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VIA Intemet: trenshaw @ ditect.ca COMPUTER BBS - 980-8027 User (D: mailbox « Password:letters internet- hittpa/unww.nsnews.com North Shore News, fuundat wn 196? as an independent subutan newsgrpe and quilfied und Schohe S11, Paragriph WL of the Excse Tan Ac. pudished cach Weuhesaly, Frikkty and Sumasy by North Shue Free: fre Lad, and distnbuted tp every daurun he North Shore, Canada Fist Canshin Pydicapor Mail Saks Pradat Agmoment So ORK 7238, Mailing rites ancukable an rood member ieee Cou S's 985-3227 Entive contents © 1996 North Store Free Press Ltd. Al rghts reserved. ESCs in cr hshadh lgtininincesarearacerrcinsvaxee Rye st LST LV Dy Rea? Sas ae SE a WE'RE FIGHTING FoR THE RIGHT To FORCE USELESS UNWARTEP GARBAGE ONTO CANADIANS EVERYWHERE! WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE? “T want you to watch carefully when I bless the new council and if they don’t dissolve in a puff of smoke you'll know they are all right.” Father Ron Barnes, blessing the new North Vancouver District Council. (From a Dec. 8 North Shore News story.) O00 “We were young and madly in love. We thought if we get mar- ried on Friday the 13th people would think it was bad luck, so if we survive that, we'll live happily ever after. I think basically it’s turned out that way.” John Olson on his marriage to his wife Elizabeth on Friday the 13th. (From a Friday the 13th North Store News story.) O00 “You may have someone sick and terminal and you are waiting for that person to dic but when it does happen it is quite a shock.” Businessman Winston Wing the news that the heritage building that currently houses his Lower Lonsdale pet boutique will make way for a new 51-conda develop- ment. (From « Dec. 13 North Shore News story.) oo00 “3 want to drink beer in Norway, you know.” Lynn Valley musician Daniel Rhodes, on one of his musical aspi- rations. (From a Dec. 11 North Shore News Life story.) gogo “It looked like someone had taken a knife and scraped off the skin and muscles right down to the bone.” Elizabeth Thunstrom, commu- nity relations officer for the Burnaby-based Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C., on the injuries a raccoon suffered after being caught in a West Vancouver leg- hold trap. (From a Dee. 11 North Shore News story.) a00 “I prefer to be saving money for West Vancouver than saving money for the NDP.” New West Vancouver District Coun, Victor Durman, on his pri- orities for the next three-year term and the NDP"s recent announce- ment of impending provincial gov- ernment funding cuts to municipal- ities. (From a Dee. 8 North: Shore News story.) O00 “It’s another form of tourism dollar.” Dr. J. Garth Dorman, on pro- viding elective cosmetic surgery to patients from the United States and other countries. (From a Dee. § North Shore News business story.) luch the Ki ore ft iwis the their scenery TO get the feel of a country, it’s been said, you should spend either 16 days or 10 years there — any- thing in between merely confuses you. So your humble scribe now qualifies 80% in the case of New Zealand after a recent eight-day tour of its South Island, tagged on 10 five weeks in Australia. hither and yon Right away iet’s confirm (for those yet to visit Kiwi-land) that New Zealanders rival the Aussies in helpful, “laid-back” friendliness — and with ; few of the rough edges occasionally encountered with the latter. The Kiwi accent is softer, the British influence even stronger. But nothing could be éess British than the breathtaking mountain and coastal scenery of the South {sland -— geographically, the last isolated out- post of civilization before the Antarctic ice floes. Maybe that’s why New Zealanders often seem quite happy to let their country’s sheer beauty speak, not only for itself but, very appropriately, for them too. Our tour started in Christchurch — New Zealand’s third city (pop. ' 322,000). With its Gothic cathedral, 19th century buildings and tree-lined avenues, it has been called the most ‘“English” city outside the UK. From’. there a scenic five-hour train ride via the lush meadows of the Canterbury: Plain and the eastern seaboard took us south to Dunedin. i Settled by the Scots, whose influence greets you everywhere, Dunedin is the Kiwi Edinburgh. it’s an attractive city of 109,000, with a busy port; where we'd have loved to linger for a week instead of two short days. Then, it was westward on the spectacular Taieri Gorge Railway to Middlemarch, followed by a four-hour drive to Queenstown, This all-year resort on mountain-girdled Lake Wakatipu is a gateway. to Alpine fun of every kind —- paragliding, jet-boating, white-water rafting and great winter skiing. It’s also a fine little town just to browse around, with a delightful water- front, and stores and restaurants that equal New Zealand's best. If I could bring, all my friends there, I decided I could happily live in Queenstown for. the rest of my life! “Alpine” this region truly is — unlike our modest Grouse and Seymour. hills. It has over 20 peaks of more than 10,000 ft. A four-hour drive among them, over one of the world’s most dramatic mountain highways, ~’’ brought us to the westcoast “fiordland” and fanied Milford Sound, which - we cruised for wo hours out to the open’sea and back. Then, the big thrill of the whole tour: a 35-minure flight back to Queenstown i in a 12-seater plane over the Matternorn-class snowcaps, their .- deep valleys and lonely lakes, all bathed in brilliant susshine. Two days later it was northward for a night at the village of Franz Josef to view the famous glaciers. Then onward up the west coasi to the little port of Greymouth for a final spectacular train ride through the mountains back to Christchurch on the TranzAlpine Express. But there’s far more than scenic wonders, of course, to New Zealand, a. tiny nation that has recently pulled itself up by its bootstraps from virtual hankruprey. Its gentle people have a tough streak, too. We'll i gO00 | HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes today, Dec. 15, Waddell . Vancouver Sun) editor Tan Haysom. t look shortly at that tough streak and w here they’re hea ded. to West Van Kiwanian: Don .. More on Tuesday, Dec. 17, to Southam News (formerly. 900 WRIGHT OR WRONG: When looking for faults, use a mirror not a telescope. — The North Shore News belicves strongly in freedom of speech and the right of ail sides in a debate to be heard. ‘the colismuises published in the: News present differing points of view, but chose views are nat necessarily . those of the newspaper itself. eee ag en I ang, sabbath armen a a Peer Wildlife lament returned. OCAL wildlife is running into some stiff urban opposition on the North Shore. Bears, of course, have been under the gun on various fronts, Readers raised their voices most recently over the disposal of a mother bear and its cub after the two returned to a North Vancouver address to feast on the garbage that was readily available on the property. The human occupants had also provided the animals with food. The bears were tranquilized and relo- cated. But the lure of the trash and the handouts was too much. The bears This time they were shot and killed — the victims of human ignorance and their own natural desires. It’s now the turn of smaller wild ani- mals. to fall victim to the more base aspects of their human counterparts. According to a Dec. 11 News story, a raccoon was picked up in West Vancouver suffering fron: acute leg injury. Foot scraped clean of skin, the animal was in mortal pain. Suffering from shock. Suffering from a close encounter of an urban kind. Wildlife Rescue personnel determined that the injury and trauma suffered by the animal were consistent with those inflicted by a leghold trap. Never mind that West Vancouver is’ supposedly distant, both physically and philosophically, trom traditional Canadian traplines. Consider what the ramifications of a small child wandering into the trap would have been, and con- sider the mentality of the person who set out such a trap in an urban area. Now you know what local wildlife is up against. Human ignorance and cruelty on an.; embarrassing scale. }