AURORA BOREALIS OVER CITY
Spectacular light show possible
Spectacular northern lights may be visible Thursday and Friday nights, says the Prince George weather office.
What some scientists are predicting as the most violent sun spot activity in this century may cause a spectacular aurora boraelis display.
How visible the northern lights will be will depend on how clear the sky is. Hut mainly clear skies arc predicted for Thursday.
The sun spot activity is also expected to interfere with television, radio and telecommunications equipment.
Many local residents reported an unusually good
display of northern lights on Monday night.
David Hurd, a scientist with the Vancouver Planetarium, said sunspot activity is very unpredictable.
He said he personally doubts there will be violent sunspot activity and therefore there won’t likely be spectacular northern lights.
However, he said some scientists are predicting the sunspot activity and there could be a northern lights display Thursday.
Hurd said the sun is the most unpredictable thing in the universe.
Citizen
Wednesday, April 12,1978 Vol. 22; No. 71 Prince George. British Columbia
20' Copy
8.8 PER CENT IN YEAR
Living-cost jump highest since ‘75
Love that tennis
Cltlrrn photo by Tim Sw»nkv
Larry Juelfs just loves tennis and he’s all set for a new season. Prince (Jeorge’s courts have been open since April 7. If you think he’s an early bird this year, he says you should have seen him last year, playing in the snow.
ROSEDALE KILLINGS SUSPECT
Suicide ideas described
VANCOUVER (CP) - A British Columbia Supreme Court jury was told Tuesday that a suspect in the murders of four teen-agers discussed with a cellmate a number of bizarre ways of killing himself.
Constable Carl Harmes was testifying at the trial of Walter Murray Madsen, 24, charged with first-degree murder in the rifle slayings last July 18 in the Fraser Valley community of Rosedale, B.C.
Harmes was placed in the Chilliwack police cells with Madsen Aug. 31. Madsen did not know his cellmate was a police officer.
The constable told the jury that Madsen talked about elec-
trocuting himself, hanging himself or throwing himself head first onto the cell floor.
Harmes said Madsen seemed very depressed and said he would have to kill himself and asked the best way to do it.
The officer said Madsen went into a toilet and asked Harmes to lift him up so he could remove the light bulb and electrocute himself by putting his fingers in the socket.
Harmes said he pointed out to Madsen that he (Harmes) also would receive the electrical charge if he were holding Madsen up to the light socket.
Harmes said Madsen’s next
idea was to climb about 2V* metres up the bars of his cell, and to ask the officer if he thought he would die if he jumped on his head.
“I said, ‘no,’ but told him he would get a helluva of a headache,” Harmes testified.
The officer said Madsen seemed “almost desperate to kill himself,” and next took off his shirt, twisted it, placed it over his neck and tied it to the bars of his cell.
“He asked me to tie his hands so he would not grab the bars at the last moment,'’ Harmes said. “1 said ‘no’ because I didn’t think he was serious about killing himself.” The trial continues.
Apt. 1 bdrm. $815 mo.
OTTAWA (CP) — A quart of milk for $2.45; rib roast at $4.55 a pound and an average o n e - b ed r oo m apart rn e n t for $815 a month.
Those will be prices in 20 years with seven-per-cent annual inflation, the Ontario royal commission on pensions was told Tuesday. The figures were used by a pensioners’ advisory group to demonstrate what it says is the need to in-
crease all pensions to protect purchasing power.
The Council on Aging of Ottawa-Carleton was appearing at the first of three days of Ottawa hearings by the commission. The commission is touring the province listening to ideas on how to provide adequate income in retirement.
‘‘We are in favor of full esca-
lation of all pensions to keep them in line with the cost of living,” the council said in its brief.
“Pensions should be regarded as an entitlement to a constant, fixed basket of goods and services.” A pensioner should not have to reduce that basket because the purchasing power of the pension dollar is eroded by inflation.
Hostage
taker
sentenced
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. (CP) — Steven Albert Hall,one of five prisoners involved in a hostage-taking at the British Columbia Penitentiary earlier this year, was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday to life inprisonment for his part in the week-long drama.
