Nine tons aluminum wire used as Ladysmith all lighted up: Just a few hours before last Saturday’s high winds threw much of Pontiac into darkness, one section of the county saw the dream of years come true. 

In a simple ceremony at William Hodgins’ farm near Yarm, Raymond Johnson, M.L.A. for Pontiac, slipped in the fuses that released the power through the new line to Ladysmith.

Assisting Mr. Johnson in the act which opens up an entirely new life for about 52 families who will be serviced by the new line was Alan Brown, distribution general manager for the Gatineau Power Company. The section which now has power for the first time covers a distance north from Shawville of 10 miles and by next summer it is planned to have the power on as far north as Otter Lake.

There’s A Reason…Why last week’s Equity went out without pages being cut. It was a choice between being late with the paper or getting them out on time. Anyhow, we figured we had 1,500 to trim while each reader had only one.

Lights pop out all over in year’s second worst storm: Although Shawville and other Pontiac centres escaped major damage during Saturday’s storm, the high winds made life somewhat hectic for the men of the Gatineau Power Company.

Worst hit was Quyon, where three poles were broken on the distribution system and the power was off for 12 hours, from 8 p.m. Saturday to early Sunday morning.

In Shawville the street lights were out for half an hour and were off again for about 15 minutes. Residential lights blinked out shortly after nine o’clock and stayed out for 33 minutes.

Residents of Campbells Bay were in darkness for two short periods during which the lines were refused and turned back on.

The lower end of Norway Bay was in darkness for three hours and 15 minutes after 13 trees had blown across the lines. One section of the line had to be cut out altogether but power in the whole area was restored the following day.

Elsewhere only minor interruptions were reported by Gatineau Power officials who described the storm as the second worst this year. The first trouble was around 5 p.m. Saturday and the men worked steadily from then until 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Telephones, too, suffered during the storm and telephone service was out of commission until Monday afternoon.