Joys of skiing
CHItn photo by Tim HwamJty
Part of skiing is falling, but it isn’t too bad when you have a friend to get you up. Robbie Slyman gets help from Janice Walberg after taking a tumble at Tabor Mountain Sunday. Tabor opened Saturday and the Purden Ski Village opens Friday. Story, page 9.
ESSO, GULF STATIONS
Gas goes up one cent
Police shoot at tires
by ELI SOPOW
Citi/en Stuff Reporter
The price of gasoline in Prince George went up one cent a gallon at some Esso and Gulf stations Friday and the trend may be followed by other outlets.
Effective Dec. 1, the AIB allowed the two oil companies to increase the wholesale price of their gasoline in Canada by about one-third of a cent.
The increase at retail outlets varies according to markets, overhead and competition.
Allen Sinclair, a public affairs official with Imperial Oil in Vancouver, said in a telephone interview today the retail increase will be about one cent in Prince George.
A spokesman for Gulf Oil in Vancouver said if Imperial increases the price here, his company will likely follow suit.
Me said increases have already occurred at other B.C. centres.
Sinclair said the increase was granted by the AIL so that various business costs could be recovered.
A spokesman for Shell Canada in Vancouver said no increase has been ordered yet, but he couldn’t say what will happen in the future.
Generally when one oil company raises the price of gasoline, others follow.
CitiMn photo, by Data Mila*
Imperial Contre manager Ron Sketchley raises prices by one cent.
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. (CP,) - Robert Clarence Smith, 23, of New Westminster, was in custody charged with attempted murder following a 10-kilometre high-speed car chase Friday during which shots were fired.
Smith, who also is charged with criminal negligence, will appear in court Wednesday.
He was arrested after a car went out of control'and plunged down a nine-metre embankment.
Police said the chase began early Friday morning when a speeding car passed a police cruiser.
Several attempts to stop the car by blockading intersections failed. In several instances, the car drove on sidewalk to avoid the roadblocks.
At one point, the driver tried to turn his car around. Police blocked its exit and as they were getting out of their car, the man tried to run over one of the constables.
With police shooting at the car’s tires, a police car was rammed and the car sped away, smashing a police van blocking the intersection.
The chase continued into Coquitlam and was taken up by the freeway patrol, reaching .speeds of 175 kilometres an hour.
The chase ended when the driver lost control of his car.
FASTER RESPONSE URGED
Lost boy's death 'accidental'
SMITHERS, B.C. (CP) -The death of a five-year-old boy in dense bush near this community in north-central British Columbia in October was unnatural and accidental, a coroner’s jury ruled Friday night.
The four men and two women investigating the death of Jamie Baxter, of Houston, heard from 12 witnesses, including doctors, RCMP, provincial emergency personnel and search party members.
before making two recommendations.
The jury, which attached no blame in the death, recommended that local search personnel and provincial emergency officials be able to respond more quickly to such incidents.
It also voiced concern about a provincial ruling that only fixed wing aircraft can be hired for searches in terrain suitable only for helicopters.
The jury also recommended that provincial forest service heat sensor devices be used immediately in such searches. The devices, used in pinpointing forest fires, are mounted on aircraft.
One was brought from Prince Rupo’t after the boys were lost. k->timonv showed, but was not properly or promptly used.
Jamie was found on a cliff-side four days after he and
David Crocker. 5. disappeared into forest near the Crocker home. 16 kilometres south of here.
Jamie was dead on arrival at hospital and testimony at the inquest showed he died from hypothermia, a severe drop in body temperature. David was found the day before, about 1.6 kilometres from his home, and was released following hospital treatment.
The
20f Copy
Citizen 4
Monday, December 4, 1978 Vol. 22; No. 235 Prince George, British Columbia
TWO NEW MINISTERS
B.C. cabinet given extensive overhau
VICTORIA (CP) — Premier Bill Bennett today annouced major changes in cabinet responsibilities and extensive reorganizational changes within ministries of his three-year-old Social Credit government.
Bennett added two new ministers to his cabinet and announced the creation of a new ministry to reduce or eliminate red tape.
Three ministries disappeared in the shuffle and two others were absorbed by other ministries.
New cabinet ministers are Elwood Veitch (SC-Burnaby-Willingdon), chairman of the committee on Crown corporations, who becomes the minister of tourism and small business development, and Cyril Shelford (SC—Skeena) who becomes agricluture minister.
Veitch also becomes the minister responsible for the B.C. Steamship Corp. and a director of the B.C. Development Corp.
Shelford was agriculture minister from 1968 to 1972 under the previous Social Credit administration.
Bennett said that Grace McCarthy will move from provincial secretary to human resources minister, but will remain deputy premier.
Vander Zalm replaced
She also becomes the minister responsible for the Insurance Corp. of B.C. (ICBC), a post previously held by Education Minister Pat McGeer.
Hugh Curtis, minister of municipal affairs and housing, has been assigned the expanded provincial secretary and government services ministry.
He will be responsible for the B.C. Buildings Corp. and the Government Employee Relations Bureau.
Bill Vander Zalm moves from minister of human resources minister to municipal affairs minister with responsibility for the Urban Transit Authority.
Rafe Mair, former consumer and corporate affairs minister, becomes environment minister and a director of ICBC.
