An Independent Semi-Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the        Interest of Central and Northern British Columbia
38, No. 56
(Three Sections)
Prince George, B.C., THURSDAY, July    3] >55
$4.00 per year
5c per copy
jEx-Alderman Mentioned At tarings Yesterday
Itnesses link Police Cfc/el f/i Vancouver Underwork
VANCOUVER�Two  senior  police   officers  Wednesdoy the Tupper Royal Commission they were convinced Chief
cnstablc Walter Mulligan was involved in payoffs to police
(lhe Vancouver underworld.
jhc chorges during the first day's testimony before Commissioner nQ;,j H. Tupper, selected last month to. investigate alleged corruption lOl,i. in the 735-man force, also rang in th^_ name of Gordon Wismer, ,er" British  Columbia   attorney-general.
Del Sgl. Archie Plummer said his investigations while head of the city's idling ^quad from 1951 to 1953 convinced him Mulligan was "part of rispirocy" omong city bookmakers.
Sgl Plummer brought up the name of Mr. Wismer, attorney-general jring the Coalition government from 1949 to- 1952. We testified he had L,i told bv a fellow police officer that Chief Mulligan "had everything fixed I Victoria" and that the chief "was close to Wismer."
koTECTION
Det.-Sgt. Robert H. Leatherdale testified that the police chief tried to [range protection for bootleggers in  1949.
John G. Whelan, who left the force in 1946, said while he was promot-S wrestling in Vancouver in T 949 he was connected in a deal for a $5,000-nonth payof-f to police by a bookmaker. '
In unoihe.r major development Chief Mulligan offered his personal nncial art^Q&s, and those of his wife, for investigation by any chartered countont selected by the commissioner.
Wholon testified that in 1949 he held a sport club charter os a wrestl-promotor.                                                                                            "
He said he was. opprooched by Pete Wallace and asked to move  into jmi'.cs on  which   Wollace  held  o  lease  and  take  Wallace as a" partner. Ifhclon identified Wallace as a bookie�"A'big .one."
Whelon said he obtained permission from city council to move the club \>d cho-tcr to the premises-leased by Wallace in the basement of an East ostihgs Street hotel.                                               . -                \
Wallace said he would like to see Det.-Sgt.  Len Cuthbert, then head the gambling squad," said Whelan.                                             '.
I phoned Cuthbert and asked him to meet with us at the York Hotel. uthbert came up to the room olone.    Wallace told him he should cut Van-; in'holf  at  Carroll- Street and  then  Bruce  Snider  and  Leo  Bancroft i  Id hove  the   bookie  privileges  west  of  Carroll   and   Pete-Wallace  could : the privileges east of Carroll. "Wollace agreed to pay Guthbert $5,000 a month. Wliclan also accused a former city alderman  of running  "one of the fggest, all-out and wide open gambling houses in  Vancouver."   '
He said  the   former  alderman,   Roland  K.  Gervin,   was  in   partnership Bill  Couper,   mentioned  by  the  Toronto   weekly   Flash  in  a   series  of
glides on graft in the city which preceded the hearings.                      ___
Whelan  soid   he  went "to  the city  council  with  "certain- Information" out the gambling set-up in the city,, put .Gervin and Caiiper, .he ,satd; ran" dub on a charter "they stole from o bunch of German immigrants." Becousc of Gervin's opposition,-Whelan said,   "I  never got to see  the
Or."         \                                       �          -                  /"^ '
an   was   still   on   the   stand   when   the   hearings   adourned   until
irport Runway Closed After Spectacular Test Flight Here
Prince George Airport's longest runway has been closed nee last Friday afternoon wben a Royal Canadian Air Force �ansport blew two tires as it touched down after atest flight nd sank almost a foot into the asphalt while taxiing to the
jrmac.                .'."�'                        �
Tjjc near-disastrous landing ! only a few minutes after a iicular. take-off in which the Packet" transport "dragged its ill along- the -runway before looting into the air -In a steep inib
A Citizen reporter who exam in-1 'In' nmu'ay where both lands'anil take-off took place found �:Ml"! streaks along the paving licro the plane's twin tail fins niwwl along the ground. According to eyewitnesses to i!ii take-off and landing the '�'"<� carried two"' unidentified omen besides its normal crew. Alter a GO minute airborn ses-i'�n which its pilot (not yet iden-!fj) recorded as a "test flight", "Racket" made a normal ap-�ich but apparently touched n with its brakes either part-'�'> or locked. "
"ijr black streaks down-the "'ft's main runway bear mute I.Tipny to the tire-screeching iact.
he "Packet" is equipped with 1 wheels on each of its main, ll-i:carriage legs  and  one tire
loi Weather Poses Nal To Forests
"it George Forest District is
"- plagued with a near record
lumber of forest fires, this year,
ln'i with hot, dry. weather fore-
m for the week-end all look-out
ations are on the alert for fresh
|utbro!iks.'
bing ahe 75-day fire season ar 98 fires have gone down B-C. Forest  Service  records,
 with' the  81  fires re-
Lat
 in   the  full  in 1954.
