The Tennant Times
The Tennant times; NewspaperNT
1977-05-13
Tennant Creek
Not published Dec. 26 1975, Jan. 2 1976, Dec. 24 1976, Dec. 31 1976, Dec. 30 1977, Jan. 6 1978.
English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Tennant Creek; Tennant Creek (N.T.) -- Newspapers
the Apex Club of Tennant Creek
Tennant Creek
The Tennant and district times
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
the Apex Club of Tennant Creek
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/285661
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/406503
Dear Sir, A recent article in the T.T. described the new offer for Local Government in Tennant. Todate nobody has put forward any arguments in favour of.local Government. Most residents seem apathetic in regard to this issue. Probably they reckon the Local Government will come eventually and just leave it to someone else to worry about the details. . The article described how over a 5 year pel"J.od rates would gradually be introduced, Council Chambers would be erected, and eventually some 18 new public servants would be employed. Why do we need a Council? What good will it do for us? Are we going to have an expensive new office building and 18 new public servants to rs-organise the collection of our garbage? Under the present situation many Tennant residents ars actively involved in their community life. There ars clubs such as Lions and Apex, nsny sporting associations, the Community Developnsnt Council, The Purkiss Reserve Trustee;:, the Crsche, School Councils, a Craft Group, a tnsacre Group, Folk Club and many other community organisations. There are a fantastic number of community spirited activities for a town of our size, If a Tennant Creek Council comes into existance one could imagine it being asked to take over many of these activities. What would happen to all our hard working community spirited people, They'd probably all sit down and whinge about the poor job the Council was doing, just like people do in thB cities. I think we are lucky that we do not have a Council. Far from being disadvantaged, we are streaks ahead of other communities. We are the enlightened ones unburdened by the trappings of a civic bureacracy. And the last thing Tennant needs is more public servants, In these days of high unemployment and inflation our nation can ill afford more public sevants. These people would contribute absolutely nothing to the Gross National Product and only serve to increase the amount of crippling red tape that already stiffles productivity. The cost of a Council to the Tennant Community far exceeds any benefit it may provide. Bruce Kay. Improved Mail Services The Tennant Creek Branch of the Country Women's Association has asked Mr. Tuxworth, the Member for Barkly, to continue to press the Federal Government for improved mail services in outlying~areas. Mr. Tuxworth said he felt the new service between Katherine and Borr~loola was a help, but there was still a pressing need for a service to be initiated between Borroloola Frewena and Tennant and he would fight for this.' VACATION CAR~ FUNDS During the weekthe Minister for Social Sec uri ty, Senator Margaret Guilfoyle, announced that funds had been granted to 8 Territ.ory organisations,. under the Vacation Care program which is organised by the Office of Child Care under th Senator's jurisdiction. Between 14 ~nd 27 M ye 800 .children will take part in numerous vacat~on proJects at Amoonguna, Alice Springs Papuny N~ulunbuy, Darwin, Tennant Greek, Mataranka :~d Pine ~reek. The activities in which the children will participate include crafts sports . al . ' ' soci. cam~ing, arts, bush craft, English instruction, films and painting A wid t t-t . e val"J.e y of pas .imes in which it is hoped that many children will be able to participate. 2 In recent weeks the abundant generosity of Tennant residents has been well in evidence In a small community like ours it is expected " that people are more interested in the affairs of.other townsfolk, than in a larger community, This concern and the response generated has exceeded all expectations. The Swimathon, organised by the Regional Branch of the Primary Schools Amateur Sports Association, to help.send children to compete in Darwin, raised over $3000. The wheelbarrow race and dance raised over $1000 to help a local wo!'ker. A large and active crowd attended the May Day Sports and contributed freely to the va!'ious money raising activities organised on the day, In all three activities and in many other smaller cause.s, money and help was given freely and enthusiastically. People worked hard for their money, 50DO laps were swum, and 32 miles were pushed, There is no doubt that people are willing to give of their time and money to causes they are close to, of which they have some pe!'sonal knowledge, and can participate in directly, One of the functions a local newspaper is to give publicity to worthwhile causes, This publicity is given freely, although some people and organisations are reluctant to use this f acili ty. If you are planning something, let us know about it and help you to get your message across to the people of Tennant, who have shown their willingness to help when they know what they are helping, CAR WASH GRADE 2 STUDENTS CAR WASH at AREA SCHOOL Saturday May 14 9am. - 12 noon lpm - 4pm Land Rights and Mining Continued from Page lo It