B. C Largest Circulation of Any Semi-Weekly Newspaper in British Columbia fge Citizen Vol. 35; No. 68 Prince George, B.C., THURSDAY, August 28, 1952 Entries Swamp Secretary $4.00 per year 5^ per copy Fair Gates Open Saturday Noon Records May Topple At Big Weekend Exhibition Here Featuring a gala display of the prized products of Fort George gardens, farms, homes and schools, and an .exciting program of midway and sports attractions, officers of Prince George Agricultural and Industrial Association will open the doors on the annual Fall Fair at 1:00 p.m. Saturday. With Llie weatherman promising bright skies and entries pouring into the office of the hardworking secretary, Mrs. R. B. Cartef. the three-day week-end exhibition promises to be the most successful in the 37-year-history of the show. The fair will be officially opened by George M. Murray, federal member for Cariboo at 1:30 p.m. Other platform guests will be L. L. King, M.L.A. for Fort George, Mayor Garvin Dezell and members of the Fall Fair board of directors. Immediately after the opening ceremonies, a 30-minute stage pro-mam will be presented featuring Grace Mortimer, Billy Ross, Dick Bowes, vocalists;" Bill Stoba, magician, and Dick Sharp, trick roper. HOHSK RACING At 2:15 the fine new half-mile track for horse, racing will be baptized by the running of the Agricultural * Stakes, opening event on a nine-race .card which has attracted horses from Burns Lake and the lower Cariboo. Free moving picture shows will l>e staged in the exhibition hall during the afternoon and even- GEORGE MURRAY, M.P. for Cariboo, will officially unveil 37th annual Prince George Fall Fair at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Alderman Aitken Charges Irregularities In Early Administration of Civic Centre Project Blunt Accusation Angers City Council Around $25,000 of public money donated to the Prince George Civic Centre can not be accounted for in the organization's Seventh Avenue structure, Alderman Jack Aitken charged at a City Council meeting Monday night. Alderman Aitken's statement rocked the Council chamber during a discussion on the impending referendum over whether or not the city should take over the building and spend around $44,-000 to complete it. At one point in the raucus debate Alderman Aitken turned to Alderman Thomas Carmichael and made^a remark to him which was drowned out by rapid-fire conversation around the Council table. Alderman Carmichael rose, rapped Alderman Aitken sharply on the arm and said "I am here as a public spirited citizen and not as a real estate agent. I want you to know Alderman Aitken that I resent that remark very much". Lator Alderman Carmichael said that the remark coupled his enthusiasm for completing the Civic Centre with his position in the community as a real estate agent. Alderman Aitken unleashed his bombshell statement earlier saying "I have it from many people that $25,000 of the $48,000 they claim they spent on it (the Civic Centre) never went into the building." A minute later when His Worship Mayor Dezell, once chairman of the Civic Centre building committee, challenged Alderman Ait f:30 p.m. specTatbrs willTb'e inc. At treated to a repeat performance of the afternoon stage program, to be followed by a thrilling arid mystifying display of the magician's art and trick rope wizardry by Stoba & Sharp, nationally �known entertainers. BASEBALL With entries expected from nine teams, including the 'Prince GeoVge Lumbermen and league-loading Willow River Red Sox, three preliminary games of the featured baseball tournament will be played on the new diamond at Agricultural Park. First game will start at "noon, with others billed for 3 and 5:30 p.m. LABOR DAY Patrons of the Fall Fair on Labor Day will find the exhibi- Fires Cripple Tyro Mills ..-........ Flames and,sparks shot- 1.00 feet in, the; air as a spectacular early morning fire roared uncontrolled through the planing mill and power-house of Allen Lumber Co. Ltd. at Chief Lake on Sunday. Machinery and lumber valued at $50,000 were destroyed. On Sunday evening a fire levelled the boiler-room of the Leboe Bros, sawmill at Crescent Spur and two firefighters were injured while attempting to control the outbreak. The Chief lake fire was,discovered at 2 a.m. Sunday by people returning from a dance. Smoke was pouring from the roof of the power-house buildfng and in a few moments the structure and adjoining planer plant were a mass of flames. Water supplies from nearby tion hall open at 10 a.m., and in wells were soon exhausted as the morning will'watch the judg->%' of the poultry and livestock exhibits and the semi-final games -of the baseball tourney. In the afternoon1 there will be mother indoor stage concert, �;hich will be repeated at 7:30 (J dock in tha evening. Feature daring the afternoon' will be a/series of jalopy speed tests and a program of "hotrod" �aces. Race officials Dofnt out that cars entered in/the jalopy races must be stoik-'models with n mechanical alterations, while o "hot rodsj^rnay be "souped up in any/manner to increase their spe^d; Finalists in the baseball tqurna-mentAvili clash during the after-jjron for the top cash award. ^venlng entertainment will in-(See FAIR GATES, Page 4) tr>o A highlight of the 'Fall Jair will be a representative display of agricultural products from the Peace River. Farmers in that area are assembling a big display of sneaf grains, vegetables and r9ot crops which! will be snown in the main building. Included will, be samples ot sweet corn grown in the Peace River. George Murray, M.P., of St. John, is taking a ^ interest in the north-f� ^hiblt. He says crops , |nat country 'fhave never looked better" and yields snould break