Tel.: 6582 28 MITCHELL ST., DARWIN

Vol. 20, No. 188 DARWIN, SATURDAY, SEPTEM8ER 11, 1971

Aic The Minister fo1·

Health, Senator Sir Kenneth Anderson, is considering a number of urgent te·:nporary measures to improve conditions for Abor­iqcnal children at the Aiice Springs hospi­tal.

Sir Kem1et:h visited the hospital last week, and ::aid later he w~s disturbed at v;hat he saw.

H~:.; v:.,:~ followed Lhe publication of official figures showing that al­most one in five Abori­ginal children born in the southern division of the Territory last year died before the age of 12 months.

Wallaby sho ters "threat t rfe"

Someone would be killed soon if some­thing were not done soon about the· indis­crimina!e shooting of wallabies a !' o u n d Leaning Tree lagoon, Mr Kevin McGregor said yesterday.

The lagoon is off th~ Humpty Doo ro:td just past the Adelaide River bridge.

"People are camping at the billabong all th 3

time, an::l. I <tm living there permanently," h e said.

"Some ueonle ar·~ coming down ·there <tt;

weekends an::l. blastin~ :::.way at everythinG that moves.

"Wall abies :ue being shot right, left and centre.

"Apart frvm the un­necessary destructio:t o f a nimals, this is makin:; thing:; very dangcrou·.; down there for peoi)le.

"Someone is going tn

get shot, if not killer. . pretty soon if some­thing is not done abou ·; it.

"I have put a few signs up here and there , and it seems to have stopped them n. bit, b~t not much." Mr Mc­Gregor said.

He said he had hls suspicions that it was people connect.P-d w~t.h r:reyhound racing whc. were doing the sho:>ting to get meat for their dogs.

His visit a.lso came in the wake o> complain t:> by nurses and Al:c2 Spring.:; clergymen (hat o'ercrowding and c;:oss­infecti -n at the hosv.it.al were contributing tc the high death rate.

They called on the Government to take im­mediate stq:s to improYc nursing conditions pending completion of R.

new hospital by . 1975.

It is understood that one of the measures bE'­ing considered by Sena­tor Anderson involves action that would en-

'

I

A spectator at the big burn. This govern- 4 ment official watches ~ as smoke billows to 18,000 feet during the fire-bombing of the Darwin River catch­me·nt yesterday. It was the biggest deliberate­ly - lit bushfire Aus­tralia has ever seen. It was necessary to burn vegetation from the bed of what will become with the next wet the new Darwin River Dam stor­age area. The fire- bomb­ing began about 12.37 pm and ended just on 1.50 pm. It was estimated that lOO,OO<t tons of fuel wa 1

burnt in the first two hour!'. The official above was part of the observer team photographing the fire and was measuring its heat. - Story on P. 8.

S·O·UTH AFRICANS T SYDNEY. South

African cricketers are expected to dominate the 14 - wan Resi - of­the • World cricket team which will be in-

• vited to play in Aus­tralia this summer

The World XI tow: has been decid-:d on as a replacement for the can­r·elled South African cricket tour. which was to have starte:l on October 22.

But Iv'i:CC officials in London say Australia will

face many more problem!i in organising a rest of ~he world eeries than

England had last year.

Last year, as e\'ery sea­son, most of the world's best players were con­tracted to English county sides and the MCC had to bring only two players frcm overseas Eddie Bar-

low and Graeme Pollock from South Africa.

The position would pro­bably be reversed for Aus­tralia with cricket au­thorities h::tving to import the bulk oi t he side.

England fast bomler John Sr..o .1 y, ill no t be available for the World XI.

The Carlton Cricket Club in Melbourne, which is bringing him to Aus­tralia to play district cricket, will not l'Ciease him.

"'est Jml'an Capta~n, Gary Sobers, and South African tatsman, Edd 'c

~ E:!rlow al o will not be U\'aila b!c.

'' • • I IS e

able hospital staff to t eparate the acu ely ill children from tho~e who are convalescing.

There are about 9G Aboriginal children in the hospital and only a handful of European children.

Mos c of the Aborig!.­nals have been brought in from ou LJying Gov­ernmen0 l' ettlements, missions and cattle sta­tions.

They are reported to be suffering from respi­ratory tract and bowel infections, gastro-enteri-

tis, vitamin ctefic:encies protein caloric malm.!~ tnticn, pneumonia and o~her conditions.

In a bid to ensure maximum reco\•ery and return to good heaHh the medical staff at t.hc hospital have been hold­ing Aboriginal children in the wards for lengthy conva.lescent periods.

This has contributed to the overcrowding pro­blem.

