Looking back at Digby County history

From 1960

Nearly three-and-a-half years after losing about 35,000 pounds of lobster – which it blamed on an oil spill from a Liberian tanker that had been docked in Digby harbour at the time – the Digby lobster business C.D. Snow Co. learned its Supreme Court appeal of a lowercourt decision regarding the case had been rejected. The initial court ruling had been no evidence was presented proving the tanker (a ship called the Maria Luisa) was the source of the oil that killed the lobsters. Officers aboard the tanker had denied any oil had been discharged from the ship while it was in Digby during the second week of June 1957. The Supreme Court upheld the initial court decision.

***

Residents of Central Gove on Long Island were upset over lack of postal service for their community. Their post office had closed Sept. 30, when the postmistress – who had since passed away – had given up the position. Residents reportedly had been assured a rural route would be established in their area. Despite repeated appeals by them, however, as of late November or so, no such route had been established. In order to get their mail, Central Grove residents had to go to the post office in Tiverton or pay to have someone deliver it, according to a local newspaper story.

***

There had been a plane crash in Waldeck. “The three occupants miraculously escaped without injury,” the Courier reported at the time. The Cessna aircraft had crash-landed in the woods near a large open field belonging to Col. Garnet Harris, the paper said. The plane reportedly was owned by the Montreal Flying Club of Cartierville, Quebec. “The crash landing was made after discovering they had gone off course,” the paper said.

***

Willard Parker Clayton officially became pastor of the AcaciavilleWeymouth Falls United Baptist churches during a ceremony at the Acaciaville church. The installation service was led by Rev. H.S. Hartlin of Digby, with music provided by the combined Acaciaville and Weymouth Falls choirs. “A welcome to the new pastor, on behalf of the churches of the district, was given by Rev. Hartlin, and Mayor Victor Cardoza of Digby extended a welcome on behalf of the people of the area,” a newspaper item said.

***

Preparations were underway for a big curling event that was coming to Digby for the first time. Thirteen rinks representing towns west of Halifax were expected to take part in what was billed as the Western Counties Curling Bonspiel. The event was still a couple of months away, but plans for the bonspiel – as well as related activities – were said to be taking shape. Ernest B. Tufts was chairman of the bonspiel committee.

From 1971

Addressing the Clare Chamber of Commerce, Louis R. Comeau – the area’s MP at the time and president of Collège Sainte Anne – said tourism was an important industry that had great potential in this part of the province, given the improved ferry services and the like. Saying the region’s tourism sector had only scratched the surface of what it could be, Comeau said more facilities were needed to accommodate the number of visitors to southwestern Nova Scotia. With regard to the chamber, he encouraged the group to continue to press for improved harbours and highways. The MP was speaking at a chamber meeting in Little Brook, where Leo Poirier was elected the organization’s president.

***

The first regional office of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission was opened in Digby, with Scott MacNutt, the provincial health minister, on hand to officially open the office. This was the commission’s first office outside Halifax and it would serve all of western Nova Scotia, the minister said. W.A. MacKay, chairman of the commission, said they needed the support of other groups – including civic and municipal bodies – in their quest to ensure equality of opportunity for all Nova Scotians.

***

A delegation of MLAs from western Nova Scotia – including Joe Casey of Digby and Benoit Comeau of Clare – had been in Ottawa meeting with federal ministers Arthur Laing (public works) and Jack Davis (environment) and Allan MacEachen (president of the Privy Council) to discuss various issues pertaining to the region’s fishing industry, among other matters.