Abbotsford Sumas and Matsqui News

Nineteenth Year, No. 18

Abbotsford, B.C., Wednesday, April 30, 1941

$1.20 Per Year

$19,900 In
Certificates
Sold In M-S-A
During March

Response of M-S-A
Exceeds Committee’s
Best Expectations

There is jubilation among the
hundred volunteer workers’ com-
prising the M-S-A Area War Sav-
ings Committee. Their's is a“dura-
tion” job and enthusiasm received
a let down after the February-
March campaign while right-of-
way was given other patriotic fund

€yres to be Here
Friday to Enlist
Men for RCAF Guard

PREFERENCE OFFERED
TO PX-SERVICE MEN

M-S-A men eligible for the Sec-
urity Guard being recruited by the
RCAF will be interviewed in Ab-
botsford on Friday, May 2, by FO
L. H. Eyres, M.L.A., according to
a letter received by M-S-A Branch
of the Canadian Legion yesterday.
This letter gives the following de-
tails and men interested should
communicate with the Legion In
Abbotsford at once or be on hand
‘Friday:

“The RCAF is enlisting men be-
tween the ages of 32 to 48 forser-
vice as Security Guard duties in
different parts of Canada. We want
to take ex-service men as far as
ible if they can qualify. They.

efforts. the

committee headed by A. S. Towell,

was tremendously cheered today

svhen official word was received

from Ottawa revealing that the

value of War Savings certificates
d Ls A

b-

must not be over 48 years of age,
in good health, of British parent-
age, must be able to supply proof
of birth date, proof of education,
two letters of recommendation,
marriage certificate if applicable,

botsford men, women and children

during March totalled $19,916.

Original monthly quota of $2000
worth of Savings Certificates was
exceeded in both January

invested
in the

in

way until the end of, the month
so it was expected that the results
of the house-to-house canvass made

by volunteer workers representa-

tive of every district in the Area
would not show unti! March.
“Gratified is -hardly a big enough
word,” Mr. Towell remarked when
he asked, as General
and Campaign Manager for the
M-S-A Area, if that is how he feels
as a result of the response of the

citizens in March to the arduous

work put in by himself, committee

chairmen and volunteer workers.

He added that
incentive to all

it would provide

tial form of savings.

More Than 450
Telephones In
m-S-A District

TOTAL CONNECTED
VIA ABBOTSFORD
SETS NEW RECORD

“M-S-A Telephone Directory” as
published in card form by THE NEWS
is available this week. Popular de-
mand for the convenient card list-
ing all local telephone subscribers
has resulted in its being publish-
ed after a two-year lapse. Through
the co-operation of seyeral firms
which have contributed to the cost
of production through advertising
on the card, it has been enlarged
to include not only the telephone
numbers of Matsqui, Sumas and
Abbotsford ‘phone subscribers gn
the Abbotsford exchange but also
of about 50 Matsqui residents who
connected with the smaller
Aldergrove and Mission exchanges
as well as several Sumas residents
connected with the Chilliwack ex-
change. Telephones connected with
the Abbotsford exchange set anew
high figure this spring, exceeding
for the first time the 400 mark.
With those M-S-A residents served
through other exchanges, the to-
in the

are

tal number of t hi

and
February when
M-S-A citizens
$3,292

first
month and $4152
February.
Total purchases
for the first 3
months of 1941
therefore ex-
ceed $27,000.
The “February”
Campaign did
not get under-

Chairman

workers to carry
on, as requested by Ottawa, and
continue to emphasize this essen-

birth certificates of children of
dependent age, and discharge cer-
tificate. I will be in Abbotsford
Friday, May 2, when I will be
pleased to interview any men that
you think would care to serve if
they can qualify.”

Matsqui Tax
Rate Almost
Same As "40

CHANGE IN GENERAL
ESTIMATES AS RELIEF
WORK ELIMINATED

As set at a special meetingof the
municipal council held at Mount
Lehman on Thursday, the tax levy
in Matsqui for 1941 is practically
the same as that in effect last
year, according to Reeve James
Simpson. Actually the mill rate is
lower in two respects but a small
increase has been made in the per-
centage of improvements taxable
this year.

The council found it has to
raise approximately equal amounts
for general purposes and for
schools. To raise about $30,000 for
general purposes it set the 1941
levy on the following basis: 30
mills on the assessed value of wild
land, 17 mills on improved land
and 17 mills on 22 per cent of the
assessed value of improvements.
This compares with 30 mills on
wild land, 19 mills on improved
land and 19 milis on 17 per cent
of improvements last year. The
school mill rate for 1941 is the
same as last year: 20 mills on wild
land, 17 mills on improved land
and 17 mills on 22 per cent of
improvements.

