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Founded in 1876 Acton Telephone Subacripdoni Stogta SJ7 00 par in Canada in than Canada Ken Bellamy Don Ryder Director of Advertising Hartley Coles Managing Editor Second raoatratnn Tho Acton of the Monotond suburban Aurora Banner Brampton Guardian Tha Pent Tho Burlington Weekend Poet The Etobcoka Guardian Tha Georgetown Independent Economist Sun The Miton Champion The Newmarket Era Tha North York Man Beaver FnrJaYBawafOhawaThteVVaak0hawaThWeeiwndFtichrnorKiHai Tha Scarborough Minor Tha Tribune and bnrJga Printing Publishing a a division of Enterprises Limited EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT New Murray Nancy Punoaack ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT ftataS Manager SeJaa KM Davy Sandra VWaon Oaaarflad Advertising BUSINESSACCOUNTING OFFICE OH tea Manager Joan Big tax increase is looming Taxpayers in Hills and face big tax increases from the municipal level principally because the Province has cut back grants to munici palities In Halton Hills taxpayers face a possible 12 3 per cent increase for town purposes alone Councils finance Chairman Ross Knechtel points out that assessment has risen only 12 per cent while the provincial uncon ditional grants have risen the minimum 5 per cent and created a losing situa tion since inflation is con sidered to be around 5 per cent In residents face a per cent jump on their sewer and water bills most of it from the per cent increase in sewer rates alone Rates are still relatively reasonable with water at a month and sewer charges at but the increase has been cushioned by taken from surplus funds and an other provincial grant which is set up for that purpose It was anticipated Rock- wood would increase in size after water and sewers were installed but growth has not covered the Increas ed costs since it has been far below the anticipation Back in Halton the board of education is toying with an per cent increase from taxpayers because the pro vince has increased grants by less than one per cent and inflation still hovers around five per cent Remember the board is responsible for more than 50 per cent of the tax bill Region is suggest ing they may have to push through a one mill increase because of the reduced grants from the Province The region says Halton Hills writ suffer most with an increase of percent All the signs are there we can expect a whopping tax increase this year with the drop in assis tance from the Province the big culprit In effect it means that unless the municipality the board of education and the region do not cut their spending then the property taxes we pay will continue to escalate well beyond the inflation rate If there was a similar drop in taxes at the pro- vincal level it would be easier to understand but provincial income does not decrease meaning we pay the piper from both ends years ago Acton Legion may find it hard to believe Halton Kills Is all one town in light of a recommendation made by general administration committee Monday night The committee gave their okay subject to council to the portion of a subdivision adjacent to a new Legion Hall which lies within the old boundary of but rejected the part of the subdivision in the formerly township of An Acton district A Kris Klnd- of RR won recently when won out In racing competitions held at the Smugglers Notch Ski area in Vermont US A and was a leader in he race to qual ity Tor the Schlitz Nastar finals to be held at Snow Valley Idaho on March A coroner jury has ruled that the three construction workers dis covered dead at Acton quarries February died of carbon monoxide poisoning as gas leaked into their mobile home mobile home Our readers Write J 20 years ago March 12 The smoking problem is 90 political 10 medical Friend for all seasons The Red Cross is not a fair weather friend Good times or bad boom or bust the Red Cross strives to pro vide a high level of life- saving programs and health and community services to the public Despite inflation unemployment and reces sion the Red Cross con tinues to work with volunteer donors to ensure that blood and blood pro ducts are available when you need them Red Cross volunteers con tinue to help prevent acci dents and death through the teaching of first aid water safety and health courses In local and international disasters Red Cross stands to provide emergency services The Red Cross works hard to live uy to its aim of relieving human suffering and promoting health But it cant do it alone When you voluntarily support the Red Cross in your com munity everybody helps and everybody benefits This is Red Cross Month the time we can show the appreciation for the work the organization does Dear Sir The article Selfhelp to stop smoking December 1983 gives necessary encouragement to those who wish to quit smoking but it misses the real story associated with the Time to Quit program Although our letter in response is late due to the article just being brought to our attention we hope you will publish our reply The magnitude of the health problem warrants careful if belated comment Smoking will kill close to 30000 Canadians this year over 500 per week Five hundred grieving families no less torn apart and anguished because their loved ones died in a terminal cancer ward than on a rain slick highway More Canadians will die at the hands of the tobacco industry in the next 18 months than were killed during the entire Second World War What should be done Consider this example In a major Canadian urban area of million a sup posedly antismoking health agency recently claimed to