The photos found in this blog post are the property of Huronia Museum, Midland, Ontario. Any reproduction for commercial use without permission is prohibited.  Any other distribution must credit Huronia Museum.  Please contact the museum with any questions you may have. 

Again we have no original negatives for this week and we will make do with copy and paste. 

More than 1,000 persons Wednesday saw the ”new look” in mental care during open house at Ontario Hospital, Penetang. Dr. C. K. McKnight surveys a stack of iron bars removed recently from the windows of the main building and cottages at Ontario Hospital, part of the new concept in treatment of mental illness.

 SEEKS FIFTY YEAR-OLD-SON – DAD POSTS $100 REWARD 

Free Press headline of May 3^rd, 1961.
Eli Contois of R.R. 3, Penetang, yesterday offered a $100 reward for information about his 50-year-old son, Baptiste Contois of Thunder Beach, who has been missing for nearly two weeks. Mr. Contois, Sr., is offering the reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the whereabouts of Baptiste, dead or alive. Provincial police said this week they hold little hope that Baptiste Contois is alive. They believe he drowned when he tried to make the 10-mile trip from Cognashene Point to Honey Harbour, nearly two weeks ago.

    Word was received this week that Midland has been awarded a special citation for completing I960 without a fatal traffic accident. Midland was one of 17 towns, with population between 5,000 and 10,000 receiving the citation made by the 7th conference of the Canadian Highway Safety Council. Mayor Charles Parker, who is expected to accept the citation later this month, said it was gratifying to know that the work of those interested in safety is paying off in Midland and he expressed the hope that the interest would continue.

    A car stolen in Toronto last week was found almost completely submerged in Six-Mile Lake, north of Port Severn, Thursday. The car was found by the superintendent of Six Mile Lake Provincial Park, who reported it to the OPP detachment at Victoria Harbour. Police learned the vehicle had been stolen in Toronto the previous day. A stone was lodged on the gas pedal and the ignition was in the “on” position. 

    Several hundred Northern Ontario citizens will be feasting shortly on maple syrup originating in the Penetang area, according to Bill Stevens, manager of the Dominion Store at Penetang. Mr. Stevens said he had purchased 156 gallons of syrup from local farmers during the last few days. On Monday his staff packed the syrup and shipped it to Timmins, Kapuskasing, Kirkland Lake and Cochrane. Total weight ran to slightly over one ton, with the delicacy packaged in half-gallon and quart sizes. 

    Rabbits have been pulled out of hats, but few have been found under the hood of a car. This happened in Midland yesterday. Miles Blackhurst told this paper. Sunday, Mr. Blackhurst of Midland discovered his windshield wipers were not operating. Yesterday he took his into Bourgeois Motors to have this, and the oil checked. When Lionel Bourgeois and Jack Colquhoun opened up the hood of the engine, there was a white rabbit staring them in the face. It was perched on the battery. Mr. Blackhurst said, The rabbit, whose fur was grease spattered, apparently had nibbled the rubber hose which provides the vacuum to operate the wipers. 

25 YEARS AGO (1936)
Plans were being made for Midland’s first combined motor and fashion show to be held in the curling rink. * * * Midland’s six-month bread war came to an end when bakers an store managers agreed on an eight-cent loaf. * * * An increase in the relief allowance was refused by Hon. D. A. Croll, Minister of Public Welfare, when a delegation comprised of representatives of council and the Midland Workers Association visited the minister. * * * Midland’s Queens hotel was taken over on a lease from the CPR by Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Kinnie. (The CPR had purchased all the buildings along the south side of the CNR tracks to gain access to their new station in Midland and the Simcoe Elevator. An agreement was eventually reached with the CNR to share the existing track.) * * * Miss Grace McMullen a vice-president of the Midland Hobby Show, was one of the Judges in the literary and oratorical competitions. * * * The plant of the Midland Wood Products was being dismantled and Milton J. Bray and Norman K. Playfair purchased a part of the equipment and planned to operate a small general planing mill and builders’ supply company. (The beginning of the Midland Planing Mill / Buildall) * * * The first ship to enter Midland harbor was the CSL freighter Gleneagles, May 5, with 10,000 tons of coal. * * * A letter to the editor of this newspaper from Joseph Charlebois, of Bowser, Vancouver Island, stated. “I helped to put up the first electric light in Canada and that was in Midland in 1881, the first light showing May 1. The electric light plant came from Scotland for the British Canadian Lumber Company. 

