Times Colonist from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada • 17

Local News Sports Second Section Pages 17-28 VICTORIA, B.C., WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14, 1966 PAGE 17 CITIZENS PROTEST CHOPPING COUNCIL SPARE THAT TREE Arthur Mayse They Strip Victoria of Her Leafy Beauty? Will By TETE LOUDOX A battle to save more boulevard trees from the axe is warming up in Oak Bay. A number of acacias have been removed from Dunedin Street in Victoria. And lopping and trimming of leafy boughs along Cook between Fort and Dallas and the removal of one beautiful giant on Cook near May has engendered another protest. Is Greater Victoria to be denuded of the beauties that ing ash and let the chips fall where they may.

They are disfigured or aged, he says. Local homeowners are disagreed on whether the trees should go. In some cases it depends on wtio must rake the leaves. Edward J. Symons, 1231 Victoria Avenus, says such people "should retire to the Sahara." Mrs.

Nita O. Forrest, an artist, told council the ment by smaller varieties of boulevard trees have come to council. Council has dropped the proposal. But a municipal committee is eyeing more trees bordering Monterey between Oak Bay and St. Ann.

Councillors however, will tour the site before coming to any decision. Works superintendent R. A. Futcher wants removal of an old flowering crab apple, a laburnum and several flower large old trees give Oak Bay individuality. In Victoria, the Cook Street protesters who dislike the generous pruning of boughs which touch power lines have shouted But city parks administrator Herb Warren says he has inspected the trees and he says, "We have to provide clearance (for hydro lines) and that's it." He said one tree is being removed entirely because it had become dangerous.

But where pruning is being done for hydro lines, it is being kept to a minimum. "At this time of year it may stand out like a sore thumb, but come spring and it won't even be noticed," He regretted the loss of the Dunedin Street acacias. The trees were lost to a road widening project demanded by local industry to accommodate truck traffic. The cloud had a small silver this area will soon lose its native arbutus, oaks and dogwood. "We are introducing too many things in replacing the trees which grow here naturally." He said many of the foreign species being planted are beautiful.

But do they belong here? he asked. The Saanich peninsula and Victoria area form the northern boundary of a region of Garry Oak, arbutus and dogwood. "They occur nowhere else in Canada but here. We should be more conscious of this," he stated. These are the trees visitors come here to see.

A Japanese tourist isn't going to be thrilled by Japanese cherries, he added. A glance through the Times files shows numerous pictures of trees which were local landmarks which are just a memory today. Conservationists annually have called for action. i Teachers to Get 8 Per Cent Hike lining. The wood, coveted by wood carvers, is freely available to them, first come, first served, at Beacon Hill Nursery, Carvers must come during working hours and take it away themselves.) Mr.

Warren wanted it understood the city is planting more trees than it removes. He says, however, the community generally is not as tree conscious as it should be. He said contractors involved in building projects remove many trees which could be preserved. Or else they will damage trees by lashing cables about them and tearing off the bark, or they will dump construction materials at their bases, injuring them. Victoria's Garry Oaks are being removed faster than they are being regenerated, he added.

This is a sore point, too, with Dr. Adam Szczawinski, provincial botanist. He fears the district's wage bill. He is now paid $15,333, including his special allowances. After three years' experience in the post he will be paid $16,864, according to the new scale.

New basic minimum salary for new teachers ranges from to depending on qualifications. TOP CATEGORY Those in the top category, with 14 years' experience, will be paid $10,840 and with a master's de gree they will be eligible for a bonus of $200. The bonus for the professional category was accepted by arbi ters Dr. R. A.

Shearer and Gerald Sullivan, but rejected by the third member. Kenneth Murphy, who argued that it represents a double payment. About 44 teachers in the dis trict are eligible for the top salary of $11,040 including bonus. The board rejected a teacher bid for special leave with Dav. Arbitration Terms Effective Jan.

1 An 8.02 per cent average salary increase for Greater Victoria's 1,000 public school teachers awarded participating in a week-long program which sees the first 30 minutes of the City Hall working day devoted to Christmas singing. Members of the public are invited to join in the singing Thursday and Friday morning at 8:30. (Times photo.) CAROL SINGERS from the Victoria West intermediate choir entertained City Hall staffers and members of the general public at City Hall this morning. The Vic West youngsters were followed by the Monterey School choir. Both choirs were SHOT YOUNGSTER LOSES FIGHT TO STAY ALIVE Schoolboy Kevin King died in St.

