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THE COLBORNE EXPRESS, COLBORNE,-ONT. JAN. 6, 1955 TH E CaiVttt SPORTS COLUMN 1 fcf £l4HC% *p&tf6MM • And so passes the most amazing year in all the history of sport. Amazing, because of the shattered-records that dot its trail. Amazing, because the British Empire, long an international doormat in sport, arose in its might to contribute to the saga of 1954 the most astonishing of all sports feats. That was, of course, the double Miracle Mile. In fact, you might term it the Double Double Miracle. First England's Roger Bannister crashed through the mental sound barrier with a 3.59.4 mile. But the ink had scarcely dried on the records page when along came slim John Landy, from the Empire outpost of Australia, to reduce the mark to 3.58. And then, the Miracle of Miracles, both these great athletes broke the 4-minute mark in their unforgettable battle in the British Empire Games in Vancouver. These were the feats not merely of the year, but of the century. In a year when records fell like clay pigeons, these two stand out like beacon lights. The 5,000 metres mark fell so fast and so often you could scarcely keep track. First Zatopek the Czech, then the Russian Valdimir Kuc, then England's great red-haired Chris Chataway, then Kuc again. And there was England's Fred Green, shattering the 3-mile mark. And 1954 was a big year for Canada in sport. Marilyn Bell amazed the world as she fought icy waters to swim the 40 miles across Lake Ontario, an almost unbelievable feat. And Tom Parker; a chunky Canadian distance swimmer from Hamilton, Ont., thrashed across the treacherous Cat-alina Channel in the record-breaking time of 13 hours, 25 minutes, 41 seconds. It was Canada's year on our golf courses, too. Both Canadian Open events were won by Canadians. Pat Fletcher of Saskatoon became the first native-born Canadian to win the Men's Open in nearly 50 years, capturing the Seagram Gold Cup and its rich cash awards. On the distaff side, little Miss Marlene Stewart captured the Canadian Women's Open. Calvert DISTILLERS LIMITED AMHEXSTBURG, ONTARIO Royal Bank Assets Top $3 Billion Mark The Royal Bank Of Canada closed its fiscal year ending November 30th with assets of $3,-026,895,844, the first Canadian chartered bank to pass the $3 billion mark. The Annual Balance Sheet, just released, shows assets have increased by Over $131,000,000 as compared with a year ago. Loans and Deposits are at the highest levels ever attained by any Candian bank. A notable feature of this year's Statement is a major change in the capital structure of the bank. As a result of the issue last July 1st of 700,000 additional shares Of Capital Stock, the paid up capital of the bank has increased from $35,000,000 to $41,809,-863. From the sale of this additional stock the bank also realized a premium of $13,619,726 which, together with $16,000,000 transferred from inner reserves has been added to the Rest Fund. In addition the bank has, for the fifth year in a row, transferred to the Rest Fund a portion of the current year's net earnings, the figure this year being $4,000,000. As a result of these transactions the Rest Fund now stands at $103,619,726. Capital Funds thus total $146,-933,664, a figure which sets a record high level for all Canadian banks. When the instalment subscriptions for the new issue are fully paid, the Capital and Reserve Funds will stand at $42,000,000 and $104,000,000 respectively, which, with undivided profits, will make the total Capital Funds of the bank $147,-604,075. Deposits have attained the impressive total of $2,797,548,149, Of which over $1,126,000,000 are personal savings deposits payable in Canada. Deposits by the public have increased by nearly $90,000,000. Loans, exclusive of mortgage loans under N.H.A., total $1,188,-022,047, an increase Of $43,875,-823 over the 1953 figure. Call loans at $156,395,203, show a moderate increase, while other loans, including commercial loans in Canada, have increased by $36,761,094 to $1,031,626,844. The degree to which the Royal Bank participated in mortgage lending under the provisions of the N.H.A., is reflected in the figures shown under the new heading "Mortgages and Hypothecs insured under the N.H.A. (1954)", namely $22,672,390. The liquid position of the bank is strong. Liquid assets^amount-ing to $1,881,900,848, are equal to 65.34% of the bank's liability to the public. Included in these liquid assets are Dominion and Provincial Government securities totalling $969,888,546. Profit for the year amounted to $20,913,511. From this amount $2,079,466 has been set aside for depreciation of bank premises and $9,276,000 for income taxes. After the above deductions net profit was $9,558,045 as compared with $8,635,136 in 1953. Out Of net profit, $5,569,345 was paid in dividends to shareholders, leaving $3,988,700, which added to the previous balance of $1,515,375 totals • $5,504,075. Of this amount $4,000,000 was transferred to the Rest Fund leaving a balance of $1,504,075. "You NO WONDER The doctor was puzzled, ought to be better by now," he said. "Have you carried out my instructions?" "Well, doctor," said the patient, "I've done most of them, but I can't take the two-mile walk every morning you Ordered. I get too dizzy." "What do you mean--dizzy?" "Well," said the patient, "perhaps I forgot to tell you, but I'm a lighthouse-keeper." Horse Of The Year-Determine, with Jockey Ray York up, nuzzles the hand of Trainer Billy Molter just, after winning the $25,000 Added Golden Gate Handicap at Albany, Calif. His $15,300 purse brought the gray colt's winnings to $328,880. Overtime Was For Referee's Benefit Soccer fans at Naples, who have made it necessary for referees to escape from the Stadio Vomero ground disguised as firemen, and have threatened to lynch offending radio commentators, grow no milder. Earlier this year they provoked an extraordinary incident which eventually resulted in their club being heavily fined and having to forfeit two of its points. The occasion was a home match with Genoa, in which Naples were not doing well. Viney, the team's Hungarian left back, badly fouled an opponent, and was ordered off the field by the referee. The crowd immediately became extremely menacing; and Viney, although he had sworn at the referee, was allowed to play on. The crowd's temper was such that the referee realized that he would be lucky to escape with his life. He therefore adopted the stratagem of refraining from blowing his whistle when it came to full time, and allowed the game to go on. On and on it went, for some ten minutes, until at last Naples attacked and a Genoa defender controlled the ball quite lawfully in his own penalty area. There was no semblance of a foul--but it was the chance the referee had been waiting for. Without hesitation he awarded a penalty, from which Naples scored, thus "winning" the match. As soon as the ball was in the net the referee blew for full time ! When Dickens Visited America No reception was ever given to any foreigner in the United States quite like that accorded to Boz. The visit of Lafayette a few years before (1826) had been an occasion of greater national honour. The later visits of such people as the patriot Kossuth called forth larger crowds and more public tribute. But the young Dickens was hailed with a warmth of personal affection never manifested before or since. They welcomed in him all the geniality of Mr. Pickwick, all the appeal of little Oliver and Little Nell, all the charm of old English Christ-fas for the people of a newer England. And Dickens at the first met it with a boyish and buoyant delight that matched his welcome. He was full of life and power and of speech that never flagged: "Here we are," he said in his clear and merry No. 400 Is In The Ne the Black Hawks in I historic goal, t left. The Hawks c d from left) glides away after scoring again y Mosdell, who started the play for the Rocket's : Frank Martin and goalie Al Rollins. voice as he entered the old Tre-mont House. Later on, after dinner, he was out in the snowbound streets, merry, boisterous, exuberant, delighted with everything, Boz was just what Boz ought to be. No wonder, they smothered him with adulation. The country simply went wild over him. The time of his coming was fortunate. There was at the moment no particular national excitement. The tumult over "nullification" had died down, and secession had not yet come up. It was midway between two presidential elections. There was no cable to bring news of foreign wars, and no foreign war to bring news of. Under these circumstances the arrival of young Boz became a first-class national event. The proceedings opened with a rush of reporters to meet the ship, a sort of procession to the Tremont House, where Dickens was to stay, and a crowd of eager faces lined up on the sidewalk to get a look at him. Then followed calls and invitations in a flood. Dickens' table at the hotel was soon piled high with unopened letters. He had to engage a young man, a Mr. Putnam who wrote an account of it all. He gives us a picture of Dickens and his wile breakfasting in their sitting room at the hotel, Boz tearing open letters, dictating, eating, and talking all at the same time, and a local sculptor of note (a Mr. Alexander) making a bust of him at the side of the room and occasionally walking around to get a "close-up" look at him. There were dinners and receptions in all directions. Boz was introduced to the leading literary people of Boston and of Harvard. He was taken out to Springfield to see the Massachusetts Legislature, where, we are told by the press, "his appearance in the Senate chamber created quite a stir among the members."