Prince George Citizen An Independent Semi-Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interest of Centra! ond Northern British Columbia WEATHER Mostly cloudy with a few snow flurries Friday. Little change in temperature. Light winds. Low tonight and high tomorrow, 10 and 20. Vol. 39; No. 99 (Three Sections, 24 Pages) Prince George, B.C., THURSDAY, December 13, 1956 $4.00 per yoar 5c per copy Newsboy Finds Missing Tot ESQUIMALT (CP) � Christopher Zlrpolo rested in a Victoria hospital Wednesday recovering from mild exposure and a harrowing experience. The 30-month-old boy was missing from his home here for 18 hours before a newspaper delivery boy heard him crying in a rain-drenched vacant lot. He was found only a few minutes before a search force of 500 started the hunt again after a pause of five hours. The whole municipality was scoured at least twice in the search. Christopher was found huddled in the lee of a rotting log. Hero of the discovery was Jimmy Palmer, 11, a high school student making his newspaper deliveries. Jimmy heard a faint cry as he walked by a bushy lot about four blocks from the boy's home. Christopher was asked at the hospital where he had gone the day before. "1 was fishing," he said. Twin Forces Save Home From Fire A burst water pipe and an alert postman, combined on Wednesday morning to save a home from certain destruction when fire broke out in a dwelling at 1945 Redwood Street. The postal clerk spotted smoke � coining from the homo of A. Guillet when lie was making his rounds and he immediately called firemen to the scene. In the meantime howeverj a water pipe burst over the kitchen stove partially smothering the flames. The fire broke out in an overheated wood box placed next to the stove. , A neighbor said the house I Garage And Property Bought Woolworths $150 Olga Kato stands with Santa Glaus as h er brother Chaba, right, and another Hungarian refugee, Bertok Istvan, sit o n Santa's knee. The Kato family and Ber-tok and his father were guests of the K nights of Columbus at the annual children's .Christmas party staged in Montre aL. Hope Wanes For TCA Survivors As Weather Blocks Search Efforts Only the slimmest of hope exists today that there can be any survivors among the G2 occupants of a Trans Canada Airlines North Star which is feared to have crashed in mountainous country near Hope at 7 p.m. Sunday. For the second consecutive day the greatest air search could have burned to the ground armada ever launched in Canada sits grounded at Vancou-" - occupants were away ;ver international Airport. he Firem.cn reported minor damage outbreak. that only In desperation this morning a force of search planes was caused by the took off into .a heavy overcast but was recalled�wiien it i waV: learned prevailing weather near the search scene made Mr. Guillet is employed at the ' flying too dangerous. Mt. Baldy Hughes radar base and | was at work at the time. California Market For Christmas Trees Seeds of a modest new industry for the Prince George area may have sprung up this year with the commercial cutting of more than 8500 Christmas trees. Last year no trees were cut commercially in the .Prince George Forest District, and in previous years only a few token shipments were made. Two carloads of swamp spruce Christmas trees were shipped from Prince George recently, both bound for Oakland, California. A B.C Forest Service official said yesterday that all trees shipped from this area have come from privately-owned land. The government "has not encouraged'1 commercial harvesting ol" Christmas trees from Crown lands, he added. Owners of land on which Christmas trees exist in abundance can enter the market provided they pay half a cent royalty on each tree, plus five to 25 cents stumpage, depending upon size. Most of the trees from this district have come from the Reid Lake area anil from around Me-Bride. I Cutters get around 50 cents a tree from wholesalers. In California the swamp spruce bring as high as $10 apiece. In a second desperation move �today Squadron Leader George ! Sheahan, RCAF -earchmaster, took personal leadership of a ground party force which ^is threading its way into the heart the search area. From radio-equipped vehicles accompanying the search he will be able to take charge of .air operations if the weather should clear later today. "It is really heartbreaking," an RCAF spokesman told The Citi-telephone let-up in poor flying weather, the slim possibility that any crash survivors are still alive becomes even slimmer. School Board To Get Second Woman Trustee Municipal Balloting Is Apathetic So Far In case you didn't know it today is election day. And according to Returning