Due to the elimination by goy-
ernmental order of relief for able
bodied persons, a larger sum was
required this year for general pur-
poses as public works will largely
have to be done by municipal work-
men instead of relief crews. Con-
sequently the estimate for “gen-
eral” is about $23,500 this year
while the estimate for municipal
share of relief at approximately
$3500 is about half that required
last year.

FINES IMPOSED
UNDER FOREIGN
EXCHANGE RULE

W. E. Schnare pleaded guilty
before Magistrate George F. Pratt
in Abbotsford Police Court on
Monday to three charges laid by

Area now exceeds 450.
The new
secured at THE NEWS office.

Women's Auxiliaries of Toronto
Y.M.C.A.’s have entertained 10,501
men of the armed forces at Sun-
day afternoon teas since the war

began.

‘phone cards can be

Abb d detachment of the R.
CM.P. under Foreign Exchange
Control regulations.

He was fined $20 and costs on
a charge of illegal purchase of
$12.80 in U.S. currency from D.
H. Warkentin Huntingdon road,
R.R. 1, Abbotsford, and was grant-
ed suspended sentence on charges
of unlawfully exporting $15 in
foreign currency and for failure,

Coming Events

—As Advertised in The News—

when joned by a Customs
officers, to declare possession of
foreign currency. On the second
charge, Mr, Schnare admitted
sending the money togaid a sister

Thursday, Friday and Saturday,

Abbotsford Theatre, “Nice Girl

Tuesday & Wednesday, Abbots-

ford Theatre. “A Man Betrayed”
Friday, May 9, Central

Fraser
Valley Tennis Club and Matsqui
Hall Ass'n Dance at Matsqui Hall.

residing in the U.S.A. It was
pointed out that he should have
obtained, a government permit
through the bank before sending
the money out of the country.
Warkentin was fined $5 and
costs on a charge of unlawfully
selling U. S. currency,

Friday, May 16—M-S-A Pioneers'| Inspector Graham of the For-
eign Exchange Control Board at
Vancouver attended the trial.

Reunion and Dance,
Road Hall,

Whatcom

ONE POINT LANDING MADE BY GERMAN BOMBER

Improvement
Program Will
Be Continued

STREET SURFACING AND
WATER MAINS, PARKING
IMPROVEMENTS PLANNED

Despite the heavy investment
made during the past two years
in the waterworks system, Ab-
botsford Board of Commissioners
hopes to continue the program of

street improvement inaugurated
last year, according to Chairman
M. M. Shore.

It is proposed, Mr. Shore states,
to surface Pine street this year
from the Riverside road (Masonic
Hall corner) to the Philip Shef-
field high school. If possible, the
parking facilities in the vicinity of
the high school, in great demand
when public functions are heldin
the schoo] auditorium, will also be
improved.

The old Yale Road from the end

The above picture of a German
bomber shot down in England
was sent to Chas. Hayes, Valley
road, St. Nicholas, by his brother,
Robert Hayes who is with Can-
adians in England. The plane was
brought down by the unit to which
Robert Hayes is attached.

CATATONIC
CHINESE PAY

$4000 SETTLEMENT

FOR AUTO CRASH

A $4000 settlement was an-
nounced to Chief Justice Mor-
rison in Supreme Court, Vancou-
ver, of an action which had been
set down for trial and which a-
rose out of an automobile colli-
sion on December 7, 1939.

J. T. Hunter, Abbotsford farm-
er, will be paid $3850, and Melvin
Fadden of Abbotsford receives
$150 from the settlement. Their
counsel was Henry Castillou
KC.

The defendants were Lee You
and Loule J. Jing, Vancouver,
who were sued as driver and
owner respectively of the auto-
mobile which collided with Hun-
ter’s car.

The accident occured on No.1

of the E: Avenue p:

at Cyril street intersection up the
hill past the Municipal Office and
Fraser Valley Union Library head-
quarters, will be flushcoated. This
is a similar treatment to the im-
provement effected on Hazel street
last year.

Negotiations are also underway
with the Public Works Depart-
ment to complete filling of the
ditch within the town limits on the

(Continued on Page Eight)

3 y near Whatcom road.
Mr, Hunter was a patient in M-
S-A for a i bl
time as a@ result of injuries he
received. Melvin Fadden, was a
passenger in the Hunter car.

John A. MacGregor, recently &p-
pointed manager of the Y.M.C.A.
Hostel at Halifax, resigned as
mayor of Westville, N.S., to join

Y.M.C.A. War Services.