Editorial “Wise and Otherwise”
Producers of a new ultra-violet ray machine, soon to be available in Canada, claim their mechanism will provide an even tan to those who use it.  It seems you stand on a turntable that revolves once a minute in front of a sun lamp. No mention was made in the report as to whether the machine had controls for “rare,” “medium rare,” or “well done.” 

    A man and woman from Northern Ontario, who admitted helping themselves to three and a half bottles of Sacramental wine from the Presbyterian Church in Elmvale, were remanded in custody one week for sentence when they appeared before Magistrate K. A. Cameron in Penetang police court Thursday. 

 

5.2 MILL TAX HIKE IF OMB APPROVES SCHOOL 

County Herald headline of May 3, 1961.
Residential ratepayers who support Penetang Public School will be paying an additional 5.2 mills on their taxes in 1961, according to a budget bylaw passed by council at a special session Monday evening. The bylaw is subject to revision if permission to sell debenture for a new public schools building is refused by provincial authorities. Rate set for public school supporters entitled to benefit of the unconditional grant is 94.7691 mills. This compares with 89.54 mills last year and 89.883 in 1959. Separate school supporters entitled to benefit of the grant will pay on a rate of 92.4552 mills. Their 1960 rate was 86.92 and was 89.276 in 1959. As recent as yesterday no word had been received from the Ontario Municipal Board approving the debenture issue, for the proposed new public school. It Is understood the board’s levy will be considerably higher if the debenture issue is not approved. 

    Suspension of Wednesday afternoon closing of Midland retail stores during July and August is to be considered. This was decided by the merchants’ committee of the Midland Chamber of Commerce at a meeting Tuesday night, following a special meeting of the chamber’s general membership. The committee decided to have prepared a petition which would be circulated to the retail merchants, requesting their views on the suspension of the half-day Wednesday closing during July and August. 

    Poor aim. Would-be thieves failed in an attempt early Thursday morning, to make off with small appliances displayed in a show window of Webster’s on Robert Street, Penetang. According to Ted Light, who is employed in the store and lives in an apartment above, the incident took place at approximately 12.30 am. He heard a thud on the glass, followed by a second thud. By the time he had contacted police a third bang on the window was accompanied by the sound of broken glass. Ted said the police arrived on the scene quickly, but he believes the culprits had seen the police signal light glowing at the main comer. This light is used to inform police they have a phone call waiting. He said there were two men and they disappeared into a driveway beside the store, a few minutes before the cruiser arrived. The hole broken in the window was too high for anyone to reach in to pick anything up. 

   Twenty six scholarships and two special prizes were awarded to top contestants in Midland Music Festival, at the 15^th annual festival concert in Midland – Penetanguishene District High School last Friday night. Winners of the two special awards, hymn books donated by the music teachers’ association and presented by R. C. Ireland, were Louise Parker and Anne Webster. 

      Only a small docket awaited Magistrate K. A. Cameron when he held court in the Canadian Legion Hall at Waubaushene for the first time, Wednesday morning. The extra court is designed to shorten regular courts in Midland and Penetang by taking care of the large volume of OPP traffic cases which usually occur during the summer months. Other OPP cases besides traffic will also be tried at the Waubaushene court, however, Magistrate Cameron said. Traffic cases, almost exclusively formed the docket at the first court in Waubaushene. 

   COLDWATER — While workmen were excavating behind Coldwater Municipal Telephone building on Main Street Wednesday afternoon, a 35 foot by 12 foot section of brick wall on the adjoining Coldwater IGA store (now Coldwater Home Hardware) collapsed into the excavation. Fortunately the contractor for the excavation work, Andrew Evans of Victoria Harbour, had detected earth crumbling at the base of building’s foundation and had ordered two workmen from the 40 by 22 foot section excavated to a six-foot depth. The men who escaped being buried under bricks and mortar were the 34 – year – old pastor of Midland Pentecostal Church, William Stephens of Wyebridge and Gerald Dwinell,  40, of Fesserton.    

  Construction of a $400,000 camp for the blind started recently on Lake Joseph in the Muskoka district. The camp, which will open early this summer, is being built for the Ontario division of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. First of its kind in Canada, the summer centre is slated to be a pilot project for other provinces.

The photos found in this blog post are the property of Huronia Museum, Midland, Ontario. Any reproduction for commercial use without permission is prohibited.  Any other distribution must credit Huronia Museum.  Please contact the museum with any questions you may have.  

Again we have no original negatives for this week and we will make do with copy and paste.

Bernie being Bernie Willette.

