SIGNAL TO FINANCIAL COMMUNITY
ken foundations of fencini
MISPLACED PARK FENCE
W&M:
                                                              W3
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Citizen photo by Tim Swanky
 Jean Mercier, 11, plays on park sign as the broken foundations of fencing mistake lie in background.
Mistake costs taxpayers $1,500
by TOM NIXON Citizen Staff Reporter
  The fence went up and the fence came down - and if Campbell Avenue residents wait awhile, it will go back up.
  Homeowners who phoned The Citizen are wondering if the city is running a fencing school or has found a new way to spend tax money.
  City engineering, however, admits it is all a big mistake — a $1,500 mistake. The $1,500 represents the cost of the labor; the materials can be used again.
  “It shouldn’t have happened," says city engineer Ernie Obst, “But it did and it has to be corrected.
  “We’re not perfect and we do make mistakes.”
  Campbell Avenue residents at first
 were pleased when crews erected the chain-link fence to separate the park from the street in the Pinewood Subdivision.
   One resident, however, who knows the zonings, realized the fence had also include a city-owned apartment site between the park entrance and Ospika Boulevard.
   Informed of that, Obst ordered the offending length of fence torn down so people wouldn’t incorrectly assume the whole area is park.
   Obst thought part of the fence would be left but, lo and behold, the entire 600 feet was torn down, the posts uprooted and the concrete bases air-hammered into fragments.
   Turns out the entire fence was a mistake. A drawing of the project, by the
 engineering department, had not only provided too long a fence but had sited it incorrectly across the park entrance.
   New drawings have been prepared and in a few weeks crews will be back, and to the residents’ probable amazement, re-install the fence.
   “This sort of thing occasionally happens,” Obst admits, “even though we try our best. All we can do is reprimand whoever makes the mistake.
   “It’s a waste and the people who complain are right.”
   However, he says, the city is involved in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of projects every summer and some errors will happen.
   Over-all, Obst said, “our record isn’t all that bad.”
PROPOSED ‘HOLDING ZONE'
Woman fights rural area plan
  by DON MORBERG
   Citizen Staff Reporter
    A* city resident is running a one-person campaign to drum up interest in the regional district’s proposed Rural 2 holding zone.
   Linda DiVaney has been doing house-to-house visits both in areas affected by the proposed zoning and in the city itself.
   The zoning would limit new subdivisions in the area surrounding the city.
   “There are a great number of people like me who would some day like to have a small parcel of land outside the city,” DiVaney said. “If this bylaw passes, it will put a premium on five-acre lots and who will be able to afford 35 acres?”
   The proposed zoning would limit most subdividing to 37 acres or more around the city.
   “I plan on making a presentation at the public hearing on the bylaw Thursday and I am talking with people and encouraging them to do the same thing.” The hearing is at 7:30 p.m. in city council chambers.
   DiVaney does not like the way the regional board has handled the implementation of the bylaw.
   “I get the feeling they are trying to sneak it across,” DiVaney said. “Other people I talk to have the same feeling. Many people don’t know what’s involved."
   DiVaney said she has received support in the Beaver-ly, Mud River and Blackwater areas.
   “The people there would
 prefer a reterendum where they get to say whether the land should be put in such a zone. They are upset that it is happening and that it is happening so soon.”
   She said the time factor has been important because she has not had time to organize a proper campaign against the bylaw.
    “It is a bit late to try to put in such a bylaw," she said, “Most of the area involved is already subdivided. There are
 very few large unsubdivided areas left.”
   She discounted the possibility of the city expanding its boundaries to take in subdivisions just outside its current boundaries.
   “The city can’t look after the' area it has now. How many other cities are there which have five-acre lots inside the boundaries? There are people who want a little bit of land outside the city limits; but don’t want 35 acres,” she said.
12-DAY TOUR INCLUDES GAMES
Queen arrives in Canada
   ST. JOHN’S, NFLD. (CP) - Newfoundland had a lavish, red carpet welcome for Queen Elizabeth and her family, when they arrive today on the start of a 12-day Canadian tour.
   The Queen, Prince Philip and their two youngest sons touched down at the St. John’s airport at 2:30 p.m. on a trip that will take them to small towns in Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Alberta before they go to the official opening of the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Aug. 3.
   Union Jacks flapped in the stiff sea breeze as tour organizers and the RCMP set the stage Tuesday for the Royal Family’s arrival.
   A military instructor marched the Royal Newfoundland Regiment—the official honor guard—around the St. John’s airport for hours, barking at the soldiers: “Get your heads back; pull your rifles back; get your arms up high.”
   The soldier picked to play the role of the queen during the dry run rehearsal for today’s event made a mock gesture to hold down a billowing dress in the heavy wind.