Hall, 28, was given a life term after pleading guilty to an attempted murder charge, and five years for prison break. Both terms are to be served concurrently with one he is already serving.
Five prisoners took 13 hostages last Jan. 28 after an escape attempt from the prison’s visiting area failed. The incident ended Feb. 4.
Four prisoners —Andy Bruce, Dave Bennett, Richard Wright and Ralph Saumer—will appear in court May 29 on the same nine charges as Hall.
In addition, two hostages, Betsy Wood, 47, of North Vancouver, B.C. and Heather Gay Hoon, 31, of Vancouver, will appear in provincial court here June 12 for a preliminary hearing on charges of attempted murder.
OTTAWA (CP) — Consumer prices rose in March by a substantial 1.1 percent, the largest one-month advance since July, 1975, Statistics Canada reported today.
The 12-month inflation rate was 8.8 per cent, compared with 8.7 per cent in February.
Higher food, gasoline and fuel oil prices led the way in the over-all price hike.
The consumer price index (CPI) figures were released two days before the government is to start phasing out wage-and price controls, imposed Oct. 14,1975, and a day after release of statistics showing a record 1,045,000 unemployed during March.
Opposition spokesmen denounced the government after release of the figures. They said inflation will hurt low-income persons most.
James McGrath, Conservative social affairs critic, said assistance should be offered to those least able to defend themselves. He called on the government to reinstate a planned elimination of the subsidy on powdered milk, asked that more attention be given pensioners and said workers must not be forced through controls to accept pay raises less than the increase in ihe cost of living.
Under wage-and-price controls, pay raises are to be held this year to a maximum six per cent although the government now is expecting average inflation for the year of seven per cent.
Ed Broadbent, New Democratic Party leader, said the current inflation will be devastating for those-in the low-income levels.
Workers earning $10,000 to $1 1,000 a year will see their earnings lose about $700.in purchasing power in 1978, he said.
Food prices, including higher costs for fresh fruit and vegetables, beef and pork products, were largely responsible for the increase. Food accounted for one-third of the over-all rise.
Higher prices for gasoline and home-heating fuel oil, put into effect by increases in the wellhead price, accounted for another one-quarter of the rise.
Costs of food alone rose by 1.4 per cent, while the rise for all items excluding food was 1.1 per cent.
The index in March stood at 170.8, compared with 168.9 in February and 157.0 in March,
1977. The index was set at 100 in 1971, the base year.
That means consumers would have had to pay $170.80 in March for goods and services valued at $168.90 in February, $157 in March, 1977, and $100 in 1971.
VANCOUVER (CP) — An ISmonth investigation into one of Canada's major cocaine trafficking rings ended today when 70 police officers began arresting 16 Vancouver-area residents in the smuggling of at least 19 pounds of the drug into the country during the past two years.
RCMP Chief Superinten-dent Henry Jensen told a news conference that the 18-pound seizure—worth an estimated $4.75 million in Canada—was only a small portion of the drug shipments brought into Canada from Central and South America. He refused to state the total amount involved in the investigation.
The 19-pound shipment, seized last month at the Vancouver International Airport, originated in Holiviu. Jensen said one pound of the drug sells for $5,000 in Bolivia, but its value escalates to $250,000 a pound when sold in Vancouver.
OUR MAN IN VICTORIA
Socreds in the chips in gravy city.
by El.I SOJ'OW Citizen Staff Reporter VICTORIA — Watch for major economic goodies from the Socreds in the next few weeks.
This reliable information comes from watching the way willows bend in the morning, careful study of entrails found in certain closets and overbearing serious political pun dits of 20 years give their earnest analyses However there are also more clinical clues. Bill Bennett strolls confidently through the Legislative corridors like a kid at the circus with a pocketful of new nickels.
By putting the squeeze on B.C. for I wo years, the Socreds have managed to end an 11 -month period in February with a $220 million surplus The usual practice is to keep spending until late April but that will still leave the government in the chips.
But forget the academics.
Let’s hear about the gossip.
On Tuesday Education Minister Pat McGeer stands up in the House to say good things about the budget. Hedoesall that but he
also points out the folly of foreign tarriffs hurting production in B.C. McGeer says it’s illogical not to produce finished goods near their raw source.