Mrs. D. Dennison,
Mount Lehman
Pioneer, Dies

Resided in Valley
Nearly Fifty Years

of friends
son, Mount

from Bradner,
Lehman,

services held in New
minster on Saturday

for the late Mrs. Mary
Dennison pioneer
Lehman, whose death occurred
Kincardine, Ontario, April 20. I
terment was in the family plot

eral

minster, where the deceased's hu
band, Dennis Dennison, and

daughter, Alice
bearers were five
George, Kenneth, Everette
rael,
Pope.

and a grandnephew,

ster 10 years.
live
Hopkins, about seven years ag
An arden churchworker,

two sisters, Mrs. George F.* Pra
at Kincardine;

and Mrs. Arthur Boyle,
grandchildren,

| DOMINION CHAMPION

Young Gordie Calvert, Abbot
ford’s 100-Ib. boxer,
minion title
urday night

in his class on Sat
in Vancouver.

B.C. Police detachment.

There was a large attendance
Denni-
Abbotsford
and New Westminster at the fun-
West-
afternoon
Frances
resident of Mt.

the I.0.0.F. Cemetery, New West-

are buried. Pall-
grandsons,
and
Lawrence Boyle and Howard. Is-
John

A native of Ontario where she
was born 76 years ago, Mrs. Den-
nison had lived in Mount Lehman
for 38 years and in New Westmin-
She went East to
with a sister, Miss Margaret

both in
Mount Lehman and subsequently
at Kincardine, her death occurred
as she was going to church. She
was an honorary member of the

Ladies’ Aid of Mount Lehman
United Church.
Mrs. Dennison is survived by

of Abbotsford and Miss Hopkins
two daughters, in
Mount Lehman, Mrs. Albert Israel
and 17

won the Do-

Last
year at the Canadian event held
in Cardston, Alberta, Calvert was
nosed out by a bad decision, but
this time won by a clear margin.
Since Const. Jack Watson of the
R.C.M.P. has been absent from
this Area, Gordie has been in the
hands of Const. Ray Ellis of the

Pioneer Was
Secretary of
First Utility

ACTIVE IN FATHERING
FIRST 'PHONE COMPANY

A tribute to the late John A.
Catherwood, pioneer resident of ,
Mission who was also well known
to many residents of the M-S-A
Area, is contained in the current
issue of Telephone Talk, publica-
tion of the B.C. Telephone Co.
Under the caption of, “Pioneer
s-|Mission Telephone Man Passee
a|Away in December,” the article ig
illustrated with a likeness of Mr.
Catherwood and two pictures of
his real estate office which was
the district’s first telephone ex-
change. One picture dated 1909
shows a small one-floor building
and the second shows the same
building in 1912 after it had been
raised to make a second stérey
with a ground storey moved in un-
der it. Further altered, the build-
o.| ing still stands in Mission but the
telephone exchange has long had
its own building further up the
street.

SECRETARY IN 1909

Mr. Catherwood, who was 8&4
when he died, was the first secre-
tary of the Mission City Telephone
Co. Ltd., formed in 1909, and he
carried on in that capacity until
the Mission system became affiliat-
ed with the B.C. Telephone Co.,in
1929. The magazine article goes
on to say:

Mission telephone history dates
back to the year 1907, when a C.
P.R. telegraph operator named
Manley, assisted by a man named
t-| George Hunt, built a grounded line™
between Mission and Hatzic and
gave service to 11 subscribers. The
first office was in Hatzic. The line
was operated by its founders for
a@ year and a half, but the partner-
ship severed when Manley’s em-
ployers transferred him to North
Bend. A group of Mission district
business men organized to teke
over the service, and in Sentember,

in
n-
in

tt

s-

Industrial War Training In Philip Sheffield High
School Gives Skill In Aircraft Production Needs

M-S-A YOUTHS WILL BE
GIVEN POSITIONS IN
BOEING 'PLANE PLANTS

“In view of the seriousness
of the situation that is facing
the British Empire at the -
sent time, and the neef Por
more men skilled in the manu-
facture of airplanes, ships and
munitions, I hereby apply for
the course of instruction in the
skills of metalwork to be given
at the Philip Sheffield High
School Technical Shops.’’ So
read the applications signed by
twenty-four boys of the M-S-A
Area attending Philip Sheffield
High Sehool in ‘Abbotsford.

The shops of the high school
had the appearance of a highly-
geared industrial plant running at
full pitch when THENEWS visited the
school to see in action the boys
who are hard at work learning to
become vital parts of the Empire's
war machine. In the main room
of the shops a blazing forge add-
ed to the already intense heat of
an early summer. The atmosphere
of diligent concentration at the
draught boards and the piercing
ring of sheet metal being pounded
into shape seemed only to further
stimulate the boys and raise them
to a fever pitch of anxiety to reach
the high standards set for them.
PICKED CLASS 1