184-day  fire
cst fire report, filed with ci ils yesterday afternoon, v > that the only fires burning lh.te forest district are in the ' St. John'area. "e three fires burning there rr classified as "inaccessible". A
1th r.ict.
;icl'o  patch  is  ablaze  along
Crackdown Starts On Low Class Dwellings
A long-pending crackdown on sub-standard dwellings in Prince George got underway Monday night when city council ordered a tumble-down home demolished at the owner's expense if steps are not taken to improve or remove" it within the next 60 days.
At the same time, city building inspector E. S. Howarth disclosed in a letter to city council that he had posted a "no occupancy" sign on another sub-standard home and informed a prospective purchaser that permits could not be issued to make the place habitable since it occupies only one lot and has "deteriorated beyond reasonable repair". '
The home which must be demolished is * situated near the corner of Vancouver Street and Fifth. Avenue.. It is not occupied and was branded a public men: ace by council on Monday.
Mayor Gordon Bryant reported that repeated attempts to have the owner of. the property take action on its condition have been without avail..
Only Alderman R. S. Ferguson voted against the motion to h?.ve the building improved or destroyed.,. . . and that because of a. principle.
He said he knew of at least one more in worse condition and a total of five which are as bad, and thought that all should be subject to the same procedure.
Mayor 'Bryant explained that, the , building inspection department is overwhelmed with work but will get around to the others
in time.
 V
blew -on each side. 7
After   taxiing   onto  the  north-south  runway  on its  way  back j to .the tarmac' the plane stopped j and slowly vbegan to sink into the hot/asphalt paving.
Gunning  the  motors  the  pilot
Police Pick Up  x Three Prowlers-
Two prowlers were found early this, morning on-'fhe used car lot of Shields-Motor Products.
Both were arrested by police arid were charged with vagrancy.
The pair pleaded not guilty to the charges and were remanded for eight days or until crown witnesses' are available.
Another man was apprehended last night on (he property of Rustad Brothers in. the planer mill area .while..removing an axel from a pick-up truck.
Earlier lie pleaded guilty to an intoxication charge and pleaded �not,guilty to the theft charge.
Suspected  Bootlegger Back In Court Today
Rolantle Betty Mantell, a comely 'rusty-blonde, is -being tried in
extricated   the   craft  and   moved ' police court  today on charges of it onto firmer ground.                 I keping a bawdy house.
The plane came here early last;.    This  morning a    South    Fort week carrying an engine replace-. George man gave evidence-as to
ment . for a stranded Lancaster bomber which was on its way, to the Arctic.
A second "Packet" flew" in at the week-end with new tires for its limping counterpart. Air force officials accompanying the second machine examined the scene of the near-tragic landing before departing.
Repairs to the north-south runway are expected to be completed today or tomorrow.-      �
his associations with the accused. Last week she was charged with selling liquor contrary to the Government Liquor Act. The case was dismissed by Magistrate Mor-an, but the Crown will launch an appeal.
In a Pony League baseball game last night Foresters defeated Reavers 11-3 with Dave Bellamy hurling a neat three-hitter for the winners.
$16 In Record Sale
'Highest  stumpage   prices  even paid   for   timber   in  the Prince George  Forest  District  were  recorded  at  B.C.   Forest Service timber auctions recently when spruce, was bid at high as $15.80 per thousand board feet. Three   sales   in   which
in
high prices were bid, and* a fourth which approach" the old record of Si2 per thousand feet, all involved . timber adjacent to the Stone Creek Access Road In the Naver Forest, 20 miles south of Prince George.
Highest price pf all was bid for approximately 4,000,000 board feet of spruce in an area north of Giscome.
The Naver Forest sales were the first involving Umber adjacent to " the government-built Stone Creek Access Road.
"Departing from standard procedure the forest service p.ut up the Naver Forest sale Itself rdth-er than await applications from industry.   "
Around GO firms and individuals had expressed interest in the timber and bidding involved utf to a half dozen eager competitors.
Three of the Naver Forest sales went to B.C.  Spruce, Sales  Ltd.,
local company which operates a planing mill in the city's heavy industrial _area north of the CNR tracks.
