Our regional eco-centre is open again for the season, at 105 Maine Central, Bury. You can take an amazing array of stuff there and ditch it in good conscience. An Eco-centre is not a dump. There’s a place for everything, and an attendant makes sure everything goes in its place.
Hazardous stuff, like aerosol spray bottles, paint cans, batteries and even car batteries, acids, propane tanks, oil, fluorescent tubes or bulbs. Big stuff: tires (without rims), construction materials, all kinds of metals. Garden debris, leaves, and branches less than five feet long. All kinds of electronics, all kinds of styrofoam, all kinds of fabrics and textiles. Plastic tubing. Infant seats. Even household appliances, including fridges.
What a relief to know everything is going to the best possible afterlife, reused or recycled! That’s one thing I learned at YouTube/@mouvementjyparticipe9212, in a little video of less than three minutes. Ok, it was posted three years ago, and has had only 176 views in that time. It deserves more, just like the Eco-centre itself deserves more visits.
The centre is free for MRC residents, and if you bring them stuff, each year they let you take one load of good garden compost home with you. A good deal!
Questions? Call the Eco-centre at 819-560-8404. Visiting hours: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., from April 12 to November.
Especially, call first if you’re looking to dispose of asphalt shingles; dangerous items such as PCBs, cyanides, radioactive waste, or explosives; biomedical waste – syringes, needles, tubes, medications; animal carcasses; Ammunition; contaminated earth; tires mounted on rims. The eco-centre does not have a place for this stuff, but they can tell you what to do. For details, visit cavaouwebapp.recyc-quebec.gouv.qc.ca.
ADVENTURE WITH BERNIE
I’m having a great time reading Bernie Epps’ first volume of The Eastern Townships Adventure, which takes us up to 1837. I’m learning how hairy the times were when the British Land Act was parceling out townships in “The Wastelands of the Crown” to would-be settlers.
Yes, that’s what they called the Eastern Townships―wastelands.
I’m back in 1792, when three million acres in our region were up for grabs, and 19 out of every 20 petitioners for land were Americans. The call for settlers “had made no mention of loyalists but all these Americans caused enough concern that the land committee classified them in order of merit,” Bernie wrote. Six categories of merit began with “loyalists who have suffered from their attachment to the King’s Government,” and ended with “petitioners who have no particular pretensions to the King’s Bounty” but who want to settle the land immediately.
Well, long story short, Sawyerville’s own Josiah Sawyer fell into this last category; he’d even fought against the British during the American revolution. Yet he finally gained the right to settle the Eaton Township through his proof of industry and his success in recruiting associate settlers.
I always wondered why the British came up with the system of a principal leader for each township who was responsible for a group of associates. In part, it was to make one person responsible for paying surveying fees, building a mill, and opening roads. In compensation, he would receive extra land. At the same time, they hoped to create “a stabilizing landed aristocracy in the New World.”
The discretionary power of the land committee to achieve this goal “was the loophole through which speculators charged en masse and shattered all efforts to ensure the land was given to people who would clear, cultivate, and populate it. By 1807, it had resulted in more than 1,400,000 acres being awarded to some 60 senior officials, merchant princes, and other large landholders who had no intention of settling on them,” wrote Epps.
What a mess!
And, oh, Bernie, the footnotes!
One trenchant footnote summed up the Canadian career of a member of the British aristocracy in the 1790s, one Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, King George III’s fourth son; not spectacular, by Bernie’s account. Afterwards, he was posted to the West Indies. “Since the St. Lawrence would be frozen until spring, the Duke resolved to sail from Boston and consequently loaded his campaign baggage―his camp cots and tents, his maps and books, his elegant uniforms, vintage wines and silver tea service―aboard two heavy sleighs.
«In a graceful cariole, Edward Augustus led this procession up the Richelieu but when they reached Lake Champlain, the ice gave way and his sleighs sank with all his baggage. He reached Burlington with little more than the clothes on his back.»
Here’s the footnote:
“The Duke of Kent was next assigned to Halifax where his brother had previously dallied with the wife of New Hampshire’s ex-governor, John Wentworth. Edward Augustus wanted to be appointed Canada’s governor general but was reassigned to Gibraltar where he continued to make life miserable for his troops. Finally, at fifty-two, he put aside Julie St. Laurent, his mistress, married the usual German princess and fathered Queen Victoria.”
Oh, Bernie! You really weren’t a monarchist, were you?
CANTERBURY FLEA MARKET
Tony De Melo of the Canterbury Cultural Centre is looking for items for the May 18-19 flea market. “Old, new, used, vintage or antique items in good condition are welcome,” he wrote. “We do not accept large pieces of furniture, appliances or clothing.” All proceeds are for restoration and regular maintenance of the Canterbury Centre at 1095 Victoria Road (Route 214), Bury. Info: 819-872-3400.
CHURCHES
United. Services are 9:30 a.m. in Cookshire, and 11 a.m. in Sawyerville. Info: 819-889-2838. For pastoral care, call Rev. Spires at 819-452-3685.
Baptist. Sunday Services are in French at 9 a.m. and in English at 11 a.m., at the Sawyerville Baptist Church, 33 rue de Cookshire. For information, please contact Pastor Michel Houle at 819-889-2819.
Anglican. No services in Cookshire. To find services in the deanery, check the schedule at deaneryofstfrancis.com/calendar/. Info: 819-887-6802, or quebec.anglican.ca.
Do you have news to share? Call 819-640-1340 or email rawrites@gmail.com by April 15 for publication April 24.