason Bailey President of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture tells me bluntly that there is another species in our society which If it went on would make a housewives strike look like a box luncheon Naturally he is talking about farmers Farmers are like the weather Everybody talks about them but does anything I quote bits from his letter and make some comments He asks tersely What if all the farmers went on strike Most of society and the majority of columnists seem to have forgotten that farmers continue to exist And that is just what farmers are doing Existing Net farm income in Ontario has dropped er thirty per cent in the last three years In Canadian farmers received less than ten per cent of the money that Canadian consumers spent on food Well Mr Bailey Ill accept your figures for a start And they certainly dont make me want to plunge into farming with a mortgage and the prospect of working 10 or 12 hours a day six days a week On the other hand like all figures they can be misleading How many Canadian farmers grow coffee tea fish sugar pepper peanut butter oranges bananas and all the other items that beef up our food hois Another of your points strikes a sympathetic chord in me I was in a restaurant last week The menu said one egg Do you know what farmers got for eggs Inst week 22c a dozen for Grade A large dozen for cracks This Is utterly ridiculous and somebody obviously the farmer is shotted The only solution I can see is to demand cracks restaurants Which is probably what we get in some places anyway I share completely your burning wrath at restaurant prices And now letsslt back and hear a howl of protest from the restaurant owners who are starving to death The average one isnt and works long hours for a decent living But those room service prices In hotels drive me right out of my skull for a sandwich for a pot of lukewarm coffee You go back to the war when sugar and butter were rationed and otherwise honest people would cheat lie or steal to get enough or more than enough And you say it would happen again if farmers went on strike I agree Some would but a minority In my opinion Ithinkthefarmerswouldgetagood deal of sympathy and support lust as the coal miners did in England despite the hardships their strike Imposed on millions In such an event you suggest that Bootlegging food at Inflated prices would become as common as drug peddling The bootlegging farmers would start to show a profit Some might even be able to hire help at the minimum wage Surely right there is one spot where government could help by subsidizing farm wages The government subsidizes practically everything else that even approaches work or simply pays people not to work Surely the next logical step would be to make farm work attractive financially rather than paying farmers not to grow grain or spuds or whatever However we mention government and logic in the same breath You mention something that depresses me that the average age of farmers in Ontario is about that not many young men can start farming under todays conditions and that even if they can the liberated little woman has other ideas And you also point out rather pungently that If the average age of housewives Was and no replacements forthcoming you would have something to scream about Youre right The scream that would echo across the land would be apocalyptic Another point In your argument Is that corporations may take over food production If wealthy corporations ever replace the family farm and hire organized labor there probably will be food strikes That is an appalling thought Would that mean that I couldnt buy one of those chickens that taste no more like chicken than my old unless you plaster them with some synthetic flavoring Would it mean that I couldnt buy any of that enriched bread that tastes like wet Life Just wouldnt be worth living However I agree with your premise that the farmer has been left sucking the hind teat in these years of Inflatioa I think the chief trouble is the same as that of the housewives farmers are too stubborn and individualistic to get really organized They should perhaps set up their own coops processing handling and sales organ 1 zations That of course would leave us with mobs of unemployed middlemen But my heart is with you chaps and will be even the next time I pick up a a pound hunk of steak look at It wistfully replace It and reach for the I had a different kind of experience the other day the type of outing that makes one want the winter to stick around and Spring to put on the brakes Reeve Warren Parkinson and his township colleagues asked me to curl with them recently in a municipal bonspiel at Grand Valley not realizing they were scraping the bottom of that proverbial barrel Although I reluctantly admit to being a curler my prowess on the curling sheets leaves a lot to be desired It has been known to raise more than a few eyebrows on skips who were forced to acknowledge my presence on their team by allowing me to throw rocks preferably as a lead or second where I could do the least damage Some of them have to admit however that as a sweeper I take a back seat to no one although it has also been noted by more than one perceptive skip that I sometimes get over enthused In my enthusiasm for the game I develop a blindness to color which makes all handles on the stones look like the same shade This might be fine down in Dixie or other places where they could use a little color blindness but in the game of baseball ft would be tantamount to throwing your own player out at first base when you sweep the other team rocks into the house So you can imagine what even the most wellintentioned charitable skip thinks when he sees his lead or secopd tearing down the ice after the oppositions rocks sweeping ahead of them with energy I can scarcely summon when our own rocks are on their way It kind of makes them grind their teeth and yell some epithet such as Some skips also take offense when a fellow in the heat of an exciting game picks up the wrong color and takes dead aim at the other rocks and then throws his best stone of the night It kind of shakes them as I observed the other night when this happened to me It took the viceskip and another fellow on the team to restrain our skipper with a and a Chinese bum So it was kind of refreshing really to journey to Grand Valley the other day and discover some of the fellows from Mulmur township who registered In the had never curled anything but a pigs tail before Warren Parkinson being pretty broad- minded as well as reeve and with only one game of curling under his own belt before nominated me for viceskip picking Teddy Fox a township neighbor and Curling Club member to skip the team which also included Councillor Kenny Fair a onetime curler as second and himself as In the first game we played so well that Continued on Page Floe According to the sleuths at the Globe and Mail William Davis recently had the title of Prime Minister removed from his door at Queens Park in favor of the simple word Premier We have always maintained that there could be only one prime minister in Canada and premier was a usable alternative for the first minister of each province Now Premier Davis has confirmed that he thinks so too As the snow disappears and winter sand replaces it as a road cover it becomes apparent both the town works staff and individuals arc going to be mighty busy cleaning up winter