On these lads will rest much of the success of Midland – Penetang District High School Cadet Corps’ annual inspection, May 3. The corps’ senior officers, include, left to right, front row — Cadet Major R. Gauthier, 2-I/C; Cadet Lieut. Col. Don Belfry; Cadet Adjt Marvin Moreau; back row — Cadet Major Paul Bellehumeur; Cadet Major Gordon Waples; Cadet Major Tom Kearns; and Cadet Major Peter Gignac. 

BUSINESS FIRMS VICTIMS OF ROBBERY ATTACKS

The April 26^th, 1961 Free Press headline.
Two local businesses, one in Midland and the other in Penetang, were the victims of robbery, and police are still investigating the incidents. Theft from the Midland Photographic Supplies occurred early Monday morning and an armed bandit is reported to have held up the IGA Supermarket in Penetang, Friday evening. J. J. Robillard’s IGA Super- market, the scene of several robberies in recent months saw a change of pace Friday night when an armed bandit held up the proprietor and one of his staff and made off with a bag of change, containing an undisclosed amount of money. The incident occurred as Mr. Robillard and Henry Dorion were preparing to close the store following close off Friday night’s business. According to police, a man appeared pointing a nickel-plated revolver and demanded the money from the safe. He had first taken the precaution to make the phone useless by tearing out the wire, police said. After being handed the bag he forced the pair to the rear of the store and left in a car parked outside with a waiting driver at the wheel, Mr. Robillard stated. Mr. Robillard gave chase in his own car while his assistant went to a nearby garage to phone police.

BOARD SEEKS $251,096 FROM 7 MUNICIPALITIES 

County Herald headline of April 28, 1961.
T. M. McCullough, chairman of the Midland-Penetang District High School Board, revealed yesterday that the seven municipalities which support the high school will be called on to pay a total of $251,096.92 of the school’s total 1961 budget of $534,712.30. Last year, the seven municipalities were requested to raise $210,795.13 in taxes for secondary school purposes. This year’s figure represents an increase of $40,301 over the 1960 MPDHS tax levy.

     “There is an unbelievably high standard of work here. The talent is here and is being developed in the right way.” These were the comments of Boris Berlin during adjudicating of the piano classes at the Midland Music Festival, at the YMCA this week. The fifteenth festival of its kind held in Midland, there are, this year, staggering programs of piano, vocal, and instrumental numbers, which require the use of the upstairs dining room at the same time as there are classes heard in the auditorium. This sometimes involves a scurry of a competitor from a piano section upstairs to the downstairs where perhaps his school class is entered in the chorus work. All in all, this system has hit no serious snag, although the Tuesday morning upstairs vocal groups were off schedule by well over an hour and singing competitions went on right through the noon hour. 

    At a meeting, at Bourgeois Lakeshore dining room, Thursday, the Midland Junior Chamber of Commerce decided to hold their annual fireworks display May 22. The meeting elected it officers for the coming year. They are: Mile Blackhurst, past president; John Bourgeois, president; Art Ambeau, first vice-president; Bob Bates, second vice-president; Gerry Lalonde, secretary; Jim Osborne, treasurer. Directors elected were Ken Mackie, John Nicholson, Ward Barrie, Ron Parker, Jim Wright and Ross Willette. 

    Home Economics students at Midland – Penetang District High School are holding a fashion show in the school’s gymnasium tonight (Wednesday) at 8 p.m. Clothes that have been made by the students will be modelled and tea and cookies made by the pupils will be served. The event, entitled “Evening in Paris,” is sponsored by the school’s Home Economics Club • whose president and secretary are Sharon McElroy and Robin Benson, respectively. Mrs. G. Yearsley will be the staff member in charge.   

Ten Years Ago
Midland council set its tax rate for public school supporters at 59 mills which was an increase of 9.5 mills more than the previous year. * * * Eighteen members of the Midland Shrine Club, including Wm. Orr and W. H. Keller attended the Kawartha Shrine Club bonspiel in Peterborough. * * * Midland’s lone representative in professional baseball ranks, Jack Beauchamp, was making a strong bid for a place on the pitching staff of the Lenoir, N.C. Giants. * * * Possibility of more employment for Victoria Harbour residents was announced by Lachlan McKellar, manager of Custom Canners. The firm had acquired land adjacent to their existing building and were planning an addition. * * * Matchedash Township council was informed by its clerk, Miss Doris Porch, that no applications had been received for the assessor’s position. * * * A three-act comedy, “Here Comes the Prince” was presented by St. Mark’s AYPA on three successive evenings and the players were directed by Miss Grace McMullen. * * * Midland council gave third reading to a bylaw authorizing the sale of the Yonge Street W. property to the Department of National Defence, as the proposed site for the armories. Sale price of the land was $5,324. * * * Bell telephone representative Harry J. Smith told Penetang High School students that the number of long distance telephone calls handled by the company had risen from 67,000 to more than 240,000 per day during the previous 10 years. 

