Editor:
Re: Sept. 10, 2013 edition: New Chemainus mall on schedule
Last week I sent you an e-mail pointing out two errors in the above mentioned mall article.
First, the mall project owner’s name was actually Ian Spurling, not Ian Sterling, and secondly, the quotation inserted in the article was attributed to the project heating system manager, although actually made by Mr. Spurling, as had been mentioned twice in the same paragraph in two consecutive sentences.
I received not one, but two answering e-mails from you a day or two apart, thanking me for pointing out the errors and assuring me a correction would be run in the next week’s issue of the Chronicle. That did not occur.
I was disappointed, not only because the error was not made known to those who read the paper edition of the Chronicle, but also because I felt the name, “Spurling” could still resonate with a number of Ladysmith residents.
You see, Ian Spurling has an historical connection to Ladysmith. His grandfather had been the Anglican minister in St. John’s parish for a number of years, some 70-odd years ago, and his father, Roger Spurling, grew up in Ladysmith, became a pharmacist, apprenticing in the Ladysmith drug store under the supervision of the local owner pharmacist, Tom Bertram, before establishing his own successful business in the Colwood area. It is for these reasons I take the liberty of writing this letter to present the clarification and the Ladysmith connection myself.
I have been reading the Chronicle for close to 75 years now.
I suppose it is too much to always expect the same careful journalism I remember appearing when Thomas Collinge or Sam Hindmarch or John McNaughton or Rollie Rose was at the helm. But then, I can dream, can’t I?
Dave Alexander
Saltair