1915 - A Family Rift       Thirty-two members assembled to share this austerity at the Annual Meeting of January, 1915, and the fight over the proposed tariff of fees continued. The committee appointed for that purpose had drafted a proposed tariff, copies of which were distributed to those present, and a motion for its adoption was made. Once again this brought the President out of the chair in opposition; this time it was Mr. R.W. Cautley who, seconded by the past-president, Mr. Charlesworth, moved an amendment that copies of the tariff be sent to every member of the Association, together with a ballot for the purpose of voting thereon, that the ballots be returned to the Secretary and dealt with by the Council on a straight majority vote. On being put to the meeting, the amendment was lost, and, at the request of Mr. Cautley, a poll vote was then taken on the motion, which was carried by a vote of 14 to 7. There was a rift in the Cautley family over this issue, R.W. voting against the motion and R.H. for it. The winning side then made and carried another motion to the effect that the tariff be printed and mailed to all members with a note stating that it had been approved at the Annual General Meeting. At the same meeting there was appointed a standing committee on land surveying field problems to answer questions submitted by members and to report the questions and answers at subsequent annual meetings. Five members were named to this committee, but there is no subsequent record of their activities, if any. There was a glut of technical papers at this Annual Meeting but only two were published. Town planning came up again in the form of a paper presented by Mr. R.W. Cautley entitled “Government Control of Townsite Subdivisions” which, unfortunately, is lost to posterity. Two papers on the survey of railroad spirals and private spur lines, which seem relatively inconsequential today, were read by Mr. Horace Seymour and Professor Muir Edwards. Mr. Charlesworth also presented a paper on Evidence, which must have been of some lasting value, but it was never published or placed on the files of the Association. In February 1915, there was a Council meeting at which the Secretary reported that he had written to DLS Board of Examiners in connection with the DLS – ALS reciprocity proposal made at the 1914 Annual Meeting. The DLS Board had given this proposal the cold shoulder, and the Council concluded that this idea would have to be considered disposed of for the present. The Council met again in December and, among other things, entertained a request for honorary membership in the Association which the Secretary had received from Mr. C.A. Magrath, a well-known civil engineer and Dominion Topographical Surveyor for whom the Town of Magrath in southern Alberta had earlier been named. Mr. Magrath already held commissions as a land surveyor in several provinces, and it appears that he cherished the ambition to become the first man in Canada to hold a commission in every province. He had made the grade almost everywhere else except in Alberta, and since he was not disposed to write any examinations, he suggested an honorary membership. After reviewing the correspondence, the Council was obliged to instruct the Secretary to inform Mr. Magrath that they found with extreme regret that they had no power to make him an honorary member. That seemed to be that, but this little matter stayed alive until 1932, when the Association finally got around to enacting a by-law authorizing the election of honorary members, upon which Mr. Magrath, who had by then ascended to the chairmanship of the Ontario Hydro-electric Power Commission, had his wish granted and lived to enjoy it until his death in 1949 at the age of 89.   Back - 1914 - "The Hoodooed Year" Forward - 1916 - Town Planning