all records this volunteers battled unsuccessfully to quell the flames, although adjoining stocks of rough lumber were saved. The/fire ruined a power unit, ire Razes School; Arsonist Blamed School Board officials suspect an arsonist was responsible for a mysterious fire which completely destroyed a one-room log school at Sylvan Glade, eight miles north of Isle Pierre, on Sunday evening. ' ' The fire was first noticed by neighbors at 7 p.m., shortly after heavy rains had drenched the countryside. The-small building, constructed in 1931, has been unoccupied since early in July when Sunday School was held there. A heavy wind swept flames away from the nearby teacherage but blew huge embers into the air and for a time endangered a barn. Volunteers saved a quantity of wood piled against the school before intense heat drove them back. Loss is estimated at $1500. Last year ten pupils attended the school, and this year eight children will be accommodated in temporary quarters loaned by George White. Classes will reopen on schedule' next Tuesday, according to a school official. planer and new resaw. Also lost was 10,000 feet of lumber piled in the planer mill. The plant had a capacity-of 40,-000 feet daily. Planer mill employees have been absorbed into other operations of the Allen company, which 'employs 45 men.' No decision to replace the destroyed units has been made. A similar fire razed the Allen mill in April, 1951. CRESCENT SPUR A meagre report from Crescent Spur states most residents were eating supper when fire was discovered in the mill there at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Dozens of mill workers hurried to the scene and formed a bucket brigade until the fire pump and hose could be brought into action. Six hours later the main mill building and nearby structures were pronounced out of danger. Two firemen required first-aid after cutting their hands on the tin roof of the building. Extent of the loss could not be learned at press time. hen's statement, the latter correct-! Williams Lake Band Here Next Sunday Baseball will be blended with music during the preliminary games of the Fall Fair tournament here next Sunday. Fair officials have arranged ed himself saying "I said that with the Williams Lake Rube twenty to twenty-five-odd thous- Band to play for fans at inter-and dollars can't be accounted vals during the day. for". - j Services of the Lake musicians When His Worship pointed out are in great demand and they will that the annual statements of the make a one-day stop here enroute Civic Centre Association have \ to fill an engagement at Vander-been audited, Alderman Aitken: hoof, said "I got it from the auditor. It is a known fact." Mayor Dezell told- Aiderman Aitken that Civic Centre books (See ALD. AITKEN, Page 8)' New Works Minister Inspects Roads Here Hon. P. A. Gaglardi, minister of public works in the new Social Credit government, and N. M. Mc-Callum, chief engineer of the department, were in Prince George Tuesday night, after having driven to within 60 miles of Daw-son Creek over the Hart Highway during the day. They left by car for Quesnel Wednesday morning during the course of an extensive tour of the district in which they are looking over the roads. 'Mr. Gaglardi stated that the Hart Highway from Salmon River north was in good shape but found the first 15 miles out of Prince George in poor condition! This had been caused, by ill" ness of the grader operator and inability of the department to find a replacement. He stated that the road from Williams Lake to Quesnel was in good condition when he drove it earlier this" week. Every effort of the department is being made to improve road conditions in the province, but lack of funds limits the amount of work, which can be done. With (See NEW WORKS, Page 4) Native Of Poland Was Buried Here Yesterday Funeral services for the late Fred Besarab were held from Sacred Heart Catholic church yesterday morning at 10:30. Mr. Besarab died suddenly on August 19. He was a native of Poland, and had been in Prince George about two years, employed by a city cleaning establishment up to the time of his death. He was 53* years of age and leaves no known survivors. Assman's Funeral Chapel handled arrangements for the last rites and interment. Widow Testifies At Lake Murder Trial A weeping Indian woman who dabbed constantly at her face with a tear-stained rag told a crowded courtroom here yesterday how she and her 14-year-old son had watched her husband slip from sight in the waters of Stuart Lake on August 2 after he had been brutally beaten by a fellow Indian. The dead man's son, Alfred, I--------r------------------------�_._ Citizen Plant Silent On Monday Holiday Prince George Citizen employees will have a chance to patronise the Fall Fair on Monday (Labor Day). , The paper will not be published on that day. . Next-regular issue'of The Citizen "will be on. Thursday, Sept. 4. son, told the court how he hit Francois .Peter Dennis, charged with the murder of the boy's father, twice with a pike-pole in an effort to save the man in the water. Asked by Crown counsel Frank S. Perry why he had hit the accused as their two boats drifted together on the lake, young Alfred Austin said "I know he going to kill my father. He was on the water and he couldn't fight back and he couldn't help himself. That's why .1 help my father." � . � He said Dennis� started his motor a short time later and "turned around and travelled on Freak Accident Dunks $30,000 Truck Load Efforts to salvage $30,000 worth of construction machinery which plunged into 28 feet of water from the C.N.R. j bridge here this week may get under way within the next 48 hours, an insurance adjuster connected