DEATH VALLEY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 393, 30 November 1932, Page 2

DEATH VALLEY

BONES ON TRAGK GRIM WARNING TO THE GRANITES GOLD SEEKERS. RAMPANT DISEASE. Adelaide, Saturday. "Death Valley," the notorious desert trap of Galifornia, holds no greater menace than The Granites, lone outpust of Australia's sun-scorched interior. according to Mr. C. M. Yeomans, mining engineer, who returned here to-day. Unless something is done to eheek the possibilities of disease, tragedy 1 will swoop on The Granites before Christmias, he declares. "Mark my words — the track out there will be strewn with' the bones of ; foolhardy men, unless they come to j their senses," he said, sounding yet ; another note of warning to the ill- | equipped and inexperienced adventur- [ ers who are answering the call of | desert gold. Typho.id is the dreaded menace that 1 hovers over the little desert town- j ship. "It may not be present at The j Granites yet," said the Commonwealth' , Medical Officer (Dr. Ponsford), "but if only one man there has had it years ago, it will spread like wildfire among the workers on the field." Won't Listen to Reason. Men without even cameL transport i — men with just the clothes they walk i in — laeking both money and food, are ! pushing on towards The Granites, says Mr. Yeomans. "These men, who will not listen to ' reason, sh'ould be stopped by law, as , a menace not only to themselves, but to those who might have to risk their lives in search of them," the mining engineer declared. The water at The Granites has already brought on dysentery and barcoo rot, and is a possible source of typhoid. Pure food is not easily available, and the lack of these essentials leads inevitably to disease. '