Regina News From December 1916
In 1916, The Sherwood Store was located in the building at Victoria and Albert that now houses the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Shoppers could buy a seal skin coat for $195, a bottle of Heinz Catsup for 29 cents, two tins of beans for 30 cents or a gallon of maple syrup for $1.80. On December 1st, 60 soldiers stationed in Regina were placed in quarantine because of a diphtheria outbreak.
On December 2nd it appeared that Henry Black had organized some co-operative advertising amongst the retail tenants in the Black Block. “The Busy Stores Of the Black Block Invite Your Trade” was the headline on the full page ad. A picture of the Black Block was featured with a head and shoulders image of Henry Black ethereally floating above the building. The Christmas marketing initiative included advertisements from: The Dominion Piano Store The Irish Linen Store The Marion Giles Dance Academy The Capitol Barber Shop and Billiards Parlor (which was STILL a tenant in the 1960s) The W.J. Brown Coal Company The Novelty Shop (“Regina’s popular variety store”)
At that time there was much commotion about the fact that Mr. Wright, the editor of the Regina Daily Post had claimed that Premier Martin had provided details about a yet-to-be-introduced Rural Credit Act during a conversation. The paper faithfully reported details of the Act to its readers. This was not a good thing and Premier Martin denied ever having had a conversation about the proposed Act with Mr. Wright. Premier Martin suggested that Mr. Wright had stolen documents from the Legislative Building. Mr. Wright then suggested that he obtained details about the Act from “a bureaucrat in the Legislative Building”. Premier Martin had every employee of government sign an affidavit swearing to the fact that they had not had any dealings with Mr. Wright or his paper and that it was OK if Mr. Wright broke any secrecy agreement that might exist between them. The names of all the employees who signed the affidavit were carried in the Regina Morning Leader.
On December 12, 1916 the province voted by an overwhelming majority (10:1) to shut down the remaining liquor stores.
The civic election of 1916 was a non-event for Henry as he had won sufficient support in the 1915 election to get in in office for two years.