Also says tariffs can be avoided by having high-technology, research-oriented companies settle in B.C.
Says to watch for an announcement in two weeks.
Economic Development Minister Don Phillips, kicked around repeatedly this session by Opposition members, who claim he should seek work elsewhere, smugly puts out a press release this week indicating his pleasure that Denison Mines and Gulf Oil are spending about $15 million on a coal feasiblity study in the northeast.
The Toronto companies announce work will begin immediately on the project, creating about 150 new jobs. They claim B.C.’s ‘‘enlightened approach to licensing and resource development” was a major factor in the decision.
Apparently no one has told them it’s a federal, not provincial election this’year.
However, Phillips is delighted. For months he’s been wearing northeast coal like an albatross. Now it’s his turn to twist the knife. In his exuberance this week, hesuggestsquietly that there could be other aces up his sleeve. Suddenly nobody is skeptical.
There’s a definite mood here. The Socreds are too happy. Too smug even with the Jack Davis fiasco shadowing them. It suggests a bag of rare goodies to be dealt out in measured fashion to maximize public impact.
In the midst of all this the loyal'Opposition is hissing in the wind and scrambling for a credible comeback.
The Davis affair helped tarnish the Socred image for a few days, but Bennett's quick hatchet job pulled the carpet out from under the NDP before they knew what was really happening.
The Pacific Western Airlines nothingness? So what and who cares if an airline gives a
freebie to the Socreds. How much does the B.C. Federation of Labor give the NDP and what do they expect in return? Such is the back-scratch nature of politics and we’d be naive to expect otherwise.
This week the Socreds delivered a motherhood budget by taking cash out of one pocket, holding onto it for a couple of years, then putting it back into the otherpocket.
Suddenly it’s gravy city.
It gives us mother’s apple pie, the end of the rainbow but not enough concern about the important forest ministry, whose budget ranks a lowly number eight.
While attacking the budget for the sake of attack, Barrett and the boys will mainly wonder what’s in the mysterious bag of tricks the Socreds are so smug about.
In scathing attacks during question period, the most entertaining 30 minutes every day, the NDP has been reduced to tough questions about certain ministries possibly soliciting political support on government stationery.
Hard questions those.
Hard to stay awake with.
ODAY
'Margaret? It’s Pierre. Would you mind mind stopping your dancing until after the election?'
FEATURED INSIDE
"" ( ili/en
fQCUS
EnKKtninmErrc
TV listings included in Mid-Week supplement.
• Grant Williams will have to continue leading if the Mohawks are to keep winning. Page 13.
• There were some mild surprises as the Stanley Cup playoffs started Tuesday. Page 13.
Bridge.............. ..................11) ..10-43
....................8 ..38-39
City, H.C.......... ......2. a, 9-11 Gardening column.. ........49
:*-i, 19 Horoscopes.............. ........41
.............16-23 International............ ..........5
..................-10 ..........7
..................18 .......49
...................4 13-15
THE WEATHER
Prince George can expect cloudy skies with a risk of mixed rain or snow showers today. Thursday’s forecast is mainly sunny with some cloudy periods. Both days are expected to have cool temperatures.
The forecast high today is 8, the low -4. The high Tuesday was 6, the low -1, with no precipitation.
On this date last year the high was 10, the low 3.
v;
{
/i Sr'Vu
NOW HEAR THI$)
% A major Hart Highway developer suggested a park in Hart Highland should be named for Alderman Art Stauble, for the contribution he made to the area as a trustee of the old Nechako Improvement District. ‘‘Hold on, hold on,” said Mayor Harold Moffat, “can’t do that until he’s out of harness and that won’t be for awhile yet.”
• Contrary to tradition, Vanderhoof Village Council has decided to fine owners of both stray unneutered males and unspayed females at the same rate. Said Administrator Jack King “That’s equality of the sexless.”
• An ambition of many long-time Quesnel residents is to ‘‘catch up" with large northern neighbor Prince George. In one area they’re getting closer. Mayor John Panagrot of Quesnel got a raise last week that brought his annual wage to $8,491. Thai’s only $409 less than Prince (Jeorge’s Mayor Harold Moffat gets.