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105 BRUNSWICK m�m\
Vol. 13; No. 165
24 Pages
Forecast�Cloudy and showers
PRINCE GEORGE, BRITISH COLUMBIA, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1969
Phone 562-2441
.:<�:*�> ,� f,nu $2 00 PER MONTH
-W0^'' IO-The 800 meatcutters locked out of 103 Vancouver � area supermarkets for three months will return to work this week following ratification of a new contract which includes a 39-hour wurk v.eek and pay raises of up to 75 cents an hour over two years.
The meatcutters, members of the Canadian Food and Allied workers Union, voted 463 to 21 Sunday In favor of the contract which will give them a four-day week every eight weeks, but not the 36-hour, four-day week they asked for.
The union had asked for $1 an hour pay Increase.
Stores affected by the lockout were those operated by Safeway iuper-Valu, Shop-Easy, High. Low, Food Fair and I.odom. .
Most of the stores had opened without meat departments after reaching a settlement with 3,000 clerks who had also been locked jut.
i ltj lawyer George Rubson, representing the employers, said some of the meatcutters may be back at work by Tues-jay, and the remainder by Frl-Jay.
Under the new contract the .ictual work week will continue :o be -10 hours and the extra hour worked will be cumulative until it reaches eight hours. Employees will then be given an extra day off with their regular days off.
Union secretary George Johnston Sunday hailed the 39-hour week as the first break-through of the 40-hour week for butchers In North America.
Good news for net set
Good news for tennis players is contained in a recommendation from this morning's general purposes committee to city council.
The committee recommended an estimated S13,000 be spent on paving the two courts at the Carrie Jane Gray Park.
Aid. Carrie Jane Gray resisted attempts to stall the project until the spring, claiming it might then be stalled further.
Mayor Garvin Dezell supported the money being left in the budget over the winter as a "cushion."
At present, the only paved public tennis courts are on the opposite side of the city near Fort George Park.
Council has received repeated demands from tennis players wanting the Carrie Jane Gray Park courts paved.
Despite a slow start, the city's paving contractors have now "ironed out the bugs" and should be finished by the end of September, reported city engineer Ernie Obst.
Berger but can
Southam News Services
VANCOUVER � The super, organized New Democrats with their cooly, pragmatic new lead. er, Tom Berger, are sprinting to the election wire today with the help of Manitoba's first NDP premier.
The 32.year.old premier, Ed Schreyer, will be the star at. traction at the New Democrats' final major rally of the B.C. election campaign and his ex. ample is supposed to be the extra lift needed to boost 30-year-old Tom Berger into the of. fice long held by Premier W. A, C. Bennett.
With an unexpectedly heavy vote anticipated now on Aug. 27, as a result of voting in the ad-vance polls, the pruspects of a close race are indicated and New Democrat organizers, counting on Social Credit's share of the vote to drop in heavy voting, are predicting more confidently than ever an NDP victory.
Their hopes of duplicating here Premier Schreyer's stun-ntng upset in Manitoba arc based on the low.keyed, couser. vative-sounding campaign conducted by Mr. Berger plus the highly structured organizational work of the party's backroom boys.
Like Premier Schreyer, Mr. Berger is brand new to leader, ship, served an even briefer apprenticeship in the House of Commons, 19G2-G3, and in the B.C. legislature from only 19GG.
But be is not as warm or as Intellectual a person as the Manitoba leader and lie is liav-ing a much harder time straddling the wings of his party which run from the hard-core
inting
old time socialists to the moder. ates of the right, who in this election include ten business, men candidates.
Premier Bennett, whose political emotions run closely of the surface, has no great liking for the NDP leader and quickly la. belled him, for the benefit of the country folk who vote Social Credit, l-a city-slicker lawyer."
The old line B.C. Socialists, with their radical idealism and their close union background were not too happy when Tom Berger finally won the leadership this spring after friendly Robert Strachan stepped down. The ambitious Mr. Berger had been trying for the job for two ynars and his rise has given the new style NDP organizers a chance to show their stuff.
Bruce fops pass 'n punt
Eleven-year-old Bruce Morin of Prince George was one of four boys to win trophies Saturday night in the Little Leo Punt, Pass and Kick contest finals in Vancouver.
The finals wero conducted during the B.C. Lions-Toronto Argonauts Canadian Football League game.
