Looking back at Digby County history

From 1960

It was still months away, but Clare’s Acadian festival was in the news with word that a national Acadian congress was planned for Church Point and that the event would be held during Clare’s annual Acadian festival in the summer of 1960. Festival representatives had met recently with Alban Daigle of Moncton, Acadian congress secretary, to discuss the event.

*** Southwestern Nova Scotia had been hit with some stormy weather. An example of the affected communities was Westport, where “power was disrupted when a transformer burned ... and dozens of wires were torn down by the heavy snow, sleet and galeforce winds,” a newspaper article said. Among other things, the storm damaged television antennae and blew the front door off the hinges of a local residence, the story said.

***

The village supply tax rate in Weymouth was cut to 35 cents per $100 of assessment from $2. The drop was attributed mainly to a change in the assessment level in the local area. Weymouth had finished the year with an operating surplus of $875. The balance of the debt on the fire hall – constructed three years earlier – reportedly had been paid off.

*** Maynard C. Denton had equalled the feat of his father by serving 40 years as clerk of his church, the Digby United Baptist Church. He was re-elected to the position for 1960 at the church’s annual meeting. His father – the late Wallace Chipman Denton – had served 40 years as clerk of the Digby Neck 1st Baptist Church.

***

An item from 1960 of interest to air travellers: Trans-Canada Airlines had announced that it would, in the spring, start the first direct service between the Maritimes and the United Kingdom using the 82-passenger SuperG Constellation aircraft. Flight time: nine hours, 35 minutes.

***

The Digby branch of the Royal Canadian Legion had challenged Digby’s fire department to a broom hockey game. According to an item in the local paper at the time, it sounded like the match – to be played March 17 – was a good-natured effort to determine broom hockey bragging rights. *** Movies playing at the Capitol theatre in the winter of 1960 in- cluded Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.

From 1971

With about a month to go before Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives chose a new leader for the province’s PC party, one of the men vying for the job – Halifax-area MLA John Buchanan – visited Digby for the annual meeting of the party’s Digby riding association. A leadership convention was scheduled for March 6. Buchanan, Richmond MLA Gerald Doucet and Dartmouth Mayor Roland Thornhill were the candidates looking to succeed G.I. Smith as Tory leader in Nova Scotia.

***

There had been some discussion in recent years about whether Collège Sainte- Anne should be relocated, but there was strong local support for keeping it in Church Point, and the Municipality of Digby was lending its voice to that support. The issue had been discussed at a meeting of Digby municipal council. “Councillors felt strongly that the college is well located in the midst of the French community,” a newspaper story said.

***

A new ferry was on the way for the Digby-Saint John route, but how many people would the service employ once the new Princess of Acadia was in place? That was one of the questions Louis R. Comeau, the local MP at the time, was asking. He also was trying to get a date for when the new vessel would start sailing.

***

The Town of Digby was planning to take action on the problem of dogs running at large within the town. The mayor and councillors reportedly had received numerous calls on the matter.