Joseph's Hospital Tuesday afternoon, three days after being shot through the head. For the last two days, the youngster, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert King, 1903 Maple, Sooke, had been kept alive by a respirator. He was rushed to hospital Saturday afternoon after being shot in the forehead while he and a younger brother were using .22 rifles to shoot at tin cans in the backyard.

Funeral arrangements will not be made until an Inquest has been set. Surviving Kevin are the parents, two brothers, two sisters and grandparents. today will add $629,080 to The arbitration award con-1 arbitration award con-1 eludes 1966 salary negotiations between Greater Victoria Teach ers Association and trustees or School District 61. Its terms go into effect Jan. 1, 1967, for 12 months.

Trustees were taken somewhat by surprise by the basic salary increase granted by arbitration. They had been expecting about a 7 per cent award as being closer to the average handed down in other parts of the province. HIGHER RATE But higher increases have been granted elsewhere 8.9 per cent at Merritt, for example. Last year Greater Victoria teachers won a 5.412 per cent increase that added $378,830 to the salary bill. The new award means an increase of 2.27 mills on current assessed values.

Average salary under the new scale is calculated at $7,749. But officials point out that Victoria probably has more teachers at maximum levels of salary than any other district in the province, which weights the balance. PRINCIPAL PAY The new scale for principals requires time to be worked out, but the top salary here will be for the principal of Victoria Secondary, the district's largest school, who will get $16,399 including allowances. make it famous, ask the conservationists. The need for wider streets and protection of power lines must be served, the tree-cutters reply.

And one of the community's lengthiest controversies i buiiding again. Residents of Victoria Avenue in Oak Bay have won the first round. Protests against gradual removal of large old trees there and their replace Fooke school board will not be able to proceed with the build ng program approved by voters in last Saturday's election. Education Minister Leslie Peterson said this morning that "school construction is being authorized only on a priority basis and for classrooms only." He refused to say what constitutes "a priority basis' tut it apparently means that construction will be approved only for areas where overcrowding is already acute. NORMAL PACE Dr.

Neil Perry, deputy minis ter of education, confirmed that "the normal pace of school construction is much slowed down." When asked how long the cutback will continue he replied, "Your guess is as good as mine It is not possible to proceed with rew school construction until the extraordinarily tight money market improves. Mr. Peterson, when asked when approval would be given for construction of Christie Point and Newton schools, re plied, "Where is Christie Point?" APPLICATIONS He said his department will handle applications for con struction of these schools "in the usual way. I'm not going to interfere." Mr. Peterson said it is not true to say that the government will not approve any school construction but he refused to go into details.

He said, "I'll be reporting fully on this matter to the Legislature." He said all applications for approval of school construction "are being looked at in the light of the needs of the province as a whole." WITHOUT SHARE He added, "If they like, school districts can proceed on their own with school construction without the government sharing any of the costs. booke school board only re cently learned of the cutback! officially although Mr. Peterson! warned B.C. school trustees i what to expect when he spoke to their annual convention several months ago, Until only the other day, I entertained no more Christmas spirit than old Scrooge did before i reformation. Something was missing, or, more correctly, had not yet taken place; and to be honest, I kind cf hoped it wouldn't for yet a while.

Once the spirit strikes, I pontificated to my wife in her busy kitchen, we enter upon a i of ass insanity. The prudent resolves made in November are a a doned. Bef ore we fully realize what's hap pened, we are being swept into the tinsel glitter, the fuss and bother, the crass commercialism of yet another modern Christmas. Win, while I held forth eking these lines, kept right on with her work. This consisted of kneading and balling a flour-powdered mass of dough.

Now she rolled the dough flat, and, reaching lor a cutter, began to trim the fiheet into little circles. "Cookies?" I asked; and Win said, "No, mince tarts." "Kind of early for those," I Suggested. My dear one looked up from Creasing a compartmented pan. "Do you realize." she asked, with more patience than a kibitzing husband deserves, "that Christmas is only about two weeks away?" 1 hadn't, but a check of the calendar thumb-tacked behind a cupboard door made the fiiet uncomfortable plain. Even so, I still didn't feel in the least Christmasy.