have serviced smokers In its smoking cessation clinics during a one year period Assuming the most optimistic of success rates reported in the medical literature about 100 people managed quit smoking completely Yet during the same year it is estimated that new smokers joined the market in that same urban area One epidemiologist said this is like bailing the boat while someone else drills holes in the bottom The real story is this Trie an swer to a health problem of this magnitude must be much more than weak kneed trivializing Wednesdays and safe noncontroversial health education campaigns All of ithese place the responsibility for the smoking problem on the in dividual the industrys blame the victim strategy Unfortunately health agencies and government health departments promote it more effectively than the industry itself The blame the victim strategy Includes the Industry line that smoking involves freedom of choice and Itathercspoasibllily of each Individual pitch Those who use this line and stress the responsibility of each Individual to imply that per cent of the adult population is irresponsible After all they arc still smoking The annual kick the habit ritual ignores the fact that smoking is an Individual addiction which from a disease perspective has become an epidemic By definition drug addiction means that for many freedom of choice and in dividual responsibility go out the window And it Is ludicrous to treat an epidemic by relying upon appeals to good Judgment Is there a real freedom of choice as the industry suggests Not really Should responsible adults give 121 ear old children a freedom of choice involving a drug dependency that will cut on average five years from their life expectancies and cost these children In todays dollars Aver the shortened lifetime I which most -smokers- become regular tobacco users The answer has to be a massive societal shift of responsibility from the Individual to the industry that creates the problem and to govern which sit idly by There must be a deemphasis on cam paigns which deal with smoking after the habit is started tertiary prevention and upon curative medical research to cure folks after tobacco diseases hit Thus the answer lies in medical advocacy a widespread and angry demand for a legislative response to the tobacco industry The Lung Cancer and Heart organizations Canadawide must call for bans on tobacco advertising They must support clean indoor air legislation and put their human and financial resources behind drive to reach these objectives Your sincerely GARFIELD Executive Director March 12 JB Mackenzie and Sons Ltd sub- milted the lowest of six tenders for the construction of a new 10room high school addition school board members and architect Don Hall- ford opened the sealed bids Thurs day evening of last week Gr pupil Bob Bonnette from the Robert Utile Public School will rre- Acton in the Halton County Public Speaking contest at Friday Finalists from both town schools competed Wednesday morning at Robert Little School Snow plows and sanding trucks worked around the clock Tuesday in an attempt to keep highways clear year worst y6ars ago coies slaw Irish people contributed much to Canada Recently Gordon Sinclair was interviewed on with Tor ontos bicentennial the subject He recalled early incidents of his life in the city and noted that the Irish people of Toronto made a large contribution to the city On the threshold of St Patricks Day perhaps it would be oppor tune to trace the history of the Irish in Canada For Instance some historians think Irishmen St Brendan landed in Canada cen turies before the Norsemen Chris topher Columbus or toe French maybe as early as AD Evidence has been uncovered to show Irish settlements existed in the Si Lawrence valley between and AD of Mon treal retired Dominion Archivist reported that peaceful Irish Celts living in Iceland were driven from their homes by barbaric In the tenth cestui These men loaded their on a flotilla of amall ship and sailing west apparently drifted with prevail log wind along the coast of Labrador and Into the Gulf of St Lawrence They may nave landed on one of the Magdalen Islands and were believed to have moved later to Cape Breton bland Thomas one of the most eloquent of the Father of Confederation wrote m a history of fate countrymen that the first Irishmen who founde permanent homes Canada were Catholic patriot who were originally Barbados by Other Cromwell be Band and it is probable that some of the fishermen remained as settlers In Nova Scotia a substantial proportion of Irish were among those who founded Halifax 1749 and ten years later almost a third of the Inhabitants were of Irish origin Irish settlement in Upper Canada did not begin until the end of the eighteenth century after the Irish rebellion is 1798 and the great famine of 1922 Thereafter Irish Immigration was heavy many people travelling under group settlement plans North of Ireland immigrants arrived in substantial numbers as early as and settled at various points in Ontario including Kingston Cobourg York Toronto and London Most of the newcomers were rural in background and in Canada set to work clearing and tilling the land and building roads sawmills and homes In the eighteenth century some Irishmen were serving with the armies of France On June 1755 an entire Irish Brigade landed at Quebec and p to march to Montreal John OTarreU a Quebec lawyer and one time president of the Hibernian Benevolent Society of Montreal stated in 173- It Is generally known that long before Wolfe sealed the height of Abraham a large Irish aetUem est