Eighty Years Ago

March 24, 1932

. Teachers' and municipal officials' salaries, already the lowest in the province, were cut 20 per cent by the Municipal Finance Committee, which also set rates of 35 cents per hour for municipal road work and 30 cents per hour for relief workers. A five mill tax hike was to pay for mothers' pensions and other relief increases.

Seventy Years Ago

March 26, 1942

. Premier Hart, reacting to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, announced that compulsory measures for protection of private property would be instituted.

. Canadians of Japanese extraction were being interned away from the coast. In the meantime, there were moves afoot to stop them from driving cars, in order to keep them from "burning up plenty of gas and wearing out tires," by April 15.

. The war effort threatened the proposed Fort LangleyAlbion ferry crossing.

Sixty Years Ago

March 27, 1952

. The Langley Advance replaced outdated equipment with a modern linotype machine.

. Civil Defence coordinator I.G. Baker put out an urgent call for civil defence trainees.

Fifty Years Ago

March 29, 1962

. Forty people at a public hearing voted unanimously in favour of a new zoning plan for Aldergrove.

. Fifty members of the Otter District Farmers' Institute were at a meeting for their organization's 39th annual report. Sales had passed $1 million for the first time.

Forty Years Ago

March 23, 1972

. Construction of the B.C. Farm Machinery Museum was started, with director Alex C. Hope on hand to help begin the excavation.

Thirty Years Ago

March 24, 1982

. One of Langley's most popular night spots, the Bow Fiddler Cabaret, burned to the ground in a spectacular fire.

. With all provincial grant funding cut off by Premier Bill Bennett's "restraint program," Township council pulled the plug on plans to build the indoor swimming pool that had been approved by referendum the previous November.

Twenty Years Ago

March 25, 1992

. A Langley three-year-old awoke to find her bed afire. She alerted the rest of her family and all escaped unharmed.

. Township council dismissed Langley Airport as a site for a proposed future Fraser Valley University.

. Langley School Board got Education Ministry approval to run a $1.25-million deficit, to be repaid over two years. But superintendent Emery Dosdall and secretary-treasurer Paul Makortoff felt it would be possible to reduce the deficit within the three months left in the school year, and pay the rest off in a single year.

. Promises that violence against women was being studied got Township Councillor Aubrey Searle angry. Council had written to Mary Collins, federal Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, after three young men were found guilty of a number of violent attacks on women in Langley and the Lower Mainland. Searle said studies would not protect women.

Ten Years Ago

March 26, 2002

. Councillor Mel Kositsky suggested increasing Township council from six to eight councillors.

. A full-scale investigation was launched after a man died while in custody in a Langley police cell.

. In a relatively happy false alarm, bones discovered at a Langley construction site turned out to be a dog's. Work stopped for hours and police cordoned off the area while the determination was made.