Some states of mind you can force, but not that one. You feel it or you don't and there's no middle ground. By this time Win had lined the compartments with dough, filled them with mincemeat, end crimped the double row of tops in place. She brushed past me where I lounged nibbling a pilfered scrap, took a fork from the cutlery drawer, and with a dainty touch, began to print a row of squirrel-tracks on each tart. It was a casual minor operation and one I had watched many times before.

But all of a sudden, the seasonal preparations took on extreme importance. Before the oven swallowed the pan. I was into jacket and rubber boots and off to search our wild acre for a likely Christmas tree. I hadn't been down that way for too long a time. The rain, a nuisance elsewhere, was a familiar and friendly part of the soft grey December afternoon.

From somewhere down the line, a cock pheasant cut loose, with a noisy crowing. Our dog Lancer put up a quail covey where the trail forks; the birds were plump and not much alarmed they buzzed lip from cover like brown projectiles, hut landed only yards distant. We followed them in through the sopping tangle of Pacific willow and leafless ocean spray and came on an unsuspected little Christmas tree. It was too small by far; so efter time out to check on the snowberry crop, we pushed on toward a maple clump that still carries the floor of a tree-bouse abandoned by its young builders when they ran out of nails and enthusiasm. Our Christmas tree, that year had for once pleased all four of us.

It had come from just beyond the maples. I blundered into the pit which is the sole remaining trace of the underground fort that succeeded the tree-house end blinked up from hands end knees at a promising evergreen. We'd axed that Christmas tree of years ago high on its trunk so it would fit the space between stand and living room ceiling. As sometimes happens, a bough below the cut had bent up to form a well-shaped new top! I went to tell Win about my find but a wife with mince pies in her oven and shortbread cookies soon to follow has scant time for idle chatter. She paused just long enough to let me inform her that Christmas has much to command it in spite of all, then sent me off, whistling "Good King Wenceslas" through a mince tart, with the cards I'd forgotten to mail that morning.

ACUTE CASES EXEMPT Health Board Issue High On Black List B.C.s new Health Minister Wesley Black today said he will delve in the suspended state of the Greater Victoria Health Board "as soon as I possibly can." A formal break-up of the i egularly-constituted board, which supervises a loose pooling of public health staffs here, was due this month but the city. Oak Bay and Esquimalt apparently have agreed to continue on a month to month basis at the urging of the provincial health department. The department indicated that a new cost-sharing formula, the chief bone of contention among the components, could be worked out after a replacement was announced for retiring health minister Eric Martin. Mr. Black, who got the job Monday night, today said there are 1,001 things for me to catch up on and I just can't do them all at once.

"But I will try to get around to this (Metro Health Board) as soon as I possibly can. Most School Building Halted by Cabinet Dominion Theatre Being Torn Down The provincial government has halted all school construc tion in the province except in areas where overcrowding is already acute. The almost total ban on school building means the department of education will not approve construction of Newton elementary and Christie Point elementary schools. Greater Victoria school board ras warned that failure to have these schools ready by this fall will mean a shift system of 'lasses in the areas they were intended to serve. The cutback also means that 1 3feVf in IL 1 is VALUABLE find during wrecking of old Dominion Theatre was pair of leaded tiffany glass windows.

Covered by panels for years they belonged to the Victorian Gothic era. Mrs. Norma Pend-ray Wilson has acquired them for use in a new home on Portage Inlet. She was busy today trying to remove them without damage. (Times Photo) property reverted to the family.

Many famous bands played the stage of the Dominion during the 20s and 30s," said Martin Cave, one of the theatre's former managers, now with the Royal. "It was a really fine theatre one of the most solid buildings in the city and at rre time it was crowded almost every night." COMPETITION Due to competition from TV, the Dominion closed its doors to ihe public in 1961 and has been idle ever since. But it has not been uninhabited. A large number of bats have taken up residence between the ceiling and the roof. Ask The Times Q.

Will the men who paddied down the Fraser in a centennial race this year repeat the venture in 1967? H.K. A. The provincial centennial office reports the same team of six paddlers and two spares will paddle and portage from Northern B.C. to Quebec between May and September, 1967. An error crept into Tuesday's reply to the question asking what grants are made by the rity to trade and industry.