    Blood donors are urgently needed — 137 of them. This was the word from Frank Spence, yesterday, when he noted that 113 of the required 250 blood donor volunteers had registered by Tuesday morning. Mr. Spence is heading the Midland Lions Club appeal for donors for the Red Cross Blood Donor Clinic to be held in the Midland Municipal building Thursday April 27. 

    Penetang children are playing ball in Midland because the town’s only diamond in Lion’s Park is in very poor condition. This statement was made at Monday night’s meeting of Penetang council by Fred Scott. Mr. Scott told council that three towns had refused to bring teams to play in Penetang because of the conditions. “We have tried to fix it up with some volunteer help but we can’t do the entire job without some official assistance.” He said. 

Wyevale News
WYEVALE — Mr. and Mrs. Jack Stott and family of St. Catharines spent the weekend at Victor Stott’s. Mrs. Petch, Emma and Mary of Barrie visited the E. Nerpins this week. Miss Marilyn Withall is taking a Canadian Nursing Assistants Course at Toronto. Mr. and Mrs. Morley Marshall and baby of Barrie spent the weekend at George Marshall’s. Mrs. L. Roebuck is spending some time with relatives in Toronto. Sid McDermot of Winnipeg visited Mr. and Mrs. Howard Grier. 

    Excerpts from the annual hospital report; Four sets of twins were born in St. Andrews Hospital during February and March, according to a report presented by Mrs. Jean Sutton, superintendent of nursing. Three pairs of twins were among the 31 babies born at St Andrews in March, and the 38 births in February included one set. Total number of patient days in February, the report showed, was 2,801, or an average of 100 daily. Patient days in March averaged out to 98 on a 3,052 total. Number of outpatients was 58 in February and 55 in March. A total of 173 operations were performed in March, an increase of 24 over the previous month. The number of anesthetics administered varied accordingly, 158 in March and 130 in February. February saw the most plaster of Paris casts applied, 25, to 23 in March, but the latter month led in X-rays, 377 to 324.  

    Kriss Watson, six-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Budd Watson, Yonge Street West, Midland, was taken to St. Andrew’s Hospital yesterday afternoon suffering from bruises and internal injuries received in an accident, Midland police said. The boy “darted out” in front of a car driven by Mrs. Leah Fitzgerald, Hanna Street, Midland, at Sixth and Yonge Streets at 1.15 p.m.

 A look back 80 years, the Free Press front page from the last week of April 1941, the war years.

 

The photos found in this blog post are the property of Huronia Museum, Midland, Ontario. Any reproduction for commercial use without permission is prohibited.  Any other distribution must credit Huronia Museum.  Please contact the museum with any questions you may have.  

When former Huronia Museum curator Jamie Hunter acquired the Midland Free Press negative collection containing over 75,000 images, he thought we had them all, but as we process and identify them it has become obvious that we only have about half of the photos actually used in the paper each week. Many were submitted by rural correspondents such as Cyril Martin from Coldwater who would have kept his originals. The photos taken from the Penetang office have been lost except for a few hundred. Many photos were submitted by citizens who were on site when events occurred. The negatives from this week in 1961 have also disappeared; there is not one original photo in the collection this week so we have gone to the “copy and paste” option. 

 NEW BYLAW LIMITS HOURS FOR GAS OUTLETS 

Free Press Herald headline from April 19, 1961.
Midland council at a special meeting Monday night gave third reading and approval to a bylaw regulating the hours of retail gasoline outlets in Midland. Reeve Percy Crawford and Alderman Albert Atkinson  were opposed to the bylaw. Alderman Oliver Lesperance with Mr. Crawford and Mr. Atkinson opposed the third reading of the bylaw. Alderman Wm. Thompson, Walter Woods and Deputy-reeve Grigg were in favor. Mayor Charles Parker cast the deciding vote in favor of the third reading. L. Bosley of Bosley’s Service Station objected to Taylor’s Service station being exempt from the bylaw and said there was discrimination against him (Bosley). The reeve agreed with Mr. Bosley. Reeve Crawford said he was opposed because council would be responsible if a court case arose from the decision. “I hope it doesn’t cause a lawsuit but it probably will,” added Mr. Bosley. The bylaw provides that service stations, Mondays to Fridays, will close at 7 p.m. and open at 7 a.m. the following  morning and on Saturday they will close at 7 p.m. and remain closed until 7 a.m. Monday. Two duty service stations will be permitted to remain open every weekend. [Bosley’s was at the corner of Fifth and Vindin, he operated a service station, drive in restaurant and coin operated car wash.) 