Officer R. R. Anderson a lot of people don't know about it or don't care. Up to 12 noon today only 115 persons had cast their vote at the Civic Centre; considered an all time low for Prince George even though the forenoon is the slowest period of the day. There are a total of 3509 persons registered on the voters' list. The four aldermanic candidates were on the scene early to register their vote. Park Board candidates1 had not yet shown up. Seeking re-election to the city council are Aldermen Charles Cranston, R. S. Ferguson and Percy Williams. Newcomer is Howard Webb, labor candidate. Three new candidates aspire to Parks Board. They are M. U. Callaghan, Jack Rhodes and Lyn-den Fonseca. Fourth candidate E3. L. Pollard has already served a one-year term as parks commissioner. Returning officer Anderson said he expected voters would turn out mostly in the evening before polls close at 8 p.m. Up to this time last year close to 400 votes had registered at the Board of School District No. 57 will be served by two' polls. women trustees when meet-! Early morning snow fall was said to be a factor in the poor ings resume next January. At a recent meeting of rural representatives of the board, Mrs. Marie Pratt of Red Rock and H. Pilots connected with the search D pC(ierson of Peden Hill were say it is "almost inconceivable" ' clcctecl lo represent rural corn- that anybody could survive the crash and the four days which have since elapsed. Only hope which Captain Allan Clark, 35, of Montreal and Vancouver, could have had to save the lives of-those aboard would have been a forced landing on some gentle slope in the motin zen by long-distance this morning. Sheahan remarked earlier, "Given one hour of unlimited visibility we would be almost certain to find some trace of the plane." SNOW MAV 1IOI-I) SECRET As each day passes without a munities on the school board. Only woman trustee on the school board at the present time is Mrs. Clco Bryant, who was recently re-elected by acclaima-tion to her second term. Second city vacancy has been filled by Alfred W. Wilson, who tains. Possibility of carrying out | was also elected by acclamation Plowing Highways Leading From City Snow tires or chains arc required on all highways leading out of Prince George, according to the official road report isuod by the Department of Highways this morning. Dcspit heavy snow, all roads arc reported to be in good shape, Plowing is in progress. Cariboo Highway: Open, good shape. Plowing in progress. Northern Trans-provincial: East and west ,same as Cariboo. Some slippery sections. Hart Highway: Open, good. Fresh snow being plowed. Some drifting. Alaska Highway: Fresh snow, drifting. Plowing in progress. such a landing in total darkness and bad weather is considered remote. Many people who have flown over the search scene believe no trace will be found of the plane until next spring due to freshly fallen snow. About a foot of snow has fallen on the mountains and could easily make wreckage of the big four-engine North Star unrceog- It's Legal, Mr. Motorist, To Turn Right On Red light It will be strictly legal alter today for Prince George motorists to make a'right-hand turn against a red light. An aramendment to the city's traffic bylaw, passed by city council Monday night and ad- vertised in today's Citizen, brings the city up to date with recent changes in the B.C.' Highways Act. Practise of making right-hand turns against a red light has been in force in other communities in the province for some time. Alderman Ken Jack, chairman of the city's traffic committee, told -council that certain provisions will also allow for future growth of the city. Most pertinent is the section permitting the red light turn. The ammendment reads as follows: "The driver of a vehicle which is stopped as closely as practic- able to the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, or if there is no crosswalk, then as closely as practicable to the intersection, in obedience to such light may make a right turn, but shall yield the right of way to pedestrians and other traffic lawfully proceeding as directed by the signal at the intersection." Other conditions are related to traffic signals not yet in use here, as well as to the standard red, green and amber signal lights already in use. The ammendment became law after it was given the required three readings by city council and registered at the provincial government building. A TCA official declared yesterday "We have not lost hope of finding survivors." He agreed, however, that if any of the 59 passengers and three crew members arc alive, "they can't hope to survive much long-e,r." Low cloud, snow, rain and turbulent air