70 Years Ago
July 21, 1948
– The arrival of the S.S. Kota Inten at Quebec City marked the halfway point in an effort to resettle 5,000 agricultural workers from the Netherlands in Ontario. The farmers had mixed experience including dairy farming and crop farming, but many lost their homes or had their farms flooded during the German occupation
The program was started by agriculture minister Thomas L. Kennedy, who sought to address an extreme shortage of experienced farm help in the province. Farmers in Lennox and Addington were urged to apply to the agriculture minister if they wished to employ the newly arriving workers.
– Canada’s Progressive Conservative leader John Bracken tendered his resignation on the advice of his physician. The party was eager to elect a new leader quickly it felt the Liberals might call a snap election after replacing William Lyon Mackenzie King in August. John Diefenbaker, Donald C. Fleming, and Ontario Premier George Drew were seen as possible successors.
– A Montreal-bound transport truck loaded with bottled ale went into a ditch on Hwy 2 three miles east of Napanee. The vehicle tore out guardrails and a telephone poll. The driver was uninjured and only two bottles of ale were broken.
40 Years Ago
July 19, 1978
– Napanee council approved the sale of three lots in the town’s industrial park fronting Hwy 41 for a combined $117,000. Napanee car dealer Larry Pringle bought one site and envisioned moving his business from Dundas Street East to a property on Centre Street four times the size of his lot. A second lot, purchased by local contractor Thomas Dickerson was intended to become a 36-unit two-storey motel with an estimated cost of $350,000. A third property was intended to become a fast food outlet. The Beaver understood a Pizza Hut franchise was planned, but could not confirm the detail.
– A long, dry spell lasting since the end of June was blamed for the outbreak of nine forest fires in the northern part of Lennox and Addington County — most on Crown land. Ministry of Natural Resources fire control supervisor Douglas Mumford said an average fire would cover four or five acres. Water bombers were used to fight the fires.
– The Lennox and Addington County Board of Education sent a strongly worded letter to the province’s attorney general Roy McMurtry. Trustees indicated that if his ministry was going to send a Public Institutions Inspection Panel to critique the condition of school buildings, it should be providing funding to help school boards upgrade them.