A panel of senior medical men from the Health Department will soon visit the north­west NSW town of

the Collarcne'bri to discuss claims by the resident doctor there that the high <ieath rate of Abor­iginal children in cen­tral AusLralia has been aggravated by Govern­ment immunisation campaigns.

The claim-; \Ve!·e made by Dr A. Kalokerinos, who · has been cam­pair,ning· for changes to tmdawnal methods of treating Aboriginal children.

He says two main rea­<ons for h s success in keeping the death rate do-;vn to a minimum in his area have been the use of vitamin C injec­tions to make up for chronic deficiencies and strict regulation in the timing of vaccines.

CANBERRA.- Federal Cabinet is becoming increasingly alarmed at growing indications that the business community is 11talking" rhe economy into a recession.

It is concerned that its own anti-inflation campaign since February has generated too high a degree of cautio·n and pessimism about economic ·rrends.

The Prime Minister, :rv:r "H will iJe ciear- i>ter~> ------.-----.'icMahon, and the Trea- is no warrant for the pre-surer, Mr Snedden, are rent spate of alarmi~t rc· no'\· intent on curbing the adions, but if they con~ pes~imism and the deve- tinue they coul.d do lopment o.f what it fears harm," he said. is a "recessio:1 psycho- Mr IvrcMahon in his

budget speech spoke ot tho::e who "relish playing the role of prophets of gloom ."

logy".

Thi ; was evident in P~rliz.ment yesterday ~vhen, for t.lle third time :n three days, the Gov­crnmrnt declared its willingness to bring down a. r,u;1;l(:m~nt::Lry bud~e! if anti-i:1flai.ion measures proved too restrictive.

Mr Snedden said firm ­ly: "As I said in my bud­get speech, v.re will be keeping .';,he whole situa­tion under very close re­view so as to make any adjustments in policy that might prove neces­sary."

Mr McMahon made a similar statement in his bud'get speech last Tues­day night and again dur­ing question time 0-:1

Wednesday. And like Mr McMahon

on Thesday night, Mr Snedden y e s t e r d u. Y strongly conC.emncd what he called "alarmist re­actions" to business fore ­casts of economic trends.

"The sooner ,,.e learn to ignore them the better it will be for the develop­ment and prosperity of this country," he &aid.

The lated economic in ­dicators re:.:eased were Thursday's survey by thz Associated Chamber of Manufactures and the Bank of NSW, and Com­monwealth statistics on private capital invest­ment.

Both forecast industrial and capital spending t-rends for the six months to D ecember 31 which have been described by economic commentators as depressing.

The latest unemploy­ment figures, due out on Monday, are expected to follow the same pattern

The Fe..: era~ Oppos~;ion Leader, Mr Whitlam, asked Mr Snedden in Par­liament yesterday: "Do the statistics r.eveal that

---- ------- the budget strategy has been based on a complete misjudgement of tren~s in the economy, and, 1f pursued, will produce con­"equences of the most damaging kind G

Sir Donald Bradman, Chairman of the Austra­lian Cricket Board of Control, said the board had received and accepted an offer by a consortium of newspaners to sponsor a World XI team.

The president of the anti-apartheid movement in Sydney, Miss Meredith Burgmann. said no de­mon c::tr ations would be conduc ted aga ins t the W orld XI team if it did

Mr Snedden reacted l\.n~rily. He accused ~r Whitlam of totally mis­cunstructing what he had said in the budget.

Later, to another ques­tioner. he claimed the forecast of the two sur-veys were being . ~isre­presented and Imsmter­preted .

Two opal thieves gaoled

The three .men charged with the theft of $84,000 worth of opals from a bus at the Three Ways near Ten­nant Creek on June 16 have been found gui lty in the Alice S p r i n g s Supreme Court.

The men ·were found guilty at 7 pm on Thurs­day nighL after the jury had been out for four hours.

Two of the men re­ceived gaol sentences and the other a good be­haviour bond.

Mr Vlaa·o Lipahor was found g·ui!ty of larceny­and was sentenced by Mr Justice Forster to 18 months' gao!.

Mr 1\'Iarkos Seric was sentenced to 6 months gaol for aiding and abet­ting the crime, and Mr Anton Antunovic rereiv­ed a three year, $300 good behaviour- i.>ond after h e was found guilty of being an ace~csEory

fact. after the

All three men were chargeci' with larceny.

Judge Forster sentenc­ed the men at 9.30 am yesterday.

Rural magaztne

inside

"It must be remembered in relation to that survey lby ACMA-Bank of NSW) that the people surveyed are members of an organisation which is publically making- clear its view that the Govern-~

include South African mr:n t . ough t to r~lax its r·cst:·a "n ts ," he "a1d. ---------=--pl:lycr,:;