100 Years Ago: 1924

Officials of the State Fish and Game Department assert that they have failed to find any evidence of a pestilential louse, or tick, attacking the partridges in Maine.

Robert K. Tukey, cashier of the Newcastle National Bank, is going to show ’em that such an insect exists.

Saturday Mr. Tukey shot a partridge, with the feathers of its neck missing and clinging to the bird was an insect which he describes as a cross between a house fly and a sheep tick. It was dirty gray in color, with wings like a fly and a large body.

It will be sent to Willis E. Parsons, commissioner of fish and game.

On the same day, several miles from the place where Mr. Tukey shot his partridge, Morrill M. Smith got two, both of which apparently had the feathers eaten from their necks.

50 Years Ago: 1974

According to the monthly newsletter of the Auburn Business Development Corp., during the month of August, workers in the Auburn-Lewiston area earned an average weekly wage of $119.01.

The figure was, once again, the lowest of nine selected New England Metropolitan Areas.

The Lewiston-Auburn worker earned an average hourly wage of $3.14 and worked an average 37.9 hours per week.

25 Years Ago: 1999

Maine has the best education system in America for the second year in a row, Gov. Angus King said Thursday, citing a new national report.

That news, from the National Education Goals Panel, is “huge,” King said. He grouped it with the state’s ranking this spring as the best place in the country in which to raise children.

“I don’t know how much better this can get,” he said at a State House news conference.

The independent panel gave Maine high marks in 21 of 40 education indicators, more than any other state. Connecticut performed highly in 20 areas, North Dakota in 17.

“Therefore, the state with the best educational system in the country is Maine,” King said.

Maine also got the top ranking overall in the panel’s report last year.

Some of the categories Maine scored well in this time include early prenatal care, early childhood immunizations, high school completion rate and student performance in reading, math and science.

“Our eighth-grade science students are truly world class,” bragged Education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese.

He said only one nation, Singapore, beat the Maine students in science.

The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.