October 1913
People living along the route of the new rural mail delivery between Ladysmith and Chemainus were very pleased with their service. Mail from Ladysmith to Chemainus was received daily. However, the return mail from Chemainus does not reach Ladysmith until the next day. Mr. Southin lived in Saltair and brought the mail in to Ladysmith the following morning. [NOTE: The same mail service in 2013 can take up to three days!]
An editorial in the Ladysmith Chronicle in October 1913 stated:
“All ladies do not at all times prefer to sit while men stand. We have seen a young woman give up her seat as an aide to a crippled man, or to a mother carrying a baby, or to a tired looking woman. This should be the universal rule of both sexes. Those who are able to stand should yield their places to the apparently less able. True courtesy, in all the relations of life, will yield to and protect the weak. But we can well imagine that for a tired or weakly looking man to vacate his seat because of fresh and vigorous looking lady happens to stand near him is not what everybody should expect or desire.”
October 1938
The Aggie Hall advertised for a live-in caretaker. Remuneration consisted of free fuel, water and light and $20 per month.
Comox Logging displayed in its office a 14-inch slice from a recently felled tree that was over 100 feet tall and 86 inches in diameter. The local fir was cut 20 feet up from the butt, and a count of the rings estimated the tree to be about 1,010 years old.
Tom Honeyman won the Forward Cup and Mr. Dave Wilson the Walkem Cup for most points at the Annual Fall fair in Ladysmith. Displays were arranged by area (Saltair, Diamond, North Oyster, etc.), and the produce entered was very impressive due to the long, dry summer weather. The fair was opened by local MP Jas Taylor, who joined MLA Sam Guthrie in giving out prizes. Mr. Taylor was particularly impressed with the exhibits submitted by schoolchildren, especially the models carved from soap and balsa wood “for which credit must be given to parent and teacher alike.” Mr. Guthrie remarked that he enjoyed a floral arrangement of local heather which he joked “was now practically gone after so many resident Scotchmen had taken away a sprig.” Judges were reportedly stumped by a display of butternuts, which had not been seen before at a Vancouver Island fair. The nuts, usually found on the eastern coast of Canada, resemble the walnut but are sweeter in taste.
October 1963
The incumbent MLA for Cowichan-Newcastle, Bob Strachan was re-elected by a wide majority for the NDP in the Sept. 30 provincial election. The 1,151 votes he received in Ladysmith were more than the total votes for all three of his opponents. Strachan was also leader of the BC New Democratic Party.
Ivan Wicklund of the Diamond reported that more than half of his flock of 1,000 tom turkeys had already been ordered for Thanksgiving dinner. Each bird was worth between 12 and 14 dollars.
A large work party headed up Green Mountain on the last week of October in 1963 to work on getting the lodge in good shape for the upcoming ski season. More than two feet of snow fell on the weekend and members of the Chemainus Sno-Birds, including Ken Fisher, Murray Hess, Jack Millmore, Frank Storey and Eric Guest, were hard at work with their recently purchased Bombardier Sno-Cat to ensure everything was ready on the ski tow and local runs.
— Ed Nicholson, Ladysmith and District Archives