debris Because there was an unusual amount of ice this year the problem was compounded by unusually large amounts of sand that had to be used The managing director of the Hamilton Automobile Club takes sharp issue with the new Ontario budget claiming it discriminates against motorists The continued practice of the provincial government In treating motorists and the motor vehicle in the same luxury group as liquor and cigarettes is one which is long overdue for an overhaul it appears that the additional revenues to be picked up from the motorist will be at least double those paid by liquor and cigarette purchasers Somehow there seems to be a distortion of values and priorities Mr Formally families the motor vehicle Is an essential and primary means of trans portation Although the prime minister is reported to have said that if 51 per cent of the people were against putting the new airport in Pickering township the government would reconsider the site a special supplement issued by pro vincial treasurer Darcy McKeough declares Pickering is the best possible location The decision is based on three years of investigation and analysis the supplement reports Eighty nine sites were originally considered of these were examined in critical detail gratifying earnings this year So the suspicion arises naturally that the Government Lb repaying corporate interests for campaign funds in the last provincial election only a memorys breath away especially since Mr Davis and his Government have refused to make public the names of donors and the size of contributions But there is another unpalatable facet to the budget which points out that tax Increases are meant to pay for reform legislation the Government promised In the Fall election and is now introducing This also strikes us as being concealment since taxpayers expected these could be purchased with revenue already on the tax rolls At the same time it is a lesson for all that handouts or concessions from any Government must be paid out of the public purse When It is empty the only logical place to go for more money Is to the people Twelve of them were studied at even greater depth and six of them were examined exhaustively From these Pickering emerged as the best all- round choice The Bruce Trail News reporting on a moonlight hike January to Rattlesnake Point has this to say We apologize to a couple who were in a car on the parking lot at Rattlesnake Point probably felt that they were miles from civilization and safe from any intrusion But hikers walking past the car at about p all armed with flashlights Proof that professional hockey is a business rather than a sport nowadays is provided by the per cent hike in ticket prices for ptayeff games in Toronto The same fans that earned the freight all year will now be paying through the nose to see the teams perform 20 years ago Taken from be Issue of the Free Press Thursday April 10 1952 A gasoline explosion Wednesday severely burned the face and shoulders of Mrs Darby covered people in the halfblock area with soot and started a fire In the Darby kitchen that resulted in damage estimated at Mrs Darby was cleaning curtains in her kitchen of her John St home with gasoline when a thunderous explosion attracted people from the business section and several blocks around A washing machine refrigerator and gas stove were almost completely destroyed About a dozen ladles enjoyed tea served by two dozen members of the Acton Brownies in the scout hall Saturday af ternoon Nine young ladies all members of the Brownies played the piano during the tea They were Ella Jany Jill Haydon Mary Jane Force Ruth Ruth Jones Margaret Armstrong Pat In charge of the tea were Jean Harris Audrey Wilkinson May Dynw and Lorraine Mullin The limehouse hall board sponsored a hard times euchre and dance Friday with costume prizes going to Miss Margaret Cain and Mr Lewis M Wright won a doll in a Mr A Haydon manager of the Bank of Nova Scotia in Acton for the past four and a half years has been promoted to the managership of the branch at Pembroke and he and Mrs John and Jill will be leaving soon Successor in the Acton branch will Mr W A Woodbum who has been assistant manager of the Queen and Church branch in Toronto Donald Cook has been transferred to Acton O P from Oakville He replaces W Trodd who has gone to Henpecked Henry presented by the members of Knox church choir has been presented times outside Acton and more bookings are expected 50 years ago Taken from the Issue of Free Press Thursday April at JO untU afternoon at This is Ihe longest period current users have been inconvenienced since the Eleclric power was installed here All the factories In town were closed down on Saturday except and Co Business at the sole leather tannery of Messrs Beardmore and Co Is growing rapidly and has reached a record output Preparations are now being made to increase the capacity to finished sides per day Workmen are now engaged In laying the foundation for a large new ad dition Quite a number of citizens have already commenced the removal of ashes from their cellars and backyards and as a result the teamsters are doing good business The Merchants Bank passed out on Saturday and the Bank of Montreal assumed control The sign Merchants Bank which was at the corner of the Warren Block for over years has been replaced Members of the Irish rebel army organized under Valera the rebel THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office leader attacked the Freemans Journal last week in Dublin and damage to the plant reached Harry Moore the managing editor was assaulted He Is the son of Rev T Albert Moore Toronto The mayor of Guelph has forbidden an exhibition of hypnotism in that city Workmen who are putting In their time at 30c an hour are wondering how they can have needed carpeting and painting done to their homes when these want an hour for their work 75 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press of Thursday April Those abominable cigarettes again The second case In Newmarket recently showing the baneful effects of cigarettes occurred at the Salvation Army last Sunday evening when a young man named Wythe caused considerable dist urbance and anxiety by going Into fits Medical attention was secured and acme nicotine was taken from his stomach The young man had been smoking cigarettes pretty freely and made up his mind to stop It entirely and it Is said the fits were due to breaking off the habit so suddenly Some stable yards In town have more the statutory amount of manure accumulated Messrs Henderson and Co took In between 200 and dozen of eggs over the counter In regular trade Saturday Jumbo and Sailor two weiwawwn canines about town got into a scrap on Sunday in front of J C HuTs bicycle window The halfdozen loungers who were there at the tune did not discourage the dogs until they had smashed the window Mr Hill is wondering wholl pay the damage Mr J Brat to commence this vicinity The new Baptist church which has been talked about for some time Is likely to be an accomplished fact before many months have passed There are already in hand subscriptions and which amount to a very respectable four figure sum So many citizens are leaving for the west the village rather deserted but the friends of th depar ones are recovering from their sorrow Showers sunbeams early dot iMOgii fresh violets rainbows hmoeta Easter anthems are among the diversions of the hour