vOVINCIAL LIBRARY VICTOR?A. E en An Independent Semi-Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interest of C I' ~i and Northern British Columbia L,. 38; No. 59 (Two Sections) Prince George, B.C., MONDAY, July J' '^55 $4.00 per year 5c per copy urvey omplet Hundreds of Prince George householders who think they where their property lines run may be wrong by as much several feet. Thousands of dollars worth of improvements in the form 'fences, walkways, rock gardens and retaining walls may located on property other than that which is owned by the topic who constructed them. long-suspected situation Hi in tangible form today •iniiiry 2-1 report from City , r George P. Harford to niincil. The report, never made public, was ordered to the press late last Survey errors of as much as 17 feef are described in the report. Mayor Harford Bryant instructed Mr. to co-operate with The Citizen in any way he could so that the local survey 'situation would be brought before the public. Mayor Gordon Bryant. "CONFUSION RUNNING RIOT' reports to city On the master plan of the city the street allowance Is 66 feet. But in measuring between north and south boundary posts inserted -by a British Columbia land surveyor, the actual width is only 63 feet. Where the additional three feet has been lost nobody knows. And where it will be regained to make the street the proper width has not yet been decided. Mr. Harford said he may be able to compress the planned widths of sidewalks, boulevards and road to comply with the 63 feet available. If that is not practical the city may use an adjacent numerous il Mr. Harford has describ-survey control in the entire jnce George area as being in deplorable situation", and he added, "confusion" is running ¦typical example of the kind confusion which the city en-cT referred to was investigat- by a, Citizen reporter and a nicipal engineering depart- i surveyor on Friday. ic site was an extension of (I Avenue where it continues from its junction with Laur-[Crescent. *¦ ply works crews are currently nding the street westwards to ui~i end residents better sh to their homes. park area as a "cushion" take three feet there. and SPECIAL SURVEY ESSENTIAL ui the question arises, where located in as-yet-undeveloped the throe feet been lost, and "residential areas may be found to be situated in the middle of sidewalk allowances or out in the streets. In locating such installations its loss moan that adjacent lie property has been inac-laicly located to the extent of feet? Does it mean that illel streets .to the south are feet off their planned loca- \)\c only way to find the an-i to these questions,,accoRd-o Mr. Harford and' others, have ii special survey con-fl mirier the Special Surveys Prince George property owners ncvei' he ,-;u re of their lot jmdarias until this is done. -Confusion in legal surveys here likely to result in the loss of |usaiuls of dollars in wasted materials and planning. '. Harford told The-Citizen very possible that hydrants the city has been forced to use "existing, pins and posts whose lpcation is known to be inaccurate to "some degree. Some hydrants -vrill interfere with the de^ velopment of other services." -? He said that* the degree of inaccuracy of points which the city has had to use in locating its services is not known. "We have definite indications," he said, "that any given survey point in this city is unreliable." He said neither he nor his staff could point to any survey marker in the city and say with conviction that its location is accurate.' ' * 66-FOOT-BLUNDER his report to city council he seven examples of known uracy in established survey iey are: A discrepancy of three to feet between survey points |the ground at Lethbridge St. Discrepancies of three feet 'cation of a survey point and mces on a registered plan at fwpod St. and also at Oak St. A discrepancy of one foot the . street allowance along Urge Street. At Fifth Avenue and Central w post has been placed with-ip last two years at a distance IS inches from an existing ?mal ]9i4 post. This disregard existing survey points is in I invention of the Land Regis- Act-. Sonic concrete monuments in the Central arca._are incorrectly shown on a registered plan. One example is at Sixth and Central and could result in a road being opened and built, or private improvements being made, 66 feet from the proper location. 0, Two new surveys north and south of. Tenth Avenue do not tie in to each other. 