6 - Sunday, June 9, 1985 - North Shore News Editorial Page The honey pot Te opposition parties are juicing the Tory patronage issue for all they're worth -- as is their proper function. But the exercise smells of red herring. Few, if any, of the Mulroney cabdinet’s hundreds of patronage appointments are, at the moment, make-work projects. They rep- resent public jobs that have to be done by SOMEBODY under the present government Structure -- though there are strong argu- ments for drastically streamlining that struc- ture. Meanwhile, provided the appointees are fully competent, any party’s government obviously prefers such jobs to go to its friends rather than to its political foes. For the NDP and the Grits (themselves former masters at manipulating the public trough) to pretend otherwise is blatant hypocrisy. Basically, the same applies even to bad- tempered Justice Minister John Crosbie’s award of some routine government jobs to the St. Johns Jaw firms which happen to employ his two sons (and which, incidenta!- ly, have since withdrawn from the appoint- ments), Assuming the firms are professional- ly competent and suitable in every other respect, why -- for all practical purposes -- should the accidental presence of Crosbie boy juniors on their staffs be any different from senior partners who are Tory sup- porters? Modern purists may deplore patronage, which is as old as the party system itself. In single-party totalitarian states like Russia it creates permanent ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. But in ‘a multi-party parliamentary democracy like Canada at least EVERY bear eventually gets a turn at the honey pot! Your best bet! a irst, i was the automobile that put horses out of business. Now it’s the computer. Horse racing, it’s reported, may be on the skids because last year Cana- dians spent appreciably more on lotteries like the 6/49 than they wagered on the tracks. That's a pretty dumb switch, too, since lottery players recover only about 52¢ from cach $1 compared to 80¢ from thoroughbreds. If punt you must, the -horse is still your best bet! Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 985-2131 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Sea vorct OF momin ana CHT VANCOUVER “north shore news. BUNDAY + WEDNESDAY + FMOAY Publisher Peter Speck General Manager Roget McAlee Operations Manager Berm Hilliard Marketing Director Bob Graham Circulation Director Bill McGown Production Director Chris Johnson Photography Manager Terry Peters Advertising Director - Sales Dave Jenneson Mike Goodsell Editor-in-Chief Neel Waght Classified Manager Val Stephenson North Shore News, founded in 1969 4s an independent suburban newspapet and quahhed under Schedute Wl, Patt tl. Paragraph I of tne Eacise Tax Act. 1s published each Wednesday. Friday anc Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed fo every door on the North Shore Second Class Marl Registration Number 3885. Entire contents - 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Supscrpons, North and West Vancouver. $25 per year Martina rates avadable oe eegucst No responsibly accented for uasehcdedd muternat mcluaing ManUSCUptIS And PrCtures whch Should be accompanied by a GLimped addressed envelope, Member of the B.C. Press Council 5 §5,770 (average. “Vednesday Feid. 8 SOA DISOIN & Sunday) THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE Advertising Director - Admin. : ro 6 6 GAME FOR A RUFFIANS, played by gentlemen", it started purely by accident 162 years ago when an English schoolboy got tired of kicking the ball during a soccer game, so picked it up and ran with it. For the past year and a half some 20 young West Van gentlemen have been holding bottle drives, raffles and lotteries, delivering cata- logues, selling almonds, chicken and meat, and final- ly digging into their own and their parents’ pockets -- all in aid of playing ‘‘the ruf- fians’ game’’ for seven weeks Down Under. They’rs die Grade 34 and 12 saembers of the Hillside rugby team and their com- bined efforts since November 1983 have raiscd over $50,000 for this sum- mer’s tour of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji -- countries where Rugby is a religion rather than a mere game. In charge of the team, which leaves Vancouver June 29, is Brian Lynch, a teacher and counsellor for 20 years, the last 10. at Hillside, and something of a veteran of overseas Rugby tours, hav- ing previously taken the Hillside team to England