Bennett told a news conference that he will continue as chairman of the cabinet committee on confederation and
Slide deaths inquest opens
An inquest into the death of two employees of the B.C. Railway will open in Prince George tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Coroner Bill Stanton will hear details of the Oct. 30 deaths of Fransisco Mas-troianni and Efrem Violato They died while working on track section midway between Northwood and Prince George pulp mills.
Mastroianni was buried in a mudslide on the line, while Violato died of an apparent heart attack during rescue operations.
BEST LOOK YET
Spacecraft takes a peek at cloudy Venus
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -Pioneer 1 flew into orbit around Venus today in a project aimed at giving U.S. scientists their best look yet at earth’s closest planetary neighbor.
The flagship of an unmanned U.S. space fleet taking part in the Venus study swept behind the cloudy planet at 7:56 a.m. PST (10:56 a.m. EST), right on schedule, radio controllers here reported. It emerged 20 minutes later from the back side of the planet.
Controllers then began receiving signals that the automatic 28-second rocket firing had reduced the craft’s speed by 3,760 kilometres an
hour-enough to bring it under the influence of the Venusian gravity.
The $225-rnillion mission was designed to study Venus’s atmosphere and climate.
The crucial sequence of instructions needed for the Pioneer to slip into orbit around Venus was relayed to the ship’s on-board computer Sunday
The Pioneer 1 orbit should range from as near as 145 kilometres above the Venusian surface, where temperatures approach 320 degrees Celsius and pressures are 100 times greater than on earth, to a maximum altitude of 65.500 kilometres. NASA said. The
ship is to circle the planet for at least one Venusian year, about 225 earth days.
Instruments aboard the spacecraft, which is shaped like a giant coffee can, will investigate the atmosphere and map perhaps a third the surface in a search for mountains and craters.
The mission enters its second phase Saturday, when five more U.S. ships are to reach the planet, which is almost the same size as earth.
The five are self-contained segments of a single spacecraft that split apart two weeks ago. Four of the ships are to crash to the surface
Saturday and the fifth will burn up in the atmosphere.
The six ships carry a total of 30 experiments to investigate, monitor and measure the composition and behavior of Venus’s atmosphere.
Two Soviet spacecraft also racing toward a rendezvous with Venus re due at the planet Dec. 21 and Dec. 25 and both are expected to drop landers to the surface.
The Russians, with 10 unmanned missions to their credit, are the veterans of Venus exploration. Their Venera 1 made mankind’s first approach to Venus with a fly-by in May, 1961. Venera 3 dropped the first of eight Soviet landers onto the planet in 1966.
will become chairman of the environment and land use committee.
In a switch, former environment minister Jim Nielsen becomes consumer and corporate affairs minister.
McGeer assumes additional responsibilities for science and technology under an expanded education, science and technology ministry. He also becomes a director of B.C. Hydro.
Bennett said that Jim Chabot, moves from minister of mines and petroleum resources to become minister of the new lands, parks and housing ministry with a mandate to make Crown land available to the citizens of B.C.
Jim Hewitt, former agriculture minister, now is energy, mines and petroleum resources minister and a director of B.C. Hydro.
Highways Minister Alex Fraser becomes minister of an expanded transportation, communications and highways ministry with a mandate to develop a transportation policy for B.C.
The premier said Fraser also will be responsible for the B.C. Ferries Corp. and B.C. Air Services including assistance programs for local airports.
Christmas tree price to increase
VANCOUVER (CP) - Like most other things connected with the holiday season, the price of Christmas trees will be going up this year, says Gil McCully, manager of J. Hol-fert Ltd., a Christmas tree wholesaler based in Kamloops, B.C.
“Prices are going to be up because of the number of imported trees and the exchange rate of 18 per cent,” he said in an interview. “But there’s nothing we can do about it.”
McCully said these factors, plus the fact retailers usually markup their trees 100 per cent, means consumers could be paying as much as $4 more this year for a tree.
"Where you paid $16 for a cu Itured tree last year, you can expect to pay $19.50 thisyear,” he said.
McCully said the wholesalers have to import a lot of trees because the quality of United States trees is usually better and there is not enough plantations here to support the local market.
"\
TODAY
'Tm afraid vm're al our of Star Wat toy*."
(featured inside
The square ring . . .
Prince George boxers won six of nine bouts at a Sunday card which attracted an overflow crowd to the Civic Centre. Page 7.
Index
.............21
..........11
City, B.C........2, 3, 15, 29, 32
Classified............. .......18-23 MorberK column... .........32
............6
.............20
.......28, 27
C
THE WEATHER
The forecast for today calls for cloudy periods with snow showers. Tuesday should be sunny with some cloudy periods, and light periods of snow.
The expected high today is -2, the low -12. The forecast high Tuesday is -5.
The high Sunday was 4, the low-7 with lcmof snow. On this date last year the high was -20, the low -24.
( NOW HEAR THIS)
9 A visitor to a hotel in Prince George was a little puzzled by an advertisement on the toilet in his room. It stated: ‘‘We hope your stay will be a pleasant one and hope you come back as soon as you can.”
# A city man has discovered how he can quickly get municipal work crews to clear his street. All he has to do is shovel his driveway. Within minutes a snowplow will roar by, once again burying his entrance.
United Way
Target: $185,000 Toduy’s total: $181,487