7. There is a 17-foot discrepancy between the original registered plan of the whole city and a new- Babine Mil) I/ins Trophy With 34,000 accident-free, man hours of working.time: and praise from the safety committee of Northern Interior Lumbermen's Association for precautions taken to protect workmen, Babine Lumber Co. has been awarded the 1954 Truck Loggers Magazine's Safety Trophy. Here Stan Killick, NILA safety director (left) is seen presenting the trophy to Art Meredith, senior employee of the firm, at a recent ceremony, in the Tweedsmuir Hotel, Burns Lake. Caiwnef Gms Green light To Third VLA Project Here A provincial cabinet decision made on Friday paved the way for-a $323,000 veterans housing project here which! will get underway as soon as prospective builders get title to their land. Cabinet approved the sale of 68 acres of land situated a half mile south of the city limits to 34 housing applicants under tfae provisions of the Veteran's Land Act. Price of the land, highest in ocal. VLA history, is reported to be $400 an acre. In two earlier VLA projects here the provincial government provided the land for only $100 aflTacre. But, a local spokesman for the newest VLA project said the price, although higher than in he past, was a big improvement over the. §1000 an acre tag which s said to have been the provincial government's original proposal. .' (The latest development will be serviced with light and water by the City of Prince George and will contain 31 homes having an average price of $9500. Under newest provision of the Veteran's Land Act a qualified ipplicant can obtain as much as SSI00 in the form of a loan. Previously maximum government assistance was $6000. Next step towards getting the " In his preamble to the list of known discrepancies in legal surveys Mr. Harford 'wrote, "Many irregularities and discrepancies other than the following, which have been experienced in the last eight months, are certain to exist". NO EXCUSE;"-ENGINEER failure to establish accurate compensated locations [(|ugh a special survey will not see thousands of dollars (l in the form of mislocated pi'oyements, but will eventual-'I to a welter of boundary Iputos. 'he city engineer said that sur- discrepancies in municipal '•>* can sometimes be justified 'He nature 'of very irregular irain. I'But in Prince George," he 'd, "the topography is excel; and there is no excuse for •inaccurancfes which are 5.wh to exist." . . . accepted degree of error in !>IC types of survey is one foot mile. Where municipal pro-y lines are involved an effvor [plus or minus an inch ana" a Pf would be acceptable'. Survey confusion reported by Mr. Harford and his staff is not unique in Prince George. Some years ago a George Street building, was found to protrude one foot onto the street allowance when the location survey was based on one supposedly known point, but complied with, the registered plan of the city when it was located from another supposedly known point. More recently, a city contractor poured footings .for the. provincial liquor store at Sixth Avenue and Dominion Street on the basis of a new location survey, then had to move them when it was found the stakes were two feet from their proper position. Condition of the survey situation in Prince George was brought to city council's attention as early, as June 28 last year. "IN DEPLORABLE STATE' ¦)r> that date Mr. Harford rj'f. in a report whose contents re. not made public until last Iday, "The general survey con-1 for the entire City of Prince orge jS jn a deplorable state, locations of the boundaries Public streets and lanes can-¦ be determined by the city. s is due to the fact that pins » posts of various descriptions" ve been placed in the ground, but there are no plans to indicate what points are. represented or marked by those pins and posts. "The ground control in the Central area is a sad disappointment There is an array of posts and pins but to my knowledge there was no - plan deposited in the Land Registry Office to show whether these pins and posts are marking the corners of the prop-. (See "SUfcVEY" Poje 2) Liquor Charges Are Remanded, Dismissed Caroline Harten, 1961 Hemlock, charged with keeping liquor for sale contrary to the Liquor' Act, was remanded for an indefinite Moran last week. Another bootlegging charge, involving Dominic Dalius, a west-end resident, was dismissed. building program underway will be to have the ¦ two-acre sites surveyed and obtain titles. Construction is expected to get underway within the next month and 75 percent occupancy is predicted for this winter. A fourth VLA project is shaping up here to accommodate the waiting list arising from th« third project. Funeral Costs