conditions since the plane went missing have blunted the RCAP's search plans. Up to 51 planes have been ready to scan a 1,200-Squ'are-mile area centred (See HOPE WANES, Page 2) years ago. Rural representatives who arc being replaced arc C. W. Buxton of Woodpecker, who has served as rural representative for the past 10 years, and A. C. Birchard, representative for the past six years. Wiiliston Warned Of Lumbermen's Plight A warning that a "severe economic depression" faces the northern interior B.C. lumcr industry was laid before Lands & Forests Minister Ray Wiiliston at Victoria earlier this week. The warning came as' part of a Northern Interior Lumbermen's Association brief whose main object was to persuade the government to reduce stumpage charges. A delegation of lumbermen from Prince George and the surrounding district advised the minister that existing stumpage charges make lumbering here uneconomical. � The pronpoct of sagging lumber markets would be made less serious if a stumpage reduction were brought into effect. R. J Gallagher, secretary-manager of the N1LA, said that credit restrictions, lagging markets and high stumpage already have combined to close a number of mills. to the board. Mr. Wilson will replace .lack Nicholson who is retiring from the board after serving 11 years. Presently chairman of the finance committee. Mr. Nicholson has served on every major committee of the board during its large expansion program over the last decade and was chairman some turnout this morning. Burnaby Thieves Get-Coats Worth $5,000 BURNABY (CT. � A smasii-ancl-grab raid on Simpson-Scars department store here netted thieves an estimated $5,000 in furs overnight. A 10-pound rock had been hurled through the window and thieves hail stepped into the sales floor where more than (50 fur coats were displayed. They scooped up about 30 of the garments. F. W. Woolworth Company Ltd., famed founders of 5, 10 & 15-cent stores, will build a $150,000, two-storey, retail and office building here next year. The announcement today, follows completion of four separate real estate transactions involving property valued at approximately $140,000. The building will be constructed at the south-west corner of Third Avenue and Victoria Street, in the city's downtown shopping area. It will occupy three thirty-foot lots facing on Third Avenue, now occupied by West End Motors Ltd. Two adjoining lots-will be reserved for planned future expansion. The $110,000 deal was consummated today by Prince George barrister John A. Coates acting for Wool worth Router-prises and A. L. Mills, real estate agent for the firm of Bass �Sfc Sawley Agency, representing the vendors. Decision to build here ends nearly five months of negotiations for the Woolworth company. Four individual property owners were involved in the transaction. In addition to West End Motors, they include Northern Power Sales Ltd., G. Burdusco and the Cariboo Lodge of the 1O0F. Present plans call for the construction of a 90 by 110 foot building with basemcMit, fronting on Third Avenue. A second storey will incorporate an L-shaped of- Fourth Church Thief Waits For Sentence Er\yiri Joseph Schlitt, 21, Prince George, elected to be tried by a magistrate and changed his plea to guilty yesterday on a charge of breaking into Knox United Church and stealing a safe. Schlitt and three other youths broke into the church early in November and took the safe after fice floor suitable for rentals. Two adjoining lots will be used for parking purposes In announcing the transaction Mr. Coates said that the Wool-worth Company had shown a "great deal of "faith" in the future of Prince George. Meanwhile, it has been learned that a second large chain-retail company with dozens of branches in western Canada is seeking a building site in the heart of the city. One large plot of ground was recently optioned, but officials of a subsidiary company which" handles the? firm's real estate holdings are reported to lie still looking. If a site is found, the building, to be completed before the fall of 1957, will rival that of the Wool-wsrth Company. According to reports, the second group is seeking a construction site where they can purchase adjacent land to provide off-street parking for 100 automobiles. I'uiun .