MIDLAND INDUSTRY LANDS BIG AIR UNIT CONTRACT 

County Herald headline of April 21, 1961
A substantial order for air circulation units of a design and type never before made in Canada has been awarded to Canadian Name Plate Company, Midland, President Gordon Moss told this newspaper earlier this week. Mr. Moss said the Midland firm is at present tooling up for the work. He said production will commence early in May and will continue indefinitely. The Name Plate president said the contract will mean at least 30 new employees will  be employed by the company as production of the units proceeds. He expected the plant would be in full production on the units by mid-summer. He explained that another Midland industry, Midland Industries Limited, also will benefit from the new product. MIL will supply three plastic parts used in the circulation units’ assembly. It is the only major supplier of parts. Mr. Moss said the largest component piece In the assembly is an extruded aluminum shape which will be made from raw aluminum billets on new equipment recently installed in the Name Plate plant. 

    A Penetang girl, Miss Claudia Stewart, has been named superintendent of nurses for the new Ontario Hospital School at Cedar Springs. She is the daughter of Mrs. Jack Stewart and the late Jack Stewart. Claudia is a graduate of the Ontario Hospital School at Orillia. She also completed’ postgraduate courses at University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario. She has had experience in both general and psychiatric nursing in Toronto, London, Orillia and Penetang. Prior to assuming her new duties, she was on the staff at the Ontario Hospital School, Orillia. 

    Midland Police Chief George Wainman said yesterday that, in the last six weeks, 19 bicycles had been reported stolen. All but three have been recovered, the chief noted, added that the majority of those stolen did not have licence plates. “It would be a great help to the police and a protection to the owners if they had bought the licence plates.” Commented the chief, noting that the licences cost only $I. 

    A Midland-owned beagle, Heidi by name, may have set some kind of record when she gave birth to no less than 14 live puppies recently. Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Truax, Russell Street, Heidi had 12 of her litter by natural birth and two others arrived only after a Caesarian operation. On Wednesday, 11 of the puppies were still living, and doing well. Heidi, who only weighs around 20 pounds soaking wet, was doing well too. She’s a purebred beagle, one of the smaller type of hounds. Average litter for this breed of dog is around five to seven pups, and the known registered record, as far as we have been able to find out is 12,” Mr. Truax told this paper. The big litter has meant extra work for the Truaxs’ who are helping Heidi with her feeding problems by means of a prepared formula which is fed to the pups via a bottle every six hours. 

     Members of Midland Curling Club, at their annual meeting Wednesday night, instructed the club’s directors to pursue further, and determine the advisability of the installation of a separate ice-making plant for the curling rink. The decision was taken after members  heard the arena board plans to increase the rate it charges the curling club for ice-making services. There were 78 members present at the meeting. 

    Captains and engineers of Great Lakes ships in the Midland area recently tendered a dinner to Allan Dane and Roy Wilson of the government wireless station and John Smith, government steamship inspector. The meeting heard that all three men will be leaving Midland at the end of the month when the wireless station and the steamship inspection office will be closed. Chairman of the dinner, held at the Georgian Hotel, was George Burns superintendent of Canadian Pacific Steamships at Port McNicoll. Percy Eagles of Great Lakes Boat and Machine Co. Ltd., paid tribute to Mr. Smith and expressed regret that the inspector was leaving Midland. Mayor Charles Parker said Midland was disappointed about losing the wireless station and the steamship inspection office and it was hoped they might return to Midland. 