with the case stated. A Caterpillar, Model D.7 tractor with its 12-yard carry-all plunged from a low-boy trailer through the railing of the bridge between the two farthest east spans late Monday. ;. Although a* part of one machine was visible above water for a short time after it fell into the swift current, it has now settled and only a dim flash of yellow from its bright paint job is visible from time to time through the murky Fraser river waters. The machines were being moved to a new construction job on a special trailer owned and operated by Jamieson Construction Company Ltd., Pacific Great East- Polio Cases Pass Through City On Way To Coast Prince George and District Hospital housed two patients diagnosed as polio1 victims Tuesday but only for an hour on their way from Burns Lake to Vancouver. The two, John Walker and his five year old daughter Sharon, accompanied by Mrs. Walker, were flown here from the west and then on to the coast city for special treatment of the disease. There are no cases of polio in the Prince George area, public health officer Dr. H. M. Brown of the Cariboo Health Unit assured this morning. Six cases have been reported to date in the Burns Lake area, including the two Walkers, Dr. Brown revealed, all of them in a community to the south of the town. Two victims past the critical stage of the illness have gone to Vancouver by car for further treatment. Two nurses of the Cariboo Health Unit, whose enormous territory includes the Burns Lake area, have been dispatched west to make a first-hand report on the increasingly grave situation there. They are Miss Eleanor Hassett R.N., and Miss Doris Brentzen, R.N., the latter recalled from holiday by the emergency. Dr. Brown himself will go to the infected area Monday. He will be accompanied by Dr. J. A. Taylor, director of local health services for the provinces, and Dr. Frank McCombie, director of dental services. Both latter doctors are from Victoria and are in this area on a routine visit. ern Railway contractors. An eyewitness to the accident said the equipment first banged a span of the bridge some 150 feet west of the spot � where i it struck again and was thrown into the river. A dozer blade on the tractor cut a deep notch in a thick steel plate on a girder of the bridge and knocked a tooth off a steel gear-segment once used to lift the east span. BRIDGE RAILING As the tons of machinery rolled off its trailer it took 40 feet of iron bridge-railing with it. Owners of the equipment are Summit Contractors Ltd., a Prince George firm of which Thomas Walsh is president. Mr. Walsh said the tractor would have gone to Burns Lake after-the short job it was on its way to when the accident occurred. George M. Hughey, city insurance adjuster entrusted with the job of arranging salvage, said a local group would attempt to pull the machinery from the rfver shortly. He said a specialist from a Coast salvage company might oversee the work. The adjustor denied a report that salvage rights would belong to those who got the first line on the equipment as is the case of nautical salvage. He said the fact that the Fraser River is classed as navigable waters made no difference and that salvage rights as defined in admiralty law would not apply. Although .plans for the actual salvage operation have not yet been drawn up in detail, it is believed crews working from a nearby point on the river bank top of where my father was on the water." Alfred displayed no emotion during his testimony. He talked in the flat monotone of the Indian tongue and his words were relayed to the court through an interpreter. \ The preliminary hearing got under way early on Tuesday, but several hours delay occurred when H. B. King, counsel for the accused, objected to the use of an Interpreter who was related to persons connected to the case. INTERPRETER j R.C.M.P. Constable Gib Perry I made a non-stop trip all the way | back to Stuart Lake Tuesday i night and appeared in court here \resterday with an interpreter acceptable to the -defence. Dennis, the accused; was also without expression during � the hearing thus far. He is a heavy set man with a pronounced limp. He has spent 27 of his 39 years on crutches and was only able to walk without them a year and a half ago following an operation. Mrs. Austin, wife of the dead man, described the events leading up to the scene of violence on the lake. She told how she, her husband, Alfred and a young baby belonging to another family were on their way up Stuart Lake from (See WIDOW TESTIFIES, Page 5) Tidy Thieves Rob Cold Storage Firm Thoughtful marauders who replaced the screen they had removed to gain an entrance last night robbed Gosse Cold Storage, Fourth and Brunswick, of $41. The open window, 20 feet from, the ground, was reached by an extension ladder "borrowed" from nearby premises. The amount stolen was all in silver and. was taken from the store section of the building. The burglars left by the same route they entered. Police are investigating. can accomplish the job stout cable is attached. Plane Bringing Big Peace River Display George M. Murray, M.P., stepped off a C.P.A. plane from the north, bearing a large sheaf of alfalfa seed from the Peace River country for exhibit at the Prince Georgejjfall^Fair which he will officially open Saturday. He sardr Mrs. Murray, who planned to arrive later from the north, would have in charge an. extensive'exhibit for the fair contributed by a group of neighbors in the Fort St. John area. The Cariboo M.P. was due at Vanderhoof for the Labor Day activities, but would be back � in. Prince George in good time to help welcome Rt. Hon. Louis St. once a ] Laurent, Prime Minister, and party /September 8.