A6-Wednesday, May 14, 1980 - North Shore News

Playing with fire

By the end of this year the Port of Van-
couver, the largest port on the west coast of
North America, may find itself completely
devoid of any waterborne fire protection
services. Who's to blame for this un-
believable situation?

For many years the port’s fireboat has
been maintained and operated by the City of
Vancouver without significant £ inl help
from anyone else. In cases where its
firefighting services are needed on the North
Shore waterfront, North Vancouver City or
District (as the case may be) pays an hourly
rate. The National Harbours:3oard, which
administers the port, has stes#fastly refused
to contribute a cent. Now, with annual costs

at over «$800 ,000, ..the - City of
Vancouver has just about had #t. Its staff has
recommended that the fMireboat be
discontinued after December 1980.

One-third of the port's traffie is handled
today by North Vancouver. if Vancouver
City council accepts its: :t,§fs recom-
mendation, the withdrawat’.of<all fireboat
protection will pose a major. ¢hreat to the
North Van side of the harboraswell as to the
south side. Yet North V
too small to consider a $2589)
cost-sharing with Vancouvgiii tone
is so very much larger. Lag@week
Van Chamber of Comme
committee to make an
now pressing problem. Fhe 28

Meanwhile, the accusing=siing
future disaster points straight
Harbours Board. The feds: et

The rehabilitation of Ghengis-‘Khan by the
Chinese Communist daily newspaper raises a

disturbing thought. The Pere tenerine the

years ago as “an outstanding statesman ... a
progressive element.”

Can this kind of thing work in reverse?
Will some future historian, for example,
decide Pope John Paul was a brutal enemy of
mankind?

‘sunday

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north shore

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Wednesday Sunday

By W. ROGER WORTH

Spring has arrived and
farmers are out tilling the
land, getting set to provide
us with yet another of the
crops that have allowed
Canadians to pay food prices
that are among the lowest in
the western world.

This year, though, farmers
have been forced to do a lot
of soul searching before
planting millions of acres of
everything from potatoes to
wheat.

The reason: high interest
rates of 18% or more on the
one hand, and commodity
prices that are abnormally
low on the other. In ad-
dition, fertilizer costs have
increased dramatically and
prices on farm machinery
are Out of sight.

High interest rates.
though, are the real
bugbear. Unlike = most

consumers who borrow ona
long-term basis, farmers
borrow heavily in the spring
to buy fertilzer and seed.
paying off huge loans when
crops are sold in the fall.

Muddled thinking about metric

Like the Olympic boycott issue,

As a result, farmers must
make a decision on whether
commodity prices will be
high enough when the crop
is harvested to cover the
extra costs. And with far-
mers actually losing money
on such items as pork and
potatoes, the outlook for a
bumper crop is not bright.

Many times, consumers
complaining about the high
cost of food on supermarket
shelves fail to understand the
farmers’ problems. It's time
they took a second look.

Canadian consumers pay
about 22% of disposable
income on food, compared
to 30% or more in Germany
and close to 40% in Japan.

Who's responsible for the
bargain-basement prices?

The country’s farmers,
that's who. Instead of
consumer. gripes, they

deserve a pat on the back.
particularly in this year of
skyhigh interest rates.

Roger Worth is Director,
Public Affairs, Canadian
Federation of Independent
Business.

the highly

emotional controversy over metric Conversion is
yet another subject of public debate which, so far.
has generated considerably more heat than light.
Mainly because many of those on both sides have
signally failed to grasp what the real argument 1s

all about.

It is mot an argument for or against metric
measurements in themselves.

By way of dampening the
fires and increasing the
Uluminanion level a little, let
us begin by recalling a few
basic facts.