Hi-Sterics by BONNIE ROURKE
The interhouse drama is coming to a close as houses Alpha and Delta begin rehearsing their plays. House Delta is presenting a Hillbilly play directed by Mr. Thompson. Play is about a man with three teen-age children who wants to marry a widow with two children. But “Paw” doesn’t think Daisy will want to marry him with such a brood, so he dresses them in short pants and ribbons. The play is hilarious and well played by: Jim McKean, Wendy Feltham, Leila Bower, Robbie Morrison, Nancy Jones, Ede Saelzer, Bill Young, Chris Brinkman and Roger Jackson. House Alpha is rehearsing “This Way to Heaven”, directed Mrs. Mckean. The play is a comedy fantasy about a man who is moving into the room of an elderly lady. The man is a ‘being’ from heaven who has to kill Gram before he can get his wings. He wants to kill her because she is an excellent cook and she is needed in heaven. Alpha is well supported by Richard Wright, Thelma Penhale, Jacques Beauchamp and Bonnie Rourke. 

    Fifty years ago today, April 19, 1911, was the date on which final signatures were placed on a charter of incorporation for Penetanguishene General Hospital. To mark the anniversary, members of the Ladies Auxiliary are holding a tea at the hospital, and the entire building will be open to visitors. W. J. Hanna was provincial secretary when the charter was granted in 1911 to the hospital, which opened in a home originally built for H. H. Thompson and later sold to Wm. Firstbrook. It was sold to the town to be used as a hospital in 1910. Some say the selling price was $4,000, while others maintain its was turned over for a nominal $1 payment. Originally, Penetanguishene General Hospital operated with a nursing school, provision for which was set out in the charter. The last class graduated in 1929. From the beginning to the present date (1961), the hospital has had a total of 21 superintendents. An historical booklet being produced for the anniversary indicates that official records are missing for a considerable portion of the first years of operation. An interesting bit of information contained in it shows that in 1928 ward rate was $1.75 per day, with $2.50 for semi-private and $3 for private ward. Sometime during the late 30’s or early 40’s, the financial situation of the institution became extremely precarious. It was In 1942 that the board finally moved to bring in a religious order to carry on the work. So the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception took over the operation of the hospital. In the booklet, one of the original Sisters to arrive, and still on the staff, writes of some of the difficulties encountered during their first years. She tells of cutting cotton from a bolt, hemming it, and rushing back to make up a bed. There were many gifts of food to the institution, and the sisters spent long hours preserving fruits and vegetables for use during the long winter. One nurse comprised the night duty staff, and she often had to check on the furnace and occasionally shovel in the odd lot of coal to keep the place warm. The laboratory consisted of a microscope and a few fluids to do blood counts. 

Big news from the gossip column, Did You Hear …
Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Sweeting, Tom and Tim motored to St. Catharines for the weekend to visit Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Sweeting. 

25 Years Ago – 1936
Midland tax rate was set at 45 mills the same as the previous year. * * * Amalgamation of Midland’s municipal offices, public utility commission, and education and parks boards was put into effect with R. S. King appointed comptroller. * * * A chorus of Midland High School students, directed by Douglas Major, with representatives of 14 other schools presented a special choir of voices at Massey Hall, Toronto, in connection with the Ontario Educational Association convention. * * * The Canadian Corps’ capture of Vimy Ridge was celebrated by Midland’s branch 80 of the Canadian Legion at a dinner in the Queen s Hotel. * * *  The pickerel run had started in the Black and North Rivers according to Dr. W B Leatherdale, secretary-treasurer of the Gloucester Pool Cottagers’ Association. * * * A L Fitzgerald was elected president of the Penetang Baseball Club at its annual meeting. * * * H. H. McGill was appointed Midland’s municipal park superintendent and clearing of the park ground for another season was started. * * * Supplementary estimates tabled in the federal government intruded $16,000 for dredging and $9,000 for a wharf at Honey Harbour and $21,200 for a wharf at Penetang. * * * Capt. Cecil Clark of Midland was appointed shore captain of the Paterson Steamship Lines at Montreal. * * * A violin made by James Albert Benson of Sixth Street Midland won high praise from a number of Toronto violinists and was shown at the Midland Hobby Show.    

     The Midland 4H Strawberry Club held its organizational  meeting at Evergreen School House recently. New officers elected were, president, Sharon Benson: vice- president, Ronalda Belanger; secretary-treasurer, Donald Foster. The convener of the social committee is Ailene Wilcox, and of the fall fair executive, Wayne McMann. Two new members were welcomed at this meeting and on March 30 three more new members joined the club. Achievement day this year will be held July 4 when exhibits from each member will be judged; a test on this year’s work will be given; and individual members will have a chance to judge sample boxes of berries. The club has been trying out several new types of berries. One of these, Redcoats, put out by the government two years ago, appears very promising. It produces a large, firm, bright-colored berry with prolific runner-growth, and is also a good jam berry with a high yield per acre. Other varieties are being tried.