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PUBLISHEDEvery Saturday by the Greater Vancouver PublUhert Limited.George M. Murray. President and Managing Director. Herbert A. Stein. VUe-Preeident and Managing Editor. John Jackson. Mechanical Superintendent.TELEPHONE : All department* .SUBSCRIPTION RATES :To 11 points in Canada. United Kingdom, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and other British Possessions ;One Year ..........................WSix Months .......................... 100Three Months ........................5°bility only when Cli chief's hours are duty of the report*ef Jackson ihis office, and thetaidbehattertaiiThehealthwho daily visit the Municipal Hall the benefit of the ratepayers. They 11 on the police department for the sake of their or for any personal pleasure they may derive doing. It is the duty of Chief Jackson and his[I0 American, European and other Foreign Countries, $1.00TO CORRESPONDENTS : We will not print anonymorsthough inviting communications on current events, to be p over the writer's signature.€0-staff to supply the paper: is the medium through their own employees ar vise his rules, or his lt;sufferers.”Now this question of of precisely when and i benefit of the ratepayer: that information in po communicati■■formation, sinct which the ratepayers I 1 doing. Chief Jacksot wn employers will bethe Pr•am what must re-thc chiefand to session fspapi»us Police—the problem rcumstanccs it is to the le furtherance of justice if the police should he dates from as far backat least as the nvspapers to •ading :THE AXNEXA T/O.X TERMSDISAPPOINTMENT will be generally felt at the modesty of the demands of the South Vancouver Council in its proposal embracing annexation by the City of Vancouver. While the verdict of the Council of Vancouver on the proposed terms is yet to be given, the ratepayers of South Vancouver will have a chance to more fully digest the clauses of the agreement as set forth by the municipality of South Vancouver.We must confess that in many respects Vancouver seems to have all the best of the deal. In view of the fact that Vancouver two years ago scorned a demand of two million dollars to be spent in improvements in this municipality during a period of three years as the price of absorbing South Vancouver, the present demand of five million dollars may look excessive, but cool reflection upon the financial resources which South Vancouver brings to Vancouver gives cause to ponder.In any annexation proposal the financial interests must necessarily play an important part. South Vancouver asks that five million dollars be expended on South Van couver during the years 1913 and 1914. The present borrowing power of South Vancouver is over four million dollars. South Vancouver is at present taxed \2'/i mills on the dollar on improved lands, while the tax rate Vancouver is 22l/t mills. From the \2'/i mills South Vancouver receives in taxes $327,185. Taxed at 22J4 mills, the same rate as prevails in Vancouver, the revenue on same basis of valuation would oe $588,933, or an increased income of $261,748. This increase capitalized at 5 per cent would represent $5,234,960. While the borrowing power of South Vancouver, as stated, is four million dollars, on the assumption that the rate were increased to 22Vi mills, this municipality, or Vancouver for that matter, would be in a position to actually realize to the extent of over five million dollars. To this should be added the valuation of the waterworks system in South Vancouver, which is revenue producing and self-sustaining, and should therefore be considered as an asset. This does not take into consideration the question of increased values which could reasonably be expected to follow, whether South Vancouver were annexed by Vancouver or incorporated as a separate city. Had the Council of South Vancouver made their demands six million dollars it would have been closer to the mark.As to representation of ten Aldermen, the demands of South Vancouver are not excessive. South Vancouver covers an area almost twice that of the City of Vancouver, and it is fair to assume that within a very few years the preponderance of population will be within the borders of this municipality as it now stands. The question of representation, therefore, should not only be one of the present, but of the future.There is nothing binding on the City of Vancouver as to reduced tram fares, telephone or power charges, and this phase of the agreement is open to serious criticism. In any annexation agreement some guarantee should be given by the City of Vancouver as to just what South Vancouver might expect in this respect. We know that Vancouver has been unable to strike a bargain with the B. C. E. R. as to a consolidated tram franchise in negotiations covering several years, so the question might reasonably be asked, How any agreement could be hastened should South Vancouver become a part of Greater Van- ere is a striking lack of definiteness coveringpeal of the Stamp Act, which permitted e sold at a price that made newspapc vorite form of intellectual recreation among the masses, and it remains to this day a question which members of the police force and members of the I’ress arc as much at variance as ever. The police cc tend n«w, as they did then, that any information giv to the Press is information which is made accessible the criminal, or criminals, in the particular case to which the information appertains. They contend, further, that it is unreasonable and absurd to expect an officer of the peace to be so forgetful of the interests of the ratepaye as to show his hand thus openly to the criminal, the enemy of peace and property, the pillager of the ratepayers, whose peace and security he is paid to preserve. Mi may be advanced from the opposite point of view, course; but there can be only one answer to a quest which simmers down to this : Is the Chief of Police tobe considered able to judge precisely when, in view of all the circumstances which he knows surround any particular case, and in view of the circumstances which lie may assume, but would like to know for certain, surround it, the interests of the public which he serves would be promoted by information in his possession being given out through the newspapers? Or should decision of this question be left to the judgment and discretion of n paper representatives, each of whom is sustained in performance of his daily duties by the hope of one day getting a story before