RAVAGED BY DISEASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1919, Page 6

RAVAGED BY DISEASE.

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. APPALLING CONDITIONS. Sydney, Dec. 10. An appalling condition of affairs is reported by Dr. Basedow, who has returned to Adelaide after four months spent in Central Australia conducting a "medical reconnaissance" among the aborigines. | South Australia, for the purposes of this medical inspection, has been split into four sections. Dr. Basedow has just concluded a tour of the remote north-east, the area lying between the borders of Queensland, Na*v South Wales, and the Northern Territory. In the early "eighties" it was officially reported that the blacks there were increasing so rapidly that they threatened to become a menace to the white population. "That is far from being the case today," said Dr. Basedow. "There has been a serious diminution in their numbers through , the deadly ravages of disease, venereal and tubercular. I had never been in this country before, but the position of the aborigines is far worse thun I had expected. ■ I' saw only one piccaniny on the ftmamnoka side, and it died when it was three weeks old These tribes are simply rotten with venereal disease. I treated a large number on the spot, and left them supplies of medicine, but I am afraid it is too late—the trouble is so extensive. It was marvellous how the news travelled that I was in the country. It went by 'mulga wire,' as they say in these parts—for the natives have their own system of wireless telegraphy." The doctor described many strange and interesting things he had seen in this terra jncognitis, but his chief impression was of the drought. This great region is gasping for water; in there it is the worst drought known' to the white people. The cattle and sheep on the stations which border this uninviting land are dying in thousands. Dr. Basedow at one place heard the uncanny booming noise often referred to by early explorers. It is like a succession of deep blasts. The doctor attributed it to atmospheric conditions, the result of the extreme dryness.