   The Royal Family were met at the airport
 by Gov.-Gen. Jules Leger, Madame Leger, External Affairs Minister Don Jamieson and Premier Frank Moores.
   Tonight, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip and their sons Prince Andrew and Prince Edward plan a private evening.
   Thursday has been declared a provincial holiday in honor of their visit and the Royal Family will place a wreath on the provincial war memorial, watch a sailboat race, visit City Hall and attend a garden party at Government House.
   Friday, the Royal Family plans to go to Deer Lake, Strawberry Hill, Corner Brook and Stephenville before flying to Regina.
   The queen will officially open the Commonwealth Games Aug. 3 and will watch top athletes of the Commonwealth countries compete until Aug. 6, when she will return to Britain with her 14-year-old son Edward.
   Prince Philip and 18-year-old Prince Andrew plan to visit British Columbia Aug. 7-8 and will return to Edmonton for the end of the Commonwealth Games before returning to Britain.
Central bank hikes interest rate
   OTTAWA (CP) - The Bank of Canada has announced an increase in its own lending rate to nine per cent from 8 Vfe per cent, effective Wednesday.
   Gerald Bouey, bank governor, said that in recent months U.S. interest rates have moved upward significantly and it is important to keep Canadian interest rates in line with trends abroad..
    This is the third successive bank rate increase aimed at shor up the dollar’s value. It was raised to eight per cent from 7*fe per cent March 9, when the dollar had dropped to 88.68 cents U.S. But the central bank had to increase this to 8Mj per cent April 4 shortly after the dollar’s value hit a 45-year low of 87.97 cents U.S.
   In both cases, the chartered banks acted within days to increase lending and mortgage rates for consumers.
   The decision to raise the bank rate now reflects the government’s view that it is preferable to act quickly before the issue of more government bonds, he said.
   The central bank’s lending rate, which governs interest charges on its rare cash advances to chartered banks, is primarily a signal to the financial community by federal money managers.
    A higher rate is an indicator that Ottawa favors a tightening of credit conditions, which probably means higher borrowing rates for consumers in coming weeks.
   Bouey’s statement indicates that the latest move is part of the government’s continuing defence of the dollar’s value. It is important to keep Canadian interest rates in line with U.S. rates “in a way
 that does not prejudice Canada’s external financial position,” he says.
   Canadian interest rates must be competitive with foreign rates in order to attract foreign capital and so create a demand for Canadian currency on exchange markets and support its value.
    A higher bank rate, followed by higher consumer interest and mortgage rates, adds to inflationary pressures and conflicts with government efforts to stimulate spending and spur productive investment.
   In his statement, Bouey acknowledged this by commenting that “prospects for the economy over the next few years depend crucially on the willingness and ability of Canadians to show restraint in pressing for higher incomes and higher prices as the anti-inflation controls are phased out.”
The
 20f Copy
Citizen
Wednesday, July 26,1978 Vol. 22; No. 145 Prince George, British Columbia
FIRST KNOWN IN WORLD
Test-tube' baby born in England
   OLDHAM,England (Reuter) — The world’s first known “test-tube” baby—a five pound, 12-ounce girl—was born Tuesday night to a 30-year-old British woman and her truck-driver husband.
    After seeing his tiny daughter for the first time, John Brown, 38, told a reporter: “It is incredible, just incredible. No one can realize what this means to Lesley and myself.”
    Pioneering obstetrician Dr. Patrick Steptoe said after the baby was delivered by caesarian section just before midnight: “All examinations showed that the baby is quite normal. The mother’s condition after delivery is also excellent.”
    The Browns, married for nine years, had been unable to con-•ceive children normally because Mrs. Brown’s fallopian tubes were blocked.
    It was the first known time that an egg surgically removed from the mother’s ovaries, fertilized in a test tube with the husband’s semen and then implanted in the mother’s womb had resulted in a live baby.
    The birth, nine days premature, crowned 12 years of research by Dr. Steptoe and physiologist Dr. Robert Edwards of Cambridge University to help infertile women bear children.
   Doctors cautioned that it will be many years before the technique which gave the Browns their baby can be applied widely.
    The birth also threatened to touch off a debate on the medical ethics and moral questions of conceiving children outside a woman’s body, an act which already has been criticized by some doctors and religious leaders.
   DiVaney added that about a dozen people she had talked to indicated they would be making presentations at the public hearing at city council chambers Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
    “A lot of people don’t like it for a lot of reasons,” she said, “And a lot of people have the wrong impression or are not aware of what is involved. They don’t agree with the areas included, the reasons why or the way it’s being done,” she said.