High For V'hoof Visitor Last week a man left lander-hoof to come here for a ftfneral with $102.50 in his pocket. By the time he got to the funeral he had fifty cents. -i? On his way into Prince George, he was involved in a small car accident on the highway just outside the city limits. L. Later he was charged with driving while his ability was impaired. He appeared in court and was found guilty of the charge. Fine of $100 was imposed and he was also required to pay costs totalling $3.50. But he only had $102.50 in his pocket. Police reduced the dues to $102 and he left the station with only fifty cents in his pocket for the trip back to Vanderhoof. Three Injured In Hart Mishap Man Dies of Week-old Injury Three people were injured Saturday night in acar accident on the Hart Highway about two mifes north of here. A victim of last weekend's Quesneljiighway accident died in hospital. M. J. Clingam, passenger in" the dent- last week-end, died. Clingam, 31, worked on a PGE bridge building crew.- Inquest will be held tonight. His home was in Quesnel and his relatives came to Prince George late last week to visit him in hospital. The three passengers injured in Saturday night's Hart Highway mishap are Phillip Soehm, Mra. Soehm and Mrs. Caron. All are from Prince George. Only person hospitalized was Mrs. Soehm whose condition this morning was reported as "good". Soehm and the other passenger, Mrs. Caron, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries but were later discharged. They were riding in a light truck when it Somersaulted on a paved stretch of the road near Frenchie's Service. Station. The vehicle was travelling around a sharp bend in the road when the mishap occurred. Premier Denies PGE Route Into Peace Already Chosen Premier Bennett last Thursday denied that any decision has been made by the government to extend the PGE into the Peace River district via the Pine Pass. He was commenting on a story which appeared on the front page of The Citizen on the same day-. The story, which quoted an unnamed source "close to the government's policy-making level," stated,. "The Peace River Pass, although it might offer a greater potential on a very long range basis, has never been seriously considered by those who create the railroad's policy." "We have quite a way to go yet before we ha^ve to decide," the premier stated. He added that the government has not yet received engineers' recommendations on a route north from Red Rocky Creek, termination/point for existing construction contracts. Section Of CPR Bridge At Mission Collapsed Sunday MISSION,.B.C.—150-foot span of a bridge linking this Fraser Valley town with Matsqui was swept into the Fraser River Sunday. . . ¦ No one \yas injured when the span arid a concrete pier crashed down just after a car had passed over the section and another automobile was approaching' it. Authorities said action of the swift current of the river during a prolonged high water period had washed away foundations of the pier. The bridge, an old narrow structure owned by Canadian Pacific Railway, carried both cars and trains across the Fraser to and from Mission, located about 45 miles east of Vancouver. The span sank in about 60 feet of water, and it was estimated it will take about three months to complete ...repairs. BAILEY BRIDGE Highways Minister Gaglardi has approved the operation of a shuttle service across the river for Mission and Matsqui workers and Harold Bawl, chairman of the Mission Board of Commissioners, said Mr. Gaglardi told him construction of a Bailey bridge across the river was being considered. Efforts were being made to obtain a scow to handle shipments .of fruit and vegetables from the south side of the river to the cannery-and packing plants on the north shore. Boxcar Lack Is Threat To Local Economy Several city and district planing mrils^vill have to lay off their'production crews if a sudden boxcar shortage which materialized in western Canada several days ago continues. One planing mill has already laid off its crew and doesn't want them back until the situation shows defin-its signs of improvement. Mills with largest storage facilities ill be -the lost to curtail production. A slight improvement in car availability was experienced at the weekend but CNR officials are not-commenting, on the outlook. ¦Representations were, made at the weekend to CNR General Manager Donald Gordon. In a telegram from the Northern Interior Lumbermen's Association Mr. Gordon was told, "We are very concerned with the car shortage on the Smithers Division. The situation in Prince