--From "Charles Dickens His Life and Work," by Stephen Leacock. * She Nearly Caught A Falling Star When John Donne wrote "Go and catch a falling star" he thought he was creating an image of impossibility. But a Mrs. Hulett Hodges of Sylacauga, Ala., who perhaps doesn't read John Donne (few people do, these days), very nearly caught a falling star. Rather, it very nearly caught her. She was struck on the hip and hand by a meteorite that ripped through the roof of her home while she was taking a nap. It was only a nine-pound meteorite, an astral fragment which the skies will never miss. But to Mrs. Hodges, it is her meteorite, her personal evidence that stars once really fell on Alabama. Now they want to take it away from her. "They" means the Air Force and the State Museum of Natural History. The Air Force has taken possession of the meteorite and says it will be sent to Washington for scientific research. The museum, located in Tuscaloosa, says it wants the meteorite for display purposes. Mrs. Hodges says she wants the meteorite as a souvenir to talk about when folks Science, of course, must be served, and perhaps some kind of a compromise can be worked out whereby the Air Force can conduct its experiments and return the meteorite forthwith to Mrs. Hodges. In her turn, she might be willing to lend it to the museum occasionally, say on alternate Sundays. But it might well be made the law of the land: any meteorite falling on any person shall belong to said person. Let others go and catch their own falling stars.-- New York Herald Tribune. "Upside-Down" Tree That Never Dies Africa's toughest tree, the baobab, survives fire, storm, girdling (stripping off all the bark) and all kinds of ill-treatment. It is sometimes called the "cream of tartar" tree because the acid in the fruit pulp is tartaric acid. Its roots go deep but its branches are short and stubby and for most of the year are bare of leaves. It rarely grows higher than sixty feet--which is low compared with the girth of its trunk. When the tree is found in dry inland regions the branches look so much like roots that local native legend says "an angry devil planted the baobab upside down." Though the baobab takes many centuries to achieve its full size (a trunk with a diameter of thirty feet is quite normal), its timber, unlike most trees that mature slowly, is soft and pulpy and quite useless. Its leaves are not unlike those of the horse-chestnut. Africans have found that its fibrous bark makes excellent ropes and even tough fabrics. The fruit, known as monkey bread or sour gourd, has a variety of uses. The seeds and the acid-tasting pulp make a gruel which natives quite enjoy. The pulp juices are invaluable as medicine to combat various swamp fevers, while witch-doctors use them as cure-alls. The natives have found, also, that when cooked the leaves have a spinach-like flavour. They feed them to their cattle when other crops are in short supply. The baobab is a tree which refuses to die. Natives, seeking its bark to make ropes, frequently girdle the tree, strip- * ping the bark off completely as high as they can reach. This would kill any normal tree, but the baobab is unperturbed. . It simply grows another bark round its 100 feet of girth-- and meanwhile goes on growing. Frequently natives carve gigantic caverns inside the trunk, leaving only a foot-thick outer "skin," and then use this cave as a dwelling, or to store things. Sometimes they fill the cave with water and use it as a reservoir in dry periods. Even forest fires, which have swept other trees of apparently sterner stuff into dusty ash, fail to destroy the baobab. Stunted, blackened, it soon puts forth new branches which in time are again covered (in season) "with leaves. It can, of course, be cut down. But it is a tough task. Famous David Livingstone saw this for himself, when he ordered one to be chopped down. At last it fell. But not to die. Months later he noted with amazement that the "dead tree" had grown another inch since it had been . felled to the ground! TOPPED HIM Two boys were arguing about the strength and all-round ability of their respective fathers. "You know the Pacific Ocean?" said one. "Well, my father dug the hole for it." His pal paused for a moment, then said: "Have you ever heard Of the Dead Sea? Well, my dad killed it." CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING BABY CHICKS Turkey Hanch & Hatchery. Har; breeds. The demand NEW DEPENDALITE 60 c/s PLANTS MKUICAI NATURE'S HELP - DIXON'S REMEDY FOR RHEUMATIC PAINS, NEURITIS THOUSANDS PRAISING IT. MUNRO'S DRUG STORE, 335 Elgin, Ottawa. $1.25 Express Prepaid POST'S ECZEMA SALVE respond readily to the etal °%Ric^PS2S5u thrKRBejAB POST'S REMEDIES it Post Free on Receipt of P i Queen St. F... Corner of I.o TORONTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR KING ENTF.RPK1SKS YOU CAN DEPEND Get Dodd'i depend on Dodd'i OPPORTUNITIES I tlve. simplified. lowest prices, highest efficiency Details. Burnstad. Box 88576. Los Angeles 38. California. FREE CATALOGUE FRIENDLY TRADING, 2008 ST. 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