  The Browns were among hundreds of couples who sought help from the two researchers after reports of their experiments first were published in 1969.
   “The only thing they have always wanted is a baby," one of Brown’s relatives said.
   Before the birth, Mrs. Brown praised Dr. Steptoe: “He was marvellous. We will never be able to thank him enough. Having this baby is the most incredible thing in the world.”
   But she asked doctors to keep one fact secret from her—the sex of the child. “After waiting years for this wonderful thing to happen, 1 don’t want to be cheated of the final thrill,” she said.
   Some of the techniques used by the two researchers have been known for years. Specialists have been able to create an embryo in a laboratory by fertilizing a woman’s egg with sperm from her husband.
   But until now, doctors have not succeeded in implanting the embryo into the woman’s womb and having it develop as in a normally corfceived pregnancy.
   Drs. Steptoe and Edwards made many attempts, and in one case, the embryo lived for 10 weeks before the womb rejected it.
   The researchers have not fully explained their techniques yet. Some of the major questions being asked are what nutrients they used to keep the egg alive, how was fertilization encouraged and how did they get the timing right.
   Several scientists and churchmen have attacked the ethics of the research.
   Nobel Prize winner Max Perutz of Cambridge University said the doctors would bear terrible guilt if their experiments resulted in the birth of even a single abnormal baby who had to be kept alive as an invalid for the rest of his life.
   But the British Medical Association’s central ethical committee sanctioned the research. Its secretary, Dr. John Dawson, said: “I think that it is a miracle of modern science.”
Nigeria
boycotts
Games
  ALGIERS (Reuter) — Nigeria will boycott next month’s Commonwealth Games in Edmonton as part of its anti-apartheid policy, Sports Minister Sylvanus Williams announced today.
   The minister accused New Zealand of circumventing the 1977 Gleaneagles agreement which committed all Commonwealth countries to sever sport ties with South Africa.
   New Zealand, which is taking part in the Games, prompted a similar walkout by many African countries from the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal for refusing to cut sporting links with South Africa.
CP Air
 offer
rejected
  VANCOUVER (CP) -Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aero Space Workers Tuesday rejected a CP Air contract offer. Ralph Steeves, director-general of Canadian Airway Lodge 764, which represents 1,400 machinists, ramp and baggage employees, said today about 1,200 union members voted 70 per cent to reject a two-year contract offer that called for 7 3-4 per cent wage increase in the first year and seven per cent in the second.
   Steeves said the membership felt “the wages didn’t reflect what the inflation rate is today.”
★
  MONTREAL (CP) - A federal conciliator has recommended a 15-per-cent wage increase in a two-year package for Air Canada’s 7,500 ground service employees who are threatening to start rotating strikes across the country next week.
  Company and union negotiators discussed the report at a bargaining session today, but neither side would comment to reporters on the contents.
   The airline is expected to approve the report —which hasn’t been made public yet.
TODAY
'Ham's the plan. We wait until Clark b too old to run, then we caM the election/'
 (featured inside)
Baseball tourney here
     Prince George teams split their games in the first day of the B.C. 14 and 15-year-old Babe Ruth championship here Tuesday. Page 8.
TV listings included in Mid-Week supplement.
 A tie for the Lions
     The B.C. Lions made too many mistakes and had to settle for a 19-19 tie with the Calgary Stampeders Tuesday. Page 7.
 Index
Bridge................................19
Business............................14
 City, B.C..............2, 3, 11,13
Clussified.....................16-23
Editorial..............................4
 Entertainment............30-33
Family.........................34, 35
Gardening column..........11
Horoscopes.......................30
International......................5
National..............................6
Nixon column..................13
Rolling Stone...................31
Sports...............................7-9
THE WEATHER
J
   The forecast for Prince George today and Thursday is for sunny skies with some cloudy periods and a chance of thunder showers.
   The expected high today is 30, the low 7. Thursday’s forecast high is 25.
   The high Tuesday was 29, the low 7, with no precipata-tion. On this date last year the high was 29, the low 10.
NOW HEAR THIS)
 •	Local Liberal organizer and alderman, Monica Becott, announced to council that she won’t have time to attend September’s Union of B.C. Municipalities convention. “There’s a fall (federal) election?” asked Mayor Harold Moffat.
 % A local Irish setter, haying seen The Citizen’s photo story on the weekend’s dog show, said today he wishes his master had as much intelligence as some of the contestants. The setter was left tied to a tree throughout the weekend while the owners were away. Residents a block away were made aware, day and night, of the plight through continued barking.
  #	The dry weather is getting to a lot of people and other creatures. Ducks at a place just outside city limits, usually white, are the dirtiest you’ll ever see. Their pond’s dried up and the birds are now taking mudbaths.