would appear that, overall, Aboriginals do not regard their past expience with mining as good, Many see ming as inevitable, but wish it would go away. A current difficulty is the enormous push and pressure for mining from Gempanies and Government Departments on people with little education. Europeans see the issue in economic terms, however Aboriginals regard culture and land as of greater importance than jobs and wages, If their land is at risk they consider their whole culture to be at stake. Mr. Eames said that in the past some mining companies had not presented all the facts as known. These companies are distained by the Aboriginals as "Tricky" or "Like a Snake", thus making future dealings very difficult. The Land Councils provide a means for negotiation between companies and Aboriginals and allow many of the pitfalls of direct approaches to be avoided, The Councils present all propositions to the relevant Aboriginal groups, but recommend that companies supply all the information that they can. In concluding, Mr. Eames said that the challenge for the future is to see that all interests co-incide 0 Problems could occur if a large section of the permanent population of the Territory were allowed to live in bad conditions bearing a sense of greivance, Tribal Aboriginals have a real attachment to their land and tend to look at the question in terms of life rather than money or jobs. A key question was the relevance of the distribution of money from mining in the N.T., as Against money going to the companies. Mining royalties could make Aboriginals less dependent on the Government. The next few years could be testing and difficult if attempts are made to threaten or subvert Land Rights. Real understanding and lack of co-ercion are required. ALP NEWS ____ The Tennant Creek Branch of the A.L.P. is concerned by the proposed aerial baiting of Dingoes on Pastoral Properties. This method has been tried in the past and the amount of Dingoes killed against the cost was enormous. We reco~nise the fact that the Dingo is killing quite a large percentage of young stock, but we feel that the best way to control the Dingo menance is to raise the bounty of scalos to a realistic figure. Government admits wage restraint in the Fraser Government's submission to the national wage case. in March, it had to admit there was wage restraint: "Clearly there is very little movement outside wage indexation decisions", The Governments own statistics show that for a whole year more than 95 per cent of increases in adult male wage rates were inside indexation. Wage and salary earners have lost more than $619 million as a result of their share of the gross domestic product (non-farm) dropping in the 12 months to December by 3.3 per cent. Mr. Ian Tuxworth, Member far Community Services, this week introduced into the Legislative Assembly 3 bills that will relate ta the control and provision of dangerous and prohibited drugs in the N.T. The Dangerous Drugs Bill which covers drugs used for medicinal purposes and the Prohibited Drugs Bill which cavers drugs that have no medicinal value but hallucina~enic effects (L.S.D., Amphetamines and Cannabis)will have much stricter controls, greater police powers and much higher penalties. Mr, Tuxworth said that the Legislation was aimed at pushers of hard drugs and the penal ties for this offence will be increased to 15 years hard labour for the first offence, At the recent Karguru School Council Meeting concern was expressed that parents may not realise why the fee of $10 per child per term is charged. Enquiries at the School revealed that the fees are used to purchase about 15 prescribed workbooks per year for each child (spelling, english, :r;'Bading, maths), plus reading books, .rulers, pencils, exercise books, and so on, which the pa~ent is normally required to buy, Bulk purchases mean that considerable savings are passed on to the parents and that there is an ample supply of the correct items available at all times. Parents are also saved the time and inconvenience of shopping for these goods, As well as buying School materials, the fees cover the cost of Arts Council performances at the School throughout the year. ETHNIC AFFAIRS PORT FOLIO Mr, Ian Tuxworth, Member for Barkly, said today that the majority party in the Legislative Assembly would be establishing an Ethnic Affairs Port Folio, which would provide back up services for Migrants and Ethnic Grou~s. In the Legislative Assembly this week, Dr. Letts outlined the Country Liberal Party's concern at the lack of facilities such as English Classes, Migrant Information Centres and Interpreter Services which are normally provided by State Governments. Mr, Tuxworth said that at the recent Census it was established that only 5rY~ of the N.T.'s population is of Anglo-Saxon background and with this unique community COJl1position he felt the establishment of an Ethnic Affairs Port Folio would be of benefit to the community as a whole and particularly to Tennant Creek. ~ MEATS I Phone 129 And the figures on average weekly earnings show the rate of increase in the December quarter fell sharply to 0.9 per cent, the lowest increase Quality locally killed beef We stock plenty of Lamb, Pork, Veal and Fish since 1967, According to official estimates, real wages fall by another 2.7 per cent in the first two quarters of this year. Authorised by G, Bremner. 3