The youths, picked from all boys
attending the high school, have
entered a new course of study of-
fered them through the co-opera-
tion of the Department of Educa-
tion and the Boeing Aircraft Com-
pany to meet an emergency caus-
ed by the shortage of men skilled
in aircraft production work. Ob-
ject of the course, among lesser
things, is to give the students an
opportunity to obtain proficiency
in reading working drawings, se-
lecting specified material, and lay-
ing out work by approved indus-
trial methods. On reaching the
standards set by the Boeing com-
pany, the boys are guaranteed
positions in this industry, and al-
though the course and the guaran-
tee are limited to he duration of
the war, it gives boys specially
adapted to this work experience in
the most rapidly developing field

_ TRAINING YOUNG WAR WORKERS

1909, the Mission City Telephone
Company. Ltd., made its bow, with
T. H. Northcote as president and
J. A, Catherwood as secretary. The
Aw, selected Mission as
thote end the firet

Miecinn telenhons ewcthonca was p=

owners

haadanartars

naa

NO. TOYS, THESE—Not playthings are these model aircraft
being turned out in technical schools of Canada. Built to scale
in minute detail, with gun emplacements, fuel tanks, etc., mark-
ed they are used to teach student pilots and gunners of ‘the
R.C.A.F. and Empire o identify both allied and enemy planes

at a glance. At the Technical

centre in Abbotsford of the M-

S-A Area, selected students are being trailed in another phase

of the vital aircraft industry,
and production of parts from
of the local youths is described
Bill Hambly of THENEWS staff.

raeding of aircraft blueprints
the working drawings. Progress
in the accompanying article by

Fr Bettas Mabie acer eA
rib ta nein

FIRST TEACHER

Mr. Catherwood was born in Bol-
ton, Ontario, on October 26, 1857.
Educated in Ontario, he taught
schoo] there until he came out to
the west in 1884. In his early days
in the Mission district he taught
school at Dewdney. He was the
first school teacher in the Mission
municipality, teaching in an old
log school near the site of the pre-
sent Canadian Legion auditorium.
For a time he operated a general
store in Hatzic where he was post-
master. He moved to Mission City
(Continued on Page Five)

Tech. Schools
Proposed for
Fraser Valley

ASSOCIATED BOARDS
NAME COMMITTEE TO
STUDY POSSIBILITIES

ALL HAD OPPORTUNITY

When the course was first in-
troduced in the M-S-A Area, all
the boys of the school were given
the opportunity to take the work,
provided they had the ability. Un-
der the supervision of Mr. Martin
Mellado of the school staff, 24
boys are being allowed to study
for completion of the course, Of
the two-score students, four show-
ed particular ability and are now
taking a special course to get
through the work more quickly.
Mr. Mellado states that probably
all four of the boys will be in the
plants of the Boeing company be-
fore the end of the present term;
that the others are showing good
results and will shortly follow the
leaders,

MAKE PLANE PARTS

Reading blueprints is the first
stage of the course and is follow-
ed by drawing plans, then by mak-
ing the pieces, Working drawings
which, to the layman, have the ap-
pearance of magician’s nightmare
seem like a mere object drawing
to the boys who wade through
them and end up with a delicate

of the present day.

are sent to Victoria for examina-
tion by authorities and marked for
standards. The students also learn
about the tempering and hardening

of metal for tools.
ACCURACY REQUIRED

The chief difference in this
scheme for work from the usual
high school technical work is in
the standardization of the projects
and the degree of accuracy re-
quired. Opportunities for design-
ing and planning are not given the
student, since a main factor inthe
work is learning to implicitly fol-
low instructions,

OBTAIN GOOD MARKS

Mr, Mellado, who has five years’
experience as an instructor has
taken every course in its line of-
fered at the Vancouver Technical
School, remarked hat, with the
boys giving their utmost attention
at lectures and at the benches, the
reports from Victoria reveal good
marks in precision work and metal
treatment.

Thus, through the co-operation
of the Department, industry and
of men and boys, the Empire will
receive boys from the M-S-A Area
skilled in work vital to the suc-

piece of airplane. All parts made

cessful prosecution of the war,

The part that young men of the
Fraser Valley may take in the
work of the war industries of the
Lower Mainland is to be studied
at once by a special committee of
Associated Boards of Trade of Fra-
ser Valley and Lower Mainland, it
was decided at a meeting of the
executive held at Mission on Fri-
day.

Each member board will have a
representative on the committee to
ascertain the possibilities for tech-
nical training in valley school
centres.

Another committee will look iyto
the present and anticipated short-
age of housing accomodation.

It is believed that as more and
more men flock to the big indus-
trial plants they will find it im-
possible to get housing near their
work. This may lead many to take
up small plots of land in the low-
er Valley.

Ralph S. MacPherson, New West-

minster, the new president, was
chairman. Delegates from Ab-
botsford and District Board of

Trade were H. S. Andrews, Angus
Campbell, Lang, Sands and L. A.
| Zink.