ABORIGINALS IN SCHOOL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29748, 15 February 1962, Page 7

ABORIGINALS IN SCHOOL

Government To “Stand Firm”

(N.ZP. A.-Reuter—Copyright) DARWIN. February 13

The Australian Government will stand firm on its decision to let full-blooded aboriginal children attend school at Elliott, midway between Darwin and Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.

This was made clear yesterday by the Assistant Administrator, Mr R. Marsh. Commenting on the decision of parents to withdraw white children from the school because, they say. native children are “unhygienic.’’ Mr Marsh said: “I hope when these parents realise that there are no grounds for sending any of these aboriginal children home for hygienic reasons, they will let their own children resume attendance.”

Five white and part-col-oured children at Elliott are meanwhile doing lessons at home

Their parents say their withdrawal has nothing to do with colour, only “lack of proper hygiene among fullblood children,” which they say could be a health risk. The children being kept away include Ruth, aged nine, and Margaret, aged 13, daughters of the school mistress. Mrs Margaret Allvar. But Mrs Allvar says she will teach the native children. She said that she had no objection to their standard of hygiene.

But she had been expecting to teach “a normal class of children—not aboriginal children whose education standard is far below that of the whites.” A