George is causing mills to curtail production and in many cases cancel orders because of lock of eors for loading. If the situation is to continue this can hove a drastic effect on the entire economy of Jhe area. We respectfully request that this matter be given immediote attention arid action to remedy the car shoTtage." prince George Planing Mills Ltd., one of the city's largest __ producers, has been getting approximately 25 percent of its boxcar requirement for the past week and is contemplating closing down one of its planers. A spokesman for The Pas Lumber CSm BOXCARS, Pag. 2) Police Court Busy Place This Morning •The usual weekend celebrations in which John Barleycorn waT the guest of honor, resulted in a heavy docket when Magistrate P.J. Moran convened court this morning. Here's a summary of the charges prepared by the police overthe weekend: intoxication, 22; causing a disturbance, 2; impaired driving,. 3; intoxications (Indian Act), 5, and assaulting apolice officer, 1. Weatherman Promising Clouds, Rain, Thunder - - "Clnuds with frequent sunny periods today and tomorrow," were the weatherman's first words this rooming. "Scattered showers or thunderstorms, moslty in th# afternoons ond evenings of both ^ays. Charges Government Neglecting Indians VICTORIA, July 25 (CP) — An advisor on Indian affairs has left the British Columbia government after a disagreement with Labor Minister Lyle Wicks. T. R. Kelly, former secretary of the provincial Indian advisory committee and only native Indian in the- civil service,' said Friday: Where a civil servant differs with the minister, tlie civil servant goes. He also said in a letter to Mr. Wicks, released to the press, that the government, which "really hasn't done anything" to help the native Indian, could Increase its services. The government had no real program for progress in matters of Indian welfare and equality of citizenship, he charged. While Indian affairs come under the federal government, he said, there was much the province could do to improve the physical and psychological conditions of B.C.'s native Indians. People who were in the Quesnel highway accident last weekend and who are still in hospital are Bernie Holmes, Mrs*. V. Har* rison, Miss E. Vickers and Allan Harris.. All are reported to be in good condition. Another vehicle turned over in the Canyon Creek district yesterday. Driver was Eugene Zoryski, and $300 damage ,was done to'the vehicle. Critical Teacher Shortage To Gel Worse, Board Told Some 25 teachers are still required to staff the schools in the Prince George School District this fall but an .even more critical, teacher shortage has yet to come. Trustee Harold Moffat told the school board at their Tuesday meeting .'the situation is going to be drastic'. There are, more classrooms going up every day; without teachers to fill them, he said. City high school still requires some 11 teachers, many of them specialists such as home economics, industrial arts and commercial instructors. Others are required for rural areas within the-school district. School Inspector Gordon Johnson who recently returned from the c#a.st- where he interviewed prospective staff members, told the board teachers are still 'choosey' about accepting positions. He said many schools were picking people out of offices and asking them to be teachers. Trustee Moffat maintained local schools were losing out on good teachers because the school board was 'too rigid' in its salary deals, while other districts were paying above the salary scale. The board authorized High School Principal Jack Beech, presently in Vancouver, to hire specialist teachers 'using discretion' in regard to, salary. ' BREAKDOWN •Variety of type exhibited on The Citizen pages today is caused by the break-down of one linotype, which necessitated setting some stories in a different typ« fact, i Trustees Reject Request For USAF Radar Base School Children of United States Air Force personnel stationed at Baldy Hughes radar base may avail themselves of any school within the district, but no school will be established at the base itself until there are sufficient youngsters in the area to comply with board regulations, school trustees announced at their last meeting. The .trustees announcement came in reply to a request from the USAF base that a teacher be provided for the five school aged youngsters living at the base. School board policy, allows fcui the establishment of a school only where there are 10 children living within a three mile radius. In making their request, USAF officials offered to provide a