SYDNEY - The Federal Govern­ment is setting up an interim Darwin Reconstruction Commission to take over administration for Darwin on Thursday.

The Interim Commission will be made up of representatives of the Federal, Northern Territory and Darwin City governments. It will stay in oper­ation until a statutory reconstruction commission is set up by Parliament, shortly after it resumes in. February.

Mr Whitlam said the Commission plan has been decided on by an emergency Cabinet meet· ing in Sydney yesterday. As well, it has decided to prepare an Appropriations Bill for early pre· sentaton to Parliament, which would provide funds for compensating all people iniured in the Chrstmas Day cyclone, and for continung social securties benefits to people who had lost homes or propety.

Mr Whitlam said the Commission will be headed by Sir Leslie Thiess, a distinguished civil engineer described by Mr Whitlam as "the best man for the iob." Mr Whitlam said that He also expressed the

Social Security Minister, Cabinet's "very deep ap­Mr Hayden, has been preciation" of the assist­appointed to take care ance of Qantas, Ansett of the rehabilitation of and T AA in getting evac­Darwin'.s people, and uees out of the area in the Minister for the the first days after cyc­Northern Territory Dr lone Tracy. Patterson, will have prime In response to a report­responslbility for recon- er's question, Mr Whit­struction of the city. lam said he did not be-

Mr Whitlam announced lieve his continued pre­that special social secur- sence in Australia would ity benefits will be paid, be of more comfort to regardless of means test, the Darwin evacuees, to people who have re- than his return to Europe. mained in the devasted Arrangements had been city. made for him to meet

Th e Reconstru c t i o n heads of state in Europe, Commission will be made and he would honor those up of representatives of commitments. Mr Whit­the Federal Departments lam did not say when he of Housing and Construe- plans to resume his tour. tion, the Northern Terri- In response to another tory, and Urban Regional question, Mr Whitlam Development, as well as said that, in general Darwin MLA'.s and mem- terms, Darwin will be re­bers of the Darwin City constructed where it Council. stands.

Sir Leslie, 65, a Queens- Details of the site will lander, is chairman of the be left to the Darwin Re-Thiess Brothers civil en- construction Commission. gineering group. He said: "It's still not

Mr Whitla.m says the known how many people interim commission can want to live in Darwin in be only advisory until future. Parliament acts in Feb- "Darwin is a big port ruary. and has a big airport -

The commission will be and besides, local people asked to decide on the like the climate near the best use of Darwin's lands coast." and remaining buildings. It was necessary to

It will also be called work out how many on to make recommenda- people want to go back tions about the type of in Darwin. building that should go Some of the evacuees he up in place of those tom had met at Sydney Air­down by Cyclone Tracy port said they did not on Christmas Day. plan to return - but

Mr Whitlam said the more had said they would CSIRO and other bodies go back. will be called on to advise In answer to a ques-on new building stand- tion, Mr Whitlam suggest-ards for the city. ed that the Reconstruc-

The old buildings were tion Commission will pre­not of an adequate stan- vent people from building dard for a cyclonic coast houses of the type that like Darwin's. were found inadequate in

The commission will be last week's cyclone. set up initially for a He said that the people period of five years. of the city would probably

The Prime Minister not be allowed back into paid compliment to pri- the city for about a week. vate donations from The Natural Disasters people trying to help the Organisation will hand Darwin victims. He said over control in Darwin to Australians had never the Interim Reconstruc­contributed so whole- tion Commission next heartedly to any appeal Thursday. before. Governor General Sir

Many foreign countries John Kerr will be at the had also donated. All the handing over ceremony. island states in the South Mr Whitlam angrily re­Pacific, several European jected a commercial tele­nations and some small vision reporter's claim African countries had that the Media Minister, sent donations and ex- Senator McLelland, had pressions of sympathy. refused to help commer-. Dr Patterson had been cial stations fly news film placed in charge of co- out of Darwin during the ordinating all the private weekend. and foreign .. efforts to The reporter said this assist. ··· was because of the com-

Mr Whitlam said he mercial channels' refusal wanted to place Cabinet's to accept some Media De­very deep appreciation of partment policies. Mr the work of the Natural Whitlam said he person­Disasters Organisation, ally had brought some which swung into action news film out of Darwin in Darwin. on Saturday night. 2 -The N.T. News, Tuesday, December, 31, 1974

MISSIO TO RU DARWI

"No Vacancies ... " Whoever wrote this sign "No water, toilet, TV, power, airconditioning or

outside a house in Alawa might have added: roof - only a sense of humor.''

Housing for those still Ln Darwin

A special committee is looking into the alloca­tion of accommodation for those stranded in Darwin.

Their first step is to encourage people already in houses to take in other families who have no shelter.

Temporary repairs are being made to the less damaged houses. The Accommodation Commit­tee, headed by Mr Gord­on Williams, re-assign these to those in need.