New Statue of Churchill
This bron?e statue by sculptor Oscar Nemon of Sir
Winston Churchill, was unveiled during ceremonies
at London's ancient Guildhall
Drogging Operations Unsuccessful
Parents Warning Unheeded, Girl Drowns In Praser River
A deep hole in the swift-runnjrtg Fraser River proved a death-trap  for a  pretty   12-year-old  Prince George  girl   late
Tuesday afternoon.             y
Joyce Padlesky, thirds-eldest daughter of Mr; and^Mrs. Mike Onisthuk, 673 Second Avenue, was drowned in^the Fraser River at a point where the South Fort George slough forms a tributary to ThVfiveh ^     ;'"'v"'
-After dragging the river for some time, police could not find the girl's body.
The /atality occurred shortly after '5 p.m. when Joyce went swimming with a friend, Myrna Lawson,    14,    of    Central    Fort
George.
Apparently
Myrna      wanted
Joyce to go swimming with her at Summit Lake last week-end, but Mrs. Onisthuk, knowing her daughter's inability to swim, did not permit her to go.
"Myrna suggested that my daughter stay with her overnight at her home at Central," the grief-stricken mother told a Citizen reporter. "Next day .they went to the South Fort spot without me knowing it."
The two girls went up to their waists in the cold water when they stepped forward into a hole in the stream."Marilyn managed to fight .her way out, but Joyce was trapped by the swift current and carried downstream after struggling desperately to reach shore.
Visitors from Kelowna 'were lunching on the bank and a mem-
ber of the party, Charlie Allen, dashed into the water with his clothes on in a vain effort to rescue the girl.
Mr. and Mrs. Onisthuk said they had premised their girls a holiday this -week-end arid have continually asked them to, stay awair from- the rivers.
Joyce is the third oldest child in the family. Other children are Mable, 16, Gladys, 14} and Gloria, 7.
She was a Grade 8 student and had become well known in local music circles for her ability to play the piano and accordian.
Distinction"of paying the highest price ever paid for local spruce went' to William Ollikalla when he bid some 4,000,000 board feet from an upset price of $4.20 per hundred ciibic feet to $9.50 per hundred. Converted into the more familiar F&M scale the price works out to just under $16 a thousand.
Largest sale held recently foir which a top price was paicUin-vblved 22,000,000 board ,/eet of timber in which B.C. Spruce Sales bid.an estimated 13,000,000 board feet of spruce up to $14.80 per-thousanu".- Upset price on spruce was $13.10 per hundred cubic feet. Pine in the same sale was bid from an upset of $2.S() on the cubic scale to a record $7,130.
The sale will involve a total stumpage cost-estimated at $270,-000.
' Highest  price  paid  for  timber/'
in' the Naver forest thus far ^vjfs
bid   by   Paolo   M'alara   of .Wells,
B.C., -who ran 3,000,000 board feet
(See  STUMPAGE./P^ge  3)
Williston Sees Ro< Shaping Up in Forf George
Northern Trans-Provincial Highway should be completely paved between Prince George and Vanderhoof sometime in 1957, B.C. Minister of Education and Fort George MLA Ray Williston told The.Citizen this week.
Mr.  Wfuiston's  statement was
e first nearcommittment given
the first near-committment given hya member of the government since The Citizen started campaigning for a firm highway improvement schedule some months ago.
What the Fort George MLA said is. that it would be. "reasonable to expect" that the Prince George to Cluculz Lake section, completing paving to Vamlerhoof, woufcl be surfaced by 3957.*'
He said that few people understood the significance of the fact that the Department of Highways survey branch has crews in the Fort George electoral district for the first time since completion of the John Hart Highway five years ago..    .
He explained thsfythe construction branch usually follows lip the' survey ' branch with actual construction contracts.
One' survey branch party is working on relocation and reconstruction of the Stone Creek tp' Woodpecker section of the Cariboo Highway a fovv miles>south of the city and will go^to work on the Stone Creek to Cale Creek
Two houi's after the. girl drown- j .section when thexfirst stretch is ed, police sent out an appeal for   completed,    y^
This ,wUr see reconstruction plans for'' the Cariboo Highway completed all the way to Prince George.
Another government highway survey crew is at work on- the Northern_Trans-Proviricial   High-
mptor ? boats and rope tq. aid in dragging operations. They report the response given their plea was very good.
Mrs.   Onisthuk   is   manager  of Jeannie's Lunch, "1170 Fifth Ave-
Mud   River  Farmers Plagued By Coyotes
MUD RIVER � A large cougar has been seen loitering around" the school, which is vacant during the summer holidays.
Farmers report the recent loss of sheep and lambs but this is believed to be the work of coyotes which are plentiful in the district.
Two Injured In Bridge Crash Here; 90-Minute Traffic Tie-Up Follows
Close to 200 cars and trucks were stalled for an hour and 30 minutes here Monday morning when a four-wheel-drive station wagon containing officials of General Construction Co. �Ltd., PGE contractors, coflided"with a flat-deck lumber truck on the Nechako Bridge."