school building and teacher accommodation if the school board made a teacher available for the area. School board rejected a suggestion that youngsters from nearby Clear Lake attend the school as well, to make up the necessary minimum enrollment. Clear Water youngsters were transported to the West Lake school during the past'-Scnool term! Plans for establishment of a school at the radar base were launcheq last year, under similar provision but the deal failed to materialize at the last moment. In enforcing the enrollment policy this year, trustees pointed out they, could not provide a teacher for the USAF base and at the same time bypass similar requests from Miworth-Otway and Three Drowned In B.C. At Weekend VANCOUVER, July 25 (CP) -* Four persons lost their lives in violent accidents in British Columbia during the week-end. Drownings accounted for three of the deaths. Patrick Starrs, 7, of Vancouver, was drowned Saturday while swimming off a wharf. Also drowned Saturday was Wallace C. Anderson, 56, of North Vancouver, whose body was found floating'face down in Lynn Creek. The other drowning occurred in Lake Windermere near the Alberta boundary. The victim was Gerald, Thomas Griffin, 28, of Edmonton. A boat carrying Griffin.and three other persons was swamped during a sudden storm Saturday. The other three were rescued after being in the water for more than an hour. The other death resulted from a highway accident near Victoria Sunday. Abraham'Rosenthal of Victoria was killed when his car collided with an express" bus in Saanich. His wife was. seriously injured. Foresters Would Welcome Showers Forest Service is still wishing for a brisk shower to help lower the fire hazard. Hazard in district forests this morning was from moderate to high. Only fire which broke out in the Fort George Forest District over the week-end was caused by a small lightning strike near Penny. It is now out and it did not cause excessive damage. At the present time three burner and sawdust piles.are smouldering and are still down on the records as fires which threaten forested areas. Cuthbert To Testify When Enquiry Resumes VANCOUVER, July 25 (CP) — The royal commission investigating charges of corruption in Vancouver's police force will resume its Hearings Thursday' after .a two-week, adjournment. R; H. Tupper, Q.C., one-man royal commission, announced Sunday the hearings will resume at 11'a.m. Thursday. Mr. Tupper said the first witness would be Det. Sgt. Len Cuth* bert,*> whose attempted suicide a month ago touched off the inquiry. The commission adjourned its hearings July 14 to allow the former head of the gambling squad to recover from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Cuthbert was pronounced fit to testify by physicians and psychiatrists early last week. More—than 100 witnesses are expected to be called before the commission. PGE Train, Month Lafe, Will Arrive Here A! Noon Tuesday Service onjhe Pacific Great Eastern railway into Prince George will be resumed-tomorrow, a month after traffic-was halted when flood waters which "followed a violent rainstorm cut numerous gaps in the roadbed north and south of McLeod . Lake districts, i situations exist. where Quesnel. Repairs to the PGE bridge ot Stone Creek were completed Friday and tracks lead across a new fill 18 miles nb'rth of Quesnel the same day. Crews were still working today to replace a portion of the roadbed washed away at Canyon Creek, three miles north of Hixdn. This job required a gravel fill 500 feet long and 60 feet deep. R. F. P. Bowman, general manager of the government-owned ne, was in Prince George Wednesday after completing an inspection of the damaged roadbed between this city and ' Quesnel where he has been making his headquarters since the tie-up started on June 26. He said present plans were to bring the first' passenger train into this city at noon on Tuesday, mirfciaf tb« resumption of regular passenger and freight schedules. Repairs to the line arc being carried out by a crew of 150 men •with the help of a large number of hired pieces of equipment. Mr. Bowman highly praised; the work of engineers and main-tenance-of-way employees in restoring" the large amount.of damage done by last month's storm. •'The washouts were the worst I have seen in thirty years of railroading," he said, "and our men worked seven days a week during all daylight hours to get the line back in operation. Mr. Bowman made the trip to Prince George ' by gas speeder, accompanied by Ben Valde, chief engineer, and R. J. Mclntyre, assistant divisional engineer, Quesnel. - . .