Promotions Manager 965-2131 (218) The North Shore Mews is published by North Shore Free Press Ltd., Publisher Peter Speck, from 1139 Lonsdale Avenue Korth Vanceever, B.C., V7 244 Publisher 985-2131 (101) ter Human Resoxces Manager 965-2131 (177) Comptro! 985-2131 (133). Accounting & Mala Oifice Fax * Michsol Becker- News 985-2131 (114) BE LIERS SOUTHS EDITOR =: Letters must include your name, full “address & telephone number. VIA Intemet: trenshaw @ direct.ca COMPUTER BBS - 960-6027 User [D:maiibox « Password:letters Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. 985-2131 (160): RSA CRA, Woman Re Pentium promises RAB your wallets, purses and pockets, taxpayers: the public sector is bearing down on you If the North Vancouver school board’s effort to go to referendum for $2 million to help put technology in the schools is successful, your already rising residential tax bill will shoot even higher. Although the school board is proba- bly being asked to get by on less than what is needed, enough is enough. What school boards and all levels of government must realize is that taxpay- ers are tapped out. Scurrying to them FAeULOUS! IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES: WITH CLONING | CouLD ‘, BECOME MINISTER OF EVERYTHING! for more is not the answer. The board’s dispute is not with tax- payers, but with a provincial govern- ment that demands technology but won’t fund it. The referendum would only fund $2 million of the $11 million required over the next five years for technology in the district. Next year, we can assume the board will be back again, asking for more. We can expect more downloading from the provincial gov- ernment, adding to municipal taxes. We can expect more demands from all lev- els of government. Opening up new avenues to raise rev- WAIT A MINUTE- SILLY ME... 1 ALREADY AM! il re WE’LL get back to the present next » week. This week, Olden Thinges. - ” Mayor Patricia Boname — no, youthful Pat’s not one of the Olden Thinges, she’s hardly a day older.than I am — sends along a fascinating mem- oir in the February oldsletter (what else would you call it?) of the West Vancouver benefactors, as told to Susan Dirassar and Anne Version, and it describes one of Greater Tiddlycove’s hidden treasures and d witnesses to the days when the tich lived as the rich ought to live: Kew House. From town, it’s 45 seconds past Lighthouse Park just before a wicked bend in the road, at 5324 Marine Drive. But nothing can be seen of it except the two stone pillars marking the entrance. It is a country boy’s apple toss between the costiy homes of three current West Vancouver nabobs: lawyer John Laxton, Frank Griffiths Jr. of Vancouver Canucks fame, and myself. Ha ha, just threw in the last one for a litdle gig- gle. In fact I suspect my house sits on part of the original 24 (some reports say 27) acres of die estate. I appreached Kew House reverently only once, trying to collect for the Heart Fund. Bur that is another story. The story of Kew House is inseparable from that of A.J-T. Taylor — perhaps B.C.’s grandest . developer and visionary the other side of W.A.C. Bennett. He certainly laid the groundwork for the legendary development in B.C.’s richest communi- Il | ty: the Guinness family’s British Properties. Taylor was an engineer, head of the immense British Pacific Properties boughr for a song by the great British brewing family in the 1930s, and the inspiration behind Lions Gate Bridge — which nat- urally increased vastly the value of BP real estate. (I once met a very snobbish lady who sniffed that she was “B.B.” — “Before Bridge.” Sort of like a United Empire Loyalist in social terms.) Taytor bought the property for a clearly over- priced $12,600. He built the house, naming it after Kew Gardens in London. And this brilliant man scarcely lived in it. It was built in the 1930s and he went to Britain during the Second World War to serve as a director of the ministry of aircraft pro- duction. He died just before the war ended. Kay Meek describes in luscious detail the Kew House she knew. It included such touches as an electric “eye” in a tree trunk just inside the estate entrance that opened the garage door — “an incredible innova- tion” in the 1930s — an upper hall containing four stained glass windows depicting scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a road down to the beach house and barbecue. Newspapers report- ed that it was the first fully air-conditioned house in Vancouver. : Mrs. Meck knows the place well — because she and her husband, George Norgan, bought it from Taylor in 1945. In their role as benefactors of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra they held Sunday Symphony Teas on the patio of Kew House and hosted famous conductors to meet VSO sponsors. What a wonderful thought, that fine live music once caressed the air within hearing distance of my own (cheap, plain-board) house! And that the Norgans had fine parties and Hawaiian-style barbe- cues on the beach. The house “was situated like a villa,” George Norgan nostalgically ncted, accord- ing to a 1964 clipping in my A.J.T. Taylor file. WRIGE enue will only lead to higher expenses down the road. Spending lavish sums on technology in these penny-pinching times’ makes little sense when today’s Pentium quickly becomes tomorrow’s dinosaur. In five years, there will be a new request before taxpayers to upgrade what will then be an outdated $11-mil- lion computer system. Admittedly the job is becoming more difficult, but educators must fearn to live within their means. At the same time, the NDP shoul stop playing politics by making promis- es to parents the province cen’t afford. mailbox . Ski hill danger _ needs signage Dear Editor: . . The operators of the three North © Shore ski operations would be advised to erect large signs at the top of every chairlift warning skiers and snowboarders that anyone found outside the patrolled areas: : would immediately have their tickets.’ cut up, or ski passes withdrawn for * one month. a a This would surely act as an?* immediate deterrent. Beas As for Brittany McDowell’s. father saying he wholeheartedly sup- ported his daughter's right to snow- ~ board anywhere, he. should: get a. - $10,000 bill from the North: Shore Rescue Team. Obviously: jfhis ' daughter’s death is not adequate to persuade. him to condemn‘ such foolish disregard for mountain’ safe- _ty, what hope have, we’ that" other » > kids will not follow in her tracks: . S$. Ward | os _- West Vancouver .: | | Tales of WV’s rich and famous past The house’s owners have since included biscuit: : baron Garfield Weston, Arthur Hullah, ‘and Frank ~~ Griffiths Sr., lace owner of the Canucks anid ‘0 Cc: Communications. Shey Happy days, happily recalled by Kay Meek...’ Q00 ; Not everyone will shed a tear, but, as mooted in © this space recently, the Vancouver Molson Indy. did” indeed take a look at a North Vancouver location” ~: for its 1998 race. Conclusion: Not enough space. DOO: oe The Mark Sager empire keeps expanding. Our muscular former mayor has just b bought Hanna Air, the “Airline of the Islands,” a frisky two-airplane service based on Saltspring Island that serves the Gulf Islands and Ladysmith on Vancouver Island between Vancouver and Victoria. And if he decides that the life of a lawyer, restaurateur, resort ov-ner, politician and budding airline mogul (Canadian Pacific Airlines started small too, you know), he can always fall back on his skills as an auctioncer. He impressed in that role at last Friday’s Cubid auction at Gleneagles Golf Course to zaise dough‘ . for Eagle Harbor School. Had a tremendous gift for touching the bidders’ hearts and wallets by reminding bidders of the sheer goodness of the cause just when the bids were cooling off. 000 No matter what the calendar says, I know when spring’s here. Not when the birds twitter, or the crocuses bioom, or the convertible tops come down. It’s when they open the toilets at Lighthouse Park. ~~ The North Shore News believes strongly in free- dom of speech and the right of all sides in a debate to be heard, The columnists published in the News pre- sent differing points of view, but those views are not necessarily those of the newspaper itself.