� to find bvicH n. alto *o far prevented a start on corwsiiaic-tlon in 1956. Improved Lights For City Airport Runway North Shore Construction Co. Ltd, of Montreal, previously reported low bidder, has been awarded a contract valued at $17,-710 for construction of improved hearing over the radio the church | lighting facilities at Prince George had collected $900 for a building j airport. fund. The youths opened the safe I The work will be undertaken and found no money, then threw | for the Department of Transport, and consists of a new system of medium intensity lighting which it into the Fraser River. It has not been recovered. Sentence of Schlitt was deferred will eight clays. The three other \ about mounted on, brackets foot above the ground The stolen coats ranged in price youths pleaded guilty earlier and between J?200 and $100 each. are also on remand for sentence. alongside the east-west runway which was resurfaced last year. The lights will replace the portable type now in use and will provide greatly increased visibility for planes approaching the airport. Jailed Four Years On Cheque Charges A four year sentence to be served in the B.C. Penitentiary was given John Ostgard, alias John Amundsen and Edward Bruno, about 50, in police court yesterday for passing bad cheques. The convicted man had a record for false pretenses dating hack to 1037 and had faced similiar charges in several prairie cities. Ostgard had passed three cheques totalling .$358.50 last July and August, victimizing Wm. Carmichael Ltd., Hein Jewellery and city businessman Alex Bowie. The cheques were made out on a non-existant account at the Canadian Bank of Commerce at Van-derhoof. Ostgard was arrested last month after a constable recognized him from a "wanted poster" 3s the accused man was walking in the Remembrance Day parade. He is to serve four years concurrent on three charges. Ostgard is believed to have worked at Edson, Alberta, before coming to Prince George last summer. VANCOUVER (CP) � The third plane load of Hungarian refugees to come to Vancouver will arrive early Saturday morning. Canadian Pacific Airlines officials said Wednesday. Sixty-two refugees are expected oh the flight. Council Rejects Druggists' Plea For Longer Store Hours Taxi Drivers Grab A petition by four of the city's five druggists to am- Wafflg IfOII mend a bylaw regulating drug store closing hours has been IwUlllw llvll rejected by city council. The petition, which requested extension of store operating hours to include evening and Wednesday afternoon opening, was turned down by council on the recommendation of city solicitors, Wilson, King &. Fret well. The law firm advised council that the petition failed to comply with a section of the Shops Regulation and Weekly Holiday Act. "We can find no statutory authority whatsoever allowing for the opening of one class of shops in alphabetical rotation or in any other sequence," a letter from their legal advisors informed councillors. The petitioners requested an ammendment to the bylaw which would have allowed their premises to remain open on Wednesday afternoons until 5 p.m., on Sundays for a period of three hours ,and until S p.m. on weekdays. Only druggist to refrain from signing the petition was Geoff Mortimer, operator of Fifth Avenue Pharmacy. Mortimer described the petition as "a sop to the public." The city solicitors advised the council: "We are of the opinion that this petition docs not pray for the passing of an ammendment or of a new bylaw which would comply with (section 4 of the act) and therefore city council cannot act upon it." "We fail to sec," the letter continued, "how the petition can be gotten around these provisions of the act." Kef erring to a proposal that the (See COUNCIL REJECTS, Pag* 3) GEOFF MORTIMER A shoplifter who was nabbed by two taxi drivers pleatted guilty In police court yesterday morning and was remanded eiglit days for sentence. Jack Garnell, believed to be from Kaniloops, was arrested at Home Furnishers Co., ]1!)() Third Avenue, Tuesday afternoon. The taxi drivers held him until police arrived at the scene. In other police court action yesterday, Paul Gougeon was fined $50 for causing willful damage by breaking a window during a fight. Yesterday afternoon, William Peters was sentenced to 10 mon-| ths, Patrick Joseph to nine months, Henry Joseph fined $fio or :io days and Walter Joseph given a suspended sentence for breaking and entering at Fort St. James. All the accused arc from the Fort St. James area. Heroic Mother, 3 Children Perish In Flaming Home NEW'WESTMINSTER (CP) � A 21-year-old mother was burned to death Wednesday in a vain attempt to save her three young children from flames which destroyed their two-storey frame house. Dead are Mrs. Doreeri Richard, 21; Theresa, eight months; David, 2, and Yvonne, 3. The alarm was turned in by five-year-old Jackie Richard who said his mother told him "run for help" when the fire broke out. The mother had apparently dashed upstairs to attempt the rescue of her three small children. The bodies of the four were found in the upstairs bedroom.