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GENERAL MEETING, W.V.M. & H.S. - JANUARY 26, 1989 Sixty-five people, more or less, turned out for this particular meeting held in the Music Room at Pauline Johnson School. Vice-president Hugh D. Johnston chaired the meeting as Jack Leyland was off sunning himself on the balmy beaches of Hawaii. Matters discussed were: 1. Our display at Park Royal during Heritage Week, Feb. 20th to 25th. Laureen Jones prepared the display (and a mighty fine one, too) and Joy Leader did a commendable job of compiling a list of volunteers to man the display. 2. The number of Directors of the Society was increased from 11 to 12. 3. A plea from Mary Chapman for the workroom volunteers to PLEASE SHOW UP on their appointed days. 4. A second plea from the Nominating Committee Chairman Bob Thompson for a Recording Secretary (still a CONSPICUOUS BLANK as we go to press!). Information Disclosed: Mr. LLoyd Williams, whose grandfather was a resident of the Dundarave area in 1895, is the present owner of Navvy Jack Tnomas's house, year. Comments on the passing of Gertrude Lawson on January 22nd in her 97th Hugh Addison introduced the speaker for the evening, Mr. James A. MacCarthy, recently retired senior corporate manager for B.C. Hydro v/hose topic for the evening was an historical review of the introduction and development of electrical and other energy services in West Vancouver. Before getting into his subject, Mr. MacCarthy acknowledged the help received from Rupert Harrison, local historian, and Allix Duncan, son of James Duncan, first Water Superintendent and later Municipal Engineer. Both gentlemen were in attendance. Mr. MacCarthy turned back the pages of time to the days of coal oil and kerosene lamps; wood and coal stoves; and the candle-in-a-jam-tin known as a "bug", standard equipment for mountain hikers. He spoke of the horse and buggy days and of local shingle mills operating on steam from wood-fired boilers until around 1915, when the internal combustion engine and early buses and motor cars made the horse and buggy obsolete. Then stove oil began to replace wood and coal. During this period. West Vancouver, vdiich was the last of the lower mainland municipalities to obtain electricity, looked in envy to North Vancouver which had had both electricity and street cars since 1906. A decade beyond and West Van was only in the preliminary negotiation stage with the B.C. Electric Railway Co. A further six years passed during which time several experiments and/or considerations concerning local water power sources were investigated, then, at long last, in 1922 under Reeve V. V. Vinson, a line was finally extended from a North Vancouver sub-station to give lighting to an area stretching from 11th to 29th Streets and from the waterfront to Mathers Avenue. Amen! Completing his presentation, Mr. MacCarthy showed a series of slides including pictures of the Peace River and Bridge River projects and coverage of the devastation caused by Hurricane Freda in September, 1962. Alas, to Mr. MacCarthy's chagrin, the slides were shown backwards (better than upside down), a situation guaranteed to snap an audience to attention. With a chorus of voices they rose to the challenge like St. George slaying the dragon - deciphering the pictoral captions and newspaper headlines. For a short while, all marvelled at the speed and accuracy of Ted Sewell's prowess with the 'backwards printing' until it was realized that he was reading from the mirror image reflection in the windows. The interest and fun of the event spilled over into the 'social hour' which fol-Iwed but not until Hugh Addison had thanked Jim MacCarthy for a thoroughly enjoyable presentation.