One of the worst traffic jams in the city's history resulted from the collision.                            '
Close to 90 motor "vehicles were stalled along First Avenue from the bridge east, and a larger number lined up from the north apron of the span along the John Hart Highway.
� Injured in the cra~sh on the narrow wooden span were poug-las Welch, General's resident engineer, and Walter McRae, project superintendent.
Mr. McRae was treated at Prince George & District Hospital for facial cuts and lacerations. Welch is still under observation
one 30-acre fire in that dis-  at the'hospital but his condition is reported as good.
Damage to the two colliding vehicles is said, to be in excess of $1000.
Police who attended the scene of the accident said the two vehicles collided almost head-on./^
The front end of the lumber truck was driven through the railing of the frail wooden superstructure and a hydraulic lift truck was required to extricate the two machines and restore movement of traffic.
Narrowness "of the bridge deck has Jong 'been a" sorepoint with district truckers and motorists.
Some weeks ago a less serious traffic jam was caused when two trucks  became  firmly  imbedded
Driver of the lumber truck was Theodore Dawson of Prince' George.                     \y^
The two vehicles came^together at a point about 20p-^Teet south of the north approach to the bridge.          y^.
A movement designed to obtain- a neiv Nechako crossing has been/buildihg up here for over a-year and the provincial government is -said to have tentative plans for another bridge.
Structural condition of the existing bridge is said to be good by Department of Highways engineers.
Although the span could be widened,, they say, such a project would involve cutting off. the only traffic link with points north of the city for a matter of sever al weeks. They add that increasing the width of the Nechako River spar would be a major undertaking   and   would   probably
Girl In Hospital, Two Fined Aftermath Of McBride Accident
An injured girl was rushed-to a Vancouver' hospital, a youth was fined for impaired driving, and a man pleaded giiilty to a charge of supplying liquor to a minor as sequels to one of the worst traffic accidents at McBride in recent years.
Early Friday morning a car driven by/ Ronak^ Garneau of Beaver River plunged off the road and turned over in a ditch on the outskirts of the town.
With Garneau, who escaped injury, were four, teen-age companions, Les Wilson, Ray Makowi-chuk- and Leila Hietala. Thep were taken to McBride hospital for treatment of minor injuries where it was learned ,-tnat- Miss Hietala had a seriou.ush flying company was found alive Wednesday night in the wreckoge.'Of his Piper Pacer in  a   bay on   Horsefly   Lake,  about  60   miles  north-east   of   here.
A report reoching here late Wednesdoy said }'. (Bert) Lloyd of Chilcotin Airways was in "bad shape." Extent of his inuries was not immediately known. A doctor and ambulance were at the scene. A Canso aircraft from Vancouver was  expected  to  ferry-the   injured   man  to-the  west  coast  city
today.
Mr. Lloyd, who left here about 7 p.m. Tuesday with, enough fuel for four hours on a flight to the Black Creek country near Quesnel Lake, was found by o float plane from Gardner Mill.
Calgary M.P. Wants Alaska Highway Hard Surfaced
OTTAWA�Hard   surfacing   of   the   Canadian   section   of   the   Alaska
The   car,   owned :hy   the   boy's j HighwayrTunning from Dowson Creek,, B.C., to Fairbanks, Alaska, was urged
Tuesdoy night in the House of Commons.
Douglas Harkness (PC-Calgary North) told the Commons during a discussion of defence estimates that the highway now is the only adequate road by which motor vehicles can move into the Canadian north. It should be improved because it would some day be a vital link in*a system of highways into tie north country.
.He said reports are circulating in the west that the highway is in poor
Summit Route Paved By Summer's End
If weather condition's are favourable and if- everything turns out as expected, travellers to Summit Lake will be driving on a completely^ paved road within the next two months.
Nineteen miles of asphalt are in the process of being laid between this city and Summit Lake, 35 miles north of here.
Also on City Construqtion Co.'s agenda is a 35-mile stretch beginning at Mile 193 on the Hart Highway   to   Commotion- Creek,
between the sides of the span,   not be practical in tbc long run. near Dawson Creek.
shape due to washouts.    Tourists were being warned not to use it.
Lightning Staggers Spectators At 'Peace' Stampede
� FORT ST. JOHN, B.C.-�Several persons were knocked down when a chain lightning bolt whipped across the stampede grounds here Monday night during  a violent thunderstorm,
' Mrs. M. Hall was sent to hospital suffering from shock, arid Art Hosker, stampede official, was struck on the. left side when the lightning hit the judges' stand.   :He suffered foot burns.
Several other men and women were knocked to  earth as the storm struck during the closing hours of the stampede.                      .       .
A cow in one of the stampede corrals was killed by the bolt.