had been established in Canada They with French and the dement further Increased by the of the Brigade many of grants of farms in Lower Canada m their attempts to flee their famine ravished homeland in the IBMs the Irish like many other immigrants suffered great and hardships on their urney to Canada The average passage to Quebec In the was 45 days but some immigrants whose ships were driven by contrary winds barely survived a terrifying voyage of four months The and taw severe outbreaks of typhoid fever cholera and measles among the passenger One Irishman referring to the numerous burials sea said it was nothing but splash splash all day long At Be thirtythree miles east of Quebec a Quarantine station was established In 131 a papers show mat as vera rewaciM with before being allowed to proceed up- river A monument on the island commemorates the burial of flying from pestilence and famine in Ireland in 1847 found in America but a grave In the later nineteenth century and twentieth century a higher proportion of Irish emigration went to the United States and the proportion In the Canadian popula tion declined By the people of Irish origin were about 14 per cent of the total in Ontario and the same in the Atlantic provinces almost 10 per cent In the western provinces and about per cent in Quebec Today Canadians of Irish origin are active all phases of Canadian life so that it Is difficult to assess accurately whether they have any preferred occupations Irish music and Irish stew have warmed the hearts and stomachs of generations of Canadians and the wearin the green on St Patricks Day Is certainly not confined to those of Irish descent In the United States the Irish cop has become a stereotype and there is some evidence that Canadians of Irish origin have a leaning towards police work too The people of Irish descent who have made an impact on Canada are legion Perhaps one of greatest lasting contributions was made by Sir Guy Carteton later Lord Dorchester the first Governor inChief of British North America It was on his advice hat in 1774 the Quebec Act was passed permitting the retention of customs and institutions greatly treasured by Canadians of French origin Another Irishman James Fitzgibbonwasvlctoraloneofthe decisive battles at Beaver Dams in the War of 1812 Robert Baldwin was joint premier with Louls- Hippolyte La font a be of United Canada Starting with Thomas the eloquence of Irish politicians has never ceased to reverberate through Canadas House of Commons Joseph mayor of was of Irish traction from Acton In the field of commerce a large Canadjan department store chain and mail order house grew qui of the small general by Timothy Eaton of County Antrim and from the Georgetown district Colone McLaughlin of is considered the major founder and developer of the Canadian automobile industry His grandfather John McLaughlin had come from Counly Tyrone in 1832 Torontoborn Morley Callaghan is one of Canadas outstanding writers His short stories have been recognised as some of the best written by a Canadian Through the Church and other societies the Catholic part of the Irish community maintained a considerable degree of Identity The Protestant Irish also found means of group expression not ably in the Orange Association of British North America established shortly after immigrant had settled to large numbers With the generations born Canada both Catholic and Protestant Irish have worked together with other group to build the Ca today March IBM The Young Peoples League of United Church presented a fine play In the Town Hall George In a Jam The president Miss K Savage acted as chairman and the orches tra under the direction of Mason gave several selections In the cast were Harold Swackhamer Mrs Roy Johnston Jean Lambert Jack Reld Kathleen Savage Ruth Gibson Mrs J J Stewart and Gor don Cook with Mrs J C Matthews directing There was a full house It be repeated again this evening Junior Oratorical Contest was held at Ihe high school Winner was Norman with fin address on Sir Wilfred Lauricr and second was Hazel Wilsons oration on Sir Adam Beck Others who competed Jack Graham Kathleen Chapman Hazel Wilson Theresa Campbell and Jean Taking part In a debate on dictatorship were Jack Ada Velma Blair and Howard Norton 75 years ago Messrs Bcardm ore and Company have generously offered if a local company is formed which will erect a covered rink at a cost of M000 to contribute toward this amount if in stock is sub scribed for by other citizens who may be Interested In the scheme The proprietor of the Dominion Hotel would like see the cost of his electricity lo drop below eight cents Many of the towns people feel the same Mrs Robert G Brown has pur chased the double tenement on Church SI West of Main Si from Mrs Helen Cordon of Guelph The Bishop has appointed J to the rectorship of St Albans Church March 131884 Messrs Storey and Son of Canada Glove Works ere now manufacturing a superior line of purses for ladies and gentlemen and fadieshandsatchels None but first- class goods will be turned out The Salvation Army made their first charge In Guelph to crowds of an immense size The Army the work done by them in no way antagonistic to the churches their endeavor Is to reclaim the fallen sinners We are of the opinion the Army could do good work for lb cause of Cod ta Acton If they would secure the Congregational Church tod send a detachment of officer here to conduct This it what happened The church referred fa Is now St Josephs Altogether too many bays have run of the streets day and night- The Railway baa price of a ticket to monopoly