First, metnc is essentially
a French concept of

measurement, having been
planned by the eighteenth
century French

revolutionanes and legally
adopted by France in 1799.
During the following 14
years Napoleon conquered
most of Europe and, among
other = things, imposed
French metne standards on
them

Bntain and the United
States. never being
conquered by Napoleon,

naturally kept to the long:
established Bnush Impenal

system of weights and
measures

Second, the 181 year-old
French metic system cannot
claim any) greater “ac
curacy” in absolute
scientific terms -- than the

Impenal system. The metre
(the basis of all other metric

measurements) was
originally supposed = to
represent 1/10,000,000 of
the distance between the
equator and the pole, but
modern surveys have

repeatedly failed to confirm
this neat theory

In practice, the metre ts
merely the arbitrary length
of a certain) platinum bar
keptin Pans and its precise
relation to anything else 1s

anyone's guess In terms of

simple logae the foot, the
yard (an average man's
three foot stmde) and the

inch (the approaimate length
from the ap of Ins thumb to
fis thumb kouckle! have a

good deal more going for
them.

METRIC ACCEPTED

Third, the English-
speaking countries have
never been bigoted in the
matter of the measurement
systems. Metric was legally
accepted alongside the
Impenal standards from the
latter half of the nineteenth
century onward in the US...
Bnitain and Canada. Indeed.
it-was recognized that metnc
had its advantages 1n certain

fields among” them.
science. medicine. phar-
macy and optics where
particularly fine and = ac-

curate units of measurement
are needed.

The rot set in with the
establishment of the
European Common Market

Napoleon's old = metne
stamping ground after
World War Two  Bntain.

eager to jyorn the European
fleshpots, decided = the
adoption of metric would
enhance its) credenttals
Austraha and New Zealand.
also anxious to muscle in on

the new buropean
prosperity were persuaded
to follow in Britain's foot
sAeps

In Canada of the carly
seventies Prime Minister
Trudeau was also looking
longingly towards Furope as
our “third option” to reduce
cacessive trading depen
dence on the US In all four
mayor English speaking
countries oof the Com
monwealth the drive for

compulsory metre was on

lus the compulsory aspect

of the campaign rather

HOW MANY OF THESE DAMN
T-SHIRTS DID WE ORDER ?

y
Noel Wright

than opposition to metres
and litres as such -- that
may finally doom the metnc
theorsts to failure

After 16 years the attempt
al compulsory metric
conversion inp Bntain. a
Common Market member
since 1973, 1s ploughing
deeper and deeper into the
sand In Austraha -- where
l2anch rules and bathroom
scales marked in pounds
were recently declared
forbidden imports. along
with cannabis. herom and
flock knives the storms of
protest against
are Mounting

compulsion

In New

Zealand the
Metne Advisory Board, has
admitted defeat by voung
self out of existence last
November Japan, which
also) tried ta introduce
compulsory ometrie after
World War Two has now
been forced by public

pressure to legalize its own

tradinonal and customary

mMeasurcment units once

again

Canada has perhaps the
firmest: grounds of all on
which to resist Compulsory
metre singe 76% of the

country’s trade continues to
be with the sohdly non-
metric U.S. For the
relatively small balance of
trade with European
countnes, there's no earthly
reason why exporters should
not use metnc voluntarily, as
was free permitted under
Canada’s 1873 Weights and
Measures Act, without its
being imposed on the entire
population.

That 1873 act has never, in
fact, been repealed -- nor
has compulsory metnc ever
been approved -- by a vote in
Parliament. The wholg body
of metnc regulations with
the force of law has been

enacted by the Trudeau
government through = ar-
bitrary orders -- m-council

on which the Commons has
never had an opportunity to
express its opinion. Now, the
latest announcement from
Ottawa is that food stores in
25 cites will be forced to go

metnc by January 1. 1981
HUMBUG
Fighting this arrogant,

needless and costly process
(the final bill for complete
metnc conversion has been
estimated at up to $10
bilhon) is) a nationwide
organization known as
HUMBUG. The letters stand —
for Help Undo Metncation
BUG Your MP The number
of the Western Regional
office 1s 922-4420 and they'd
hke to hear your views on
the matter

Not. however, whether
youre “for” or “against”
metnce The real question ts

simply whether you prefer
both metnc and Imperial
measures to continue in
peaceful co-existence -- in
the same way as Canada’s
two official languages,
Penghsh and French

Or do you favor ramming
compubory metnc with no
down every
Canadian throat?

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