The capacity of hotels, motels and hostels will also be studied.

In addition to the Dar­win homeless, the influx of police, health and relief workers must be housed.

Information may be obtained at Block 1, Mitchell Street.

Work or get out! "We don't want people who are not pre­

pared to work to remain in Darwin," the Co-or­dinator of Emergency Services, Mr Ray McHenry

functioning for a variety of services

They are registration centres, uplift centres for flights leaving Darwin, they serve meals and they distribute food.

the major uplifts of people with basically vol­unteer support e v e r achieved anywhere in Australia," he said. said yesterday.

"People who are not working or have not reg­istered for work will be asked to leave

"There is no compulsion for people to evacuate But we would encourage people to seriously think about moving out for a period at this time.

"The people we would like to see stay are able

Health no

problem The health situation in

Darwin today is "most satisfactory."

Mr Hunter Harrison, Health Representative on the Co-ordinating Com­mittee, said that the first two stages of organising health control had gone very smoothly.

The two stages were treatment for trauma and public health innocula­tion.

The third is the clean­ing up campaign.

Massive quantities of rotting food is being cleared from twisted and b r o k e n refrigerators strewn in the debris.

"Periferal health cen­tres are being established at s t r a t e g i c points throughout the city. They are proving very effective already," Mr Harrison concluded.

In all, 2000 lots have now been cleared.

bodied men who are ready for work."

The overall situation was good, he said

Food distribution ar ... rangements were going extremely well from the main servicing centres, Darwin, Casuarina and Nightcliff high schools, and the YMCA.

These centres are still

Mr McHenry pointed out that you must regis­ter whether evacuating or not. This is to get an esti­mate of how many people are remaining and to match the compatability of services with the num­bers in Darwin.

"This has been one of

'Quenching costs man

"The airlift is continu­ing smoothly due to the excellent co-operation be­tween the RAAF, the em­ployees of the evacuation centres, the bus transport operators, volunteer staff, airline personnel and of course, the residents of Darwin."

1540 were :flown out

thirst' jail

A man was yesterday sentenced to nine months' iail on a charge of having obtained two bottles of liquor under false pretences three days after Cyclone Tracy struck.

Guldin Kelly, aged about 30, was also con­victed of posing as a Commonwealth Police officer but was mscharg­ed by . Darwin's Chief Magistrate, .. Mr .. David Mccann.

He pleaded guilty to both charges.

The court was told that Kelly, who was al­ready serving a sentence, had helped with relief work at Casuarina High School on Saturday and was only "seeking to quench his thirst.'

Tke Crown alleged that Kelly had impersonated a Commonwealth Police officer and obtained a bottle of brandy and a bootle of scotch whisky, most of which he then drank.

In a second hearing, Antonius Magoulis, George Fondoulis, Pav-

lous Magoulis and George Abramidis were charged with having in their possession goods which at the time of their ap­prehension were reason­able suspected of having been stolen.

Detective Senior Con­stable Peter Robb, of Liverpool police station, NSW, and Constable John Nagle, of Milperrra, NSW, told the court they saw the accused tearing sheets of iron from a shop at about 7 pm last Friday.

Constable Robb said he and Constable Nagle ob­served the four men , one of them appeared to have carried something from the shop into a car.

He told the court that when they approached them, one of the men said to him: "We got no food."

Constable Robb said the four .men were later found to have more than $1000 between them.

Mr Mccann dismissed the charges on procedural grounds , but ordered the defendants to pay $60 costs.

A hearing against seven men on similar charges was adjourned until January 2.

Peter Magoulis, 29, Theo Magripilis, 44, Stephen Vrettos, 34, Peter Anapliotis, 20, Orazio Parisi, 52, and Michael Billiris, 25, were remanded on $400 bail and $400 surety each.

Mr Mccann ordered that Theophilils Rigar, who is in hospital with a broken jaw,be ordered to pay similar bail and surety if he was released from hospital.

yesterday. Since the dis­aster 23,550 people have been airlifted to capital cities.

There is plenty of fuel in the Territory. There are normal deliveries in Darwin and good stocks down the track.

There has been a major injection of generating capacity into the city. To get refrigeration back into houses, 1500 small generator sets have been imported.

Drama in Court House

Darwin court was ordered to adjourn yes­terday after a dramatic confrontation between the city's Chief Magis­trate, Mr David Mccann and the relief opera­tions commander, Major - General Alan Stretton.

General Stretton ord­ered the court to be closed after he was told a 31l·-year-old-AboriginaJ had been given a nine­month jail sentence for obtaining liquor by impersonating a Com­monwealth Police officer.

He strode into the Court House and de­manded to see Mr Mc Cann. Mr McCann ad­journed the case he was hearing to talll.. to General Stretton.

Later, after meeting Mr Justice Forster, Darwin's Chief Supreme Court judge, General Stretton held a Press conference at which he apologised to Mr Mc­cann.