To win, the 48-finalists had to punt, pass and kick lor distance and accuracy. Regional contests were conducted across the province earlier.
Other division winners were Barry Penman, North Vancouver, 10-year-olds; Jeff Jai, Vancouver, 12-year-olds, and Ty Morris, Delta, 13 year-olds.
ALL CANDIDATES' MEETING TONIGHT
Fort George voters have their only chance to examine the three local candidates together tonight at an all-candidates meeting at the Inn of the North.
Social Credit incumbent MLA Ray Williston, the New Democratic Party's Jack Whittaker and Liberal contender Tex Enemark will all be on the platform at the meeting which begins at 8 p.m.
Each candidate will be given 10 minutes to read a prepared statement with the order of speakers drawn by lot. The candidates will have five minutes for rebuttal in reverse order of the initial speeches.
The forum will then be opened to written questions from the floor to be submitted to the meeting chairman.
The forum has been arranged by the Prince George Jaycees.
Oliver citizens flee from fire
OLIVER, B.C. (CP>- RCMP Sunday night evacuated people from houses on the northern edge of this town of 1,600 in the south Okanagan in the face of a fierce forest fire.
The fire started In a garbage dump during the afternoon and swept through 2,000 acres of for* est, burning power lines and leaving about 6,000 persons In the Similkameen Valley, about 1G0 miles east of Vancouver, without electricity.
There were reports that a geology station and several outlying farm houses had been burned down and that cattle had been lost, but police and firefighters were unable to confirm this.
In Oliver Itself, the blaze had reached the edge of town. An RCMP spokesman said a strong wind was blowing and "a whole street" was threatened. He said men were out right along thei street trying to protect tne houses with hoses.
Another RCMP officer at the scene said he had been busy all afternoon evacuating people and farm animals.
"The fire Is tree-topping ana
is really travelling," he said. "The wind was gustlng toward the northwest but then changed and headed toward Oliver," he said.
A spokesman for the West Kootenay Power and Light Co, Ltd. said at least 6,000 persons In the Princeton area, Keremeos and Medley were without electricity because of the fire.
Meanwhile, police In Princeton warned motorists using the southern Trans-Canada Highway that no gasoline is available between there and Okalla in the Okanagan.
MLA since 1953, has stood on his impressive record as Minister of Lands and Forests and Water Resources.
Telling his story mainly through frequent radio and television announcements, Williston says Northern B.C. has been the beneficiary of wise resource development.
Pollution
Under his administration the forest industry has moved towards complete utilization of wood, says Williston and his department's sustained yield forest policy is among the most advanced in the world,
Williston has acknowledged the problem of pollution is a Social Credit "soft spot" but says his government is striving to ensure a "quality environment."
If pulp mills have failed to measure up to pollution control standards it is only because those standards are the highest anywhere, says Williston.
Too much of the criticism of pollution has come from people "on the fringes" and not fully conversant with the problem, says Williston.
Small logger
When he kicked off his campaign, the blunt-spoken Whittaker
! listed the plight of the small inde-
j pendent logging contractor as his
] first concern.
Whittaker has several years' experience in construction and logging and has a good understanding of problems facing the small operator.
The problem of the independent logging contractor operating "under the thumb" of the giant pulp corporations" is a very real issue to Whittaker but onp which fails to excite the voters. Whittaker has not hammered at
\ the pollution issue as he might have been expected to do, confes-
' sing his incomplete knowledge, Education is important to Whit-
! taker and he says the provincial government should bear the full
- cost of the new College of New
� Caledonia.
He also has said able but
1 needy students should be subsidized to attend university so that education is "determined by the amount of brains in one's head and not by the amoung of money in his father's pocket."
Another major concern of Whittaker is the unorganized
. worker who he says is a victim of inflation and the rising cost of living. Women, also, should be paid equally to men for equal work done, he says.
Earthquake or fireball here?
saw meteor 'big as moon
NOW HEAR THIS
^ A telegram is being sent to � Aurora Queen Debbie Ware taking part in the Miss P.N.F.. Competition this week in Vancouver. Anyone wishing to add their name to it may do so at Safeway Spruceland, B.C.A.A., Parkwood Travel, the Inn of the North or at the CN. Deadline is Tuesday noon.