it becomes known to the other fellows? -Of course, not all the information of publi interest in possession of the police is of such a nature that to disclose it through the newspapers would be to aid the escape of a criminal from justice; but it is equally true that the newspaperman who is satisfied with the daily report which the “World” fears Chief Jackson siders his subordinates incapable of reading deserves another sort of assignment.Just at this point we cannot refrain from asking whether it was necessary for the “World” to look as far South Vancouver in search of a police-ridden community? It may be that in the Vancouver City police office officialism is not permitted to obtrude itself, and that no official barrier is placed in the way of the qualified newspaperman afire with zeal for knowledge. It may be, of course. But there is a newspaper published in Vancouver which invented the phrase, “Findlay’s Cossacks, and applied the phrase once, or twice, or twenty imes, to the mounted police of Vancouver. But there!the:poiOnly a promise is asked as to the de’ North Arm of the Fraser River, which i: any industrial activities which might be e . and promises are easily give1 hawk to feed the y Vancouver develop the North A them Burrard Inlet worshiplopment of the he keystone to ■ccted in South might asmng of the p,if the Fraser, t whose shrine all 1clauof theat presi•ering the retenti municipal, school board and teaching staffs, Va again asked to make but a mere promise. As constituted, there is no continuity of policy in the couver Council. Being elected yearly, these clause be settled by the present Vancouver Council, which will not be binding on next year's or any succeeding Council, To agree to the terms as presented in the annexation proposal South Vancouver is asked to sink her individuality, to pass into oblivion, to become a unit like Kitsilanc or Grandview. With that absorption our dreams of a fine industrial city rising on the banks become one of the might-havc-neens. will have none : South Vancouver ceas agree to annexation.Though the Councils agree to these term: people of South Vancouver accept them? We have faith in the ratepayers of South Vancouver, and that in their belief in the future greatness of thei city, in their desire to retain their own individuality,of the Fraser w Of sentiment 1 :s to be the day 'SIGNING THE PANAMA CANAL BILL^^LTHOUGH the United States papers in the Westcommend President Taft for signing the Panama Canal bill, the leading journals of the East take the position that the United States has done an unfair and act which in the end will have a boomerang effect. The foreign press is strongly denunciatory of the United States.“New York Times,” one of the most conservative and fairest of American daily newspapers, gives the following reasons why the President should have vetoed the :anal bill :n the use of the canal granted dotation of the treaty made with1. Because the fa' to American ships ai Great Britain.Because we shall surely be called to arbitrate the questions raised by our action, and shall have to choose between being defeated in arbitration or refusing to I11 the former case we shall incur less discredit; tter we shall take ourselves out of the ranks of nations working for the peaceful settlement of ?s, in which ranks we have, for more than a century. led.use to arbitrate, the treaties of arbitration that we have with Great Britain and with a number ofarbitn;r nations will be all. shall, within five yea d toward barbarism. The bill is stuffed pertinent to its profcssi lue of the canal, and s. hato expire by limitation, and vc taken a long step backtosoId itheorlddual 1ichicf towith silly provisions utterly ad object, tending to impair the I It urc to lessen the respect in which commerce, besides working nduring interests.HIGH PRICE PAID FOR REMAINING A MUNICIPALITY rJ,HOSE who voted against the last incorporation billVwill the'Wnthesentiment they feel {or the place in which they have built | sul,ur*), on H'* outskirt homes, in their knowledge of the inheritance-which irs, they have a desire to work out their own destiny o rise to a zenith among the cities of the West.POLICE AFFAIRS'T’HE Vancouver World,” in an editorial note, took Chief Jackson, of the South Vancouver police, to task the other day because, according to the “World, “the Chief of Police of South Vancouver has issued an edict that no information is to be given from the police office save from his lips alone.” The “World” discusses the matter thus :“Does the chief, then, consider that his subordinates are so incapable as to be unable to read the daily report book to the pressmen? Not that the Press has to rely on the police department for news, but it is as well to get official confirmation at times. This will now be a possi-hardly realize the financial injury they were doingto the municipality as a whole. That South Vancouverhas suffered severely, both financially and in prestige, is now unquestionable. At the present moment there is a difficulty in selling the municipal bonds. This is due to the fact that in Great Britain the municipality is looked upon as a small rural district. While Vancouver cannot offer nearly as good security for its bonds as South Vancouver, yet Vancouver can get five and six points more in any bond issue. This is due to Vancouver being looked upon as a progressive city, while South Vancouver is regarded, by • the British investors as some small ancouVer. They fail to grasp {he fact that South Vancouver has an area of overfourteen square miles—a larger area than Vancouver. If incorporation had taken place the bonds would have been issued, as South Vancouver as a city would have a much more stable standing in the financial world.When the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and party visit Vancouver next week, it will be in accordance with the traditions of the Coast to give them a hearty welcome. It is the first visit of the Duke of Connaught to the Pacific Coast, cither in the capacity of a member of the Royal Family or as Governor-General of Canada, and the people will not be slow to make his memories of his visit here not only pleasant, but lasting.Thnreau said of himself that his greatest skill wa want but little.”
Newspaper Details
Vancouver Chinook
Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
Sat, Sep 14, 1912
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Paul C.
GB 25 Feb 2024
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