Although the total of $64,725 was correct, the breakdown was not. It should have read Victoria Visitors' Bureau $50,075, V.I. Publicity Bureau $7,150, Chamber of Commerce $2,500 and Spring flower Festival $5,000. Anyone wishing qneMhm aiwwred It incited In irnd the pmhh'ni ilnnf the Tim. ti the 1'imeV Kditor.

tiifftttitns ami will be pulilihed dally. All qofttlon should deal with fart and be of general interest. The Tli.ies dnea nut undertake to anli- ronnrnlrvinn or legal prolilmea. Nor will It attempt to put a value an oht Mtins. Kamps or antlquen.

Ibes ah Mild He taunted la a dealer. FORMJ2R VICTORIA HIGH school student, Ordinary seaman, Ronald Boughton, has been named best all round student of the new entry division at Canadian Forces Base, Cornwallis, N.S. The 17-year-old, whose parents Mr. and Mrs. Ben Boughton live at 1045 Vista Heights, joined the navy last summer.

New Bonding For Salesmen In New Year New bonding requirements for realtors, car dealers, private detectives and collection agents will begin Jan. 1. A cabinet order Tuesday proclaimed several sections of the two-year-old Security Bond ing Act to be effective on that date, supplanting requirements scattered through a number of statutes. The securities must be posted with the provincial superinten- ient of insurance as guarantees against dishonest or illegal practices by licence holders or thei- employees. Real estate licence holders must post a $5,000 bond for himself and one employee; $10,000 if there are two to 10 employees; $20,000 for 11 to 20 employees; $.10,000 for 21 to 30; $40,000 for 31 to 40; and $50,000 for 41 or more.

Vehicle dealers must post $5,000 security and licensed collection agents at least $2,500 or more depending on the gross volume of their collections. Licensed private detectives must post a $2,500 bond plus $500 security for each of their employees up to a maximum of $10,500. Band To Play At Prison Christmas is coming a bit early to William Head Institution this year. Tonight, members of the Mount Douclas Senior Second ary School band and their band- master, John Bool, are payin; their own way and hiring a bus to play a special concert of Christmas carols for inmates at the institution. The concert begins at 8 p.m One of Victoria's earliest movie theatres the Dominion on Yates Street is being torn down to make way for a parking lot.

The roof has gone, the seats and fixtures are being taken out and, by the end of January, there will be no trace left of a building which has graced the 800 block since 1912. Last to go will be the massive brick walls, ranging in thickness from two to four Jeet. Up for sale are the theatre's 831 steel seats, its doors, windows, toilet fixtures and lights. The property was acquired recently by the Park and Lot Parking System, operated by Jack Robbins, Paul Arsens and Emerson Calwell. It will be replaced by a ground-level asphalt parking lot with 50-cent meters to be opened to the public next March.

SILENT MOVIES The Dominion Theatre was built in the early days of the silent movies and was specially designed for the purpose. It replaced Victoria's first steam laundry, founded and operated by the late Harry Bickerdike. Until recently the theatre was owned by members of the Bickerdike family, but for a number of years it was leased to Famous Players Ltd. When the lease exoired in 1955, the Thieves Grab Movie Camera Thieves broke into the 841 Victoria Ave. home of Victor Hemming early Tuesday night and stole a Zeiss Ikon movie camera, and 8-mm movie pro jector, four bottles of liquor and four Centennial silver dollars.

Value of the goods is estimated at $280. Mr. Hemming is covered by insurance. It is the second time his home has been robbed, he said. PAYS lNTIL KETH0vn'5 BIRTHDAY' THIS Announcement VOIP WHERE PY LAW 3 UN-SHIPLIKE, but useful, is this bulky piece of equipment aboard the oceanographic research vessel Onar.

The 60-foot University of Washington-owned vessel put into Victoria today en route to Nitinat Lake on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the jumbo-type apparatus is used to lower and raise water-testing devices to the ocean depths. Dr. Michael Healy (right) displays one of the temperature guages, while Fred Palmer (left) and David Robare look on. All being well, the Onar will enter the trickv passage into the lake Thursday, returning to Seattle early next week. It is the second such research program carried out at the unusual lake, which has a top layer of fresh water and a lower layer of stagnant salt water.

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