A Well, it's finally happened at � D.J.'s Hydeway. . . A long haired chap was seen in action on Friday night. . . when he went up to another long haired chap and asked him to dance. . . needless to say he was a little surprized to see a moustache on the longhaired type. . . ^ No evidence has been found 9 to substantiate a rumour that the flaming meteor sighted Wednesday and reported today was fired by Tom Berger at North-wood pulp mill. News that the meteor, if it was not com-
pletely destroyed before hitting: earth, may be worth up to $1,- : 000 has prompted conjecture it may be Premier W.A.C. Bennett replenishing some of B.C.'s resources. No doubt it will turn out to be nothing more exciting than a Martian space ship. . .
_ Jack Whittaker, NDP candi-
wdate in Fort George, doesn't think it's a Social Credit plot, : but reconstruction work on the Mackenzie access road has kept him from courting the "instant town's" 356 registered voters. Now he, and Social Credit incumbent MLA Ray Williston are scheduled to wind up their campaigns mainstreeting in community 120 miles north of Prince, George on Tuesday. . .
^Wouldn't you just know it!
^The head of the Winnipeg Stock Exchange just has to be a guy by the name of G.S, Swindell A coincidence maybe?
By Duncan Cumming Citizen Staff Reporter
Earthquake or fireball? � Sensitive instrumentswnich recorded a mild earthquake in the Prince George area Wednesday might instead have been shaken by a fireball striking earth.
This theory was suggested by Frank Bowden, a logging truck operator who saw a large meteor appear to come down near Northwood pulp mill. Bowden's theory is considered possible by the operator of 'quake recording instruments at Fort St. James.
Frank Bowden was travelling the Chief Lake road with his father Lloyd between 10:30 and 11 p.m. Wednesday when the cab of their pickup was lit up inside.
'Really burning'
'�Dad said the moon is sure bright tonight, "said Frank today.
"I have seen lots of meteors before, but this was so close
and really burning�pieces like molten steel were coining off it. It appeared the size of the moon.
�"It came straight ove'rhead, travelling at a terrific speed� we saw it just for seconds.
"It burned like a welding arc, blue with a touch of yellow, but it burned up and the fire went out�and we lost sight of it.
"It appeared to com? down behind Northwood�west of the mill.-'
Slight disturbance
Frank Bowden said he did not hear any noise, but that may have been because of the pickups noise.
The mild tremor felt throughout most of the mntro-politian Prince George area was pin-pointed at 11 p.m.
Tom Brown of Fort St. James, 100 miles northwest of Prince George, said his seismograph registered some sort of disturbance Wednesday evening.
It is one of four govern-
ment - maintained seismographs in the province.
Brown said the disturbance was not of sufficient force to allow any measurements on the Richter scale used to compare earthquake intensities.
"It was little more than the reaction we get from blasting at Pinchi and Endako mines," Brown stated.
Asked if a meteorite hitting the earth could have caused the tremor he said it would have to hit with great force.
"There is a report of a meteorite in Siberia in the late 1800's. It took down a great swath of trees and left debris everywhere. I think you would be able to find some trace If it came down near North-wood, ' he added.
Earl Zilkie, in charge of the weather office at Prince George airport, felt the quake In his Blackburn home.
He said today the astro-physical and astronomical observatory in Victoria had nothing on the quake.
He liad earlier contacted them to determine thequake's epi - center�determined by analysing the seismograph recordings of shock waves.
Not on radar
Capt. R. V. Brown, unit information officer at RCAF station Baldy Hughes, said today the meteor was not seen on the station's radar screens.
But, he added these are not constantly manned and a meteor travelling low and fast could be missed.
The defence system's headquarters in the United States which monitored the station's radar screens was more likely to have picked the meteor up, he said.
If the Bowden's fireball did reach the earth there may be money in the square miles of Fraser River valley beyond Northwood.
The federal government's department of energy, mines and resources guarantees to buy all new Canadian meteorites for at least $100.
Winner of the biggest event in Prince George during the weekend was golfer Bill Wakeham of Victoiia, who led the field in the Simon Fraser Open. Wakeham beat the rain as well as fellow golfers in the tourney, billed as one of the largest golf matches nf the year. Wakeham, 28, was defending champion in the event at Prince George Golf and Country Club.