in 1979 and New Zealand in 1981. The dozen or so games themseives against Aussie and Kiwi high school and college teams won't be the only pay-off. The Hillside boys will visit Sydney, Canberra, the Blue -Moun- tains, Christchurch, Well- ington and Auckland among other stopovers, and they'll be billetted almost exclusive- ly in Australian and New Zealand homes, with only the odd night in an hotel. So they're also going to learn a lot of happy, useful things about day-to-day life in their host countries. And if they come home talking a littl funny, you'll know why. Hats off to them, too, for doing it all their way when it came to getting together the money. “RUFFIANS’ GAME” takes gentlemen Down Under ase Lynch, JOHN REYNOLDS earlybird dad. Kids didn’t distribute flyers or sell chicken in order to play games on the other side of the planet a century and a half ago, when that stern disciplinarian Dr. Thomas Arnold was head- master of Britain’s famous Rugby School where it all began. But i’ve an idea the old martinet would have given the Hillside team ‘A’ for effort, motivation and hard work just the same... + & FATHER OF THE MONTH a week and a haif before Father’s Day is West Van-Howe Sound MLA John Reynolds, but his con- stituents will have to wait a while for their cigars because it all suddenly happened on the far side of the Strait of Georgia. At 10:14 a.m. last Wednesday, in Victoria General Hospital, wife ¥vonne presented John with Christopher Sean, all bounc- ing 6lb 80z of him. His entry into the world had been scheduled for around Canada Day in Lions Gate Hospital, but young Chris was evidently in a hurry to meet Dad and arrived three weeks carly. The latest bulletin has everyone (in- cluding John) doing fine. zs kk THE CUP RANNETH over last. weekend, academically speaking, for the family of Rev.Bill Ferris, rector of St. Simon’s in Deep Cove. On one and the same day wife Judy and son Tim both by Noel Wright ALLAN BLAIR ... reading no problem. graduated from UBC, she with an M.A. in education, he with a B.A. in history. Judy, a special needs teacher at Carson Graham, earned her own B.A. 22 years ago in Quebec when Tim was still just a twinkle in her and Bill’s eyes. Tim, now 21, is planning to take his history degree to BCIT for a couple of years and add a business management diploma to it. 2 * HUNTER BY NAME, hunter by nature and the one with all the answers in the reference room of North Van District’ Library, Christine Hunter retired after 21 years service at the end of May. Thirty-five years ago, with a group of other frustrated but un- daunted women, she helped launch the original Capilano Library Association in the Highlands area when it was still mostly bush -- with 150 borrowed books and $250 from the Public Library Commission. A compulsive: seeker after knowledge, she earned an outstanding repu- tation for tracking down the most obscure items of in- formation sought by District Library patrons. While wishing her many happy years ahead, they and her colleagues will sadly miss the energetic, good-humored lady for whom nothing was too much trouble. - 2 * LIBRARY TALK britigs us to Altan Blair, challenger to former alderman Elko Kroon in next Saturday's North Van City by-election to fill the council vacancy created by the death of Frank Marcino. A_ library trustee since 1978, Allan is currently chairman of the City Library Board, presi- dent of the B.C, Library Trustees Association and immediate past chairman of the Greater Vancouver Library Federation. Being also a computer systems analyst by trade, he can be relied on for at least one im- portant thing if elected. He'll have no problem reading and understanding the council agenda. * 2 * IAN HESELGRAVE ... sky the limit. WRAP-UP: Congrats to Of- ficer Cadet Ian Heselgrave of West Van on completing his two-year Royal Roads course preparatory to train- ing as an air navigator ... Recipients of UofVic degrees are North Van’s Jennifer Nonay and Vera Paterson ... Back in Tiddlycove, Norma Sharp represents the North Shore on B.C.’s Canada Day Committee Accountant Stuart Fraser is new presi- dent of the B.C. Lung Association ... And Barry Charlesworth is collecting happy Golden Years wishes on his retirement, after 37 years, as veepee of Dill- ingham Construction. *e* * © WRIGHT OR WRONG: Speeches are like babies (you listening, John?) -- easier to conceive than deliver. photo sudmt ed) 1985 Hillside Rugdby tour team with (centre) teacher-coach Brian