Australia - Guinea - New Zealand

Jan. 10 Death In the Sun: The Sun which beats down remorselessly on the far north of Australia has saved the executioner o job. A campaign to kill off the 200, 000 strong herds which roam the territory is expected to be announced later this year. But already hundreds of the great, lumbering beasts, whose ancestors were brought to Australia. from India 140 years ago, have been wiped out in the great drought. Their existence in the inhospitable north has always been precarious. Thousands of years before the white man's arrival, Australia rejected the bovines that had found their way there and nurtured the more mobile and adaptable marsupials. Now the buffaloes, apparently lacking the primitive instinct of the other wild animals, have been unable to seek out water and grazing. On a helicopter trip about 70 miles east of Darwin, in the Lake Finnish area - the occupants came upon a ghastly exhibition of nature at its most Merciless. The Surface mud crust had cracked into endless crystal-like formations, with clinging bog beneath it. In their crazed search for water the buffaloes had ventured out from the firm ground into the morass from which they would never emerge. Leaving the graveyard and moving eastwards towards the Mary River they sighted a few mobs of Kangaroos, moving freely and apparently in good condition. The native Australians had survived where the invaders perished. The Australian Government will make its final decision on the fate of the remainder of the herds after a Csiro team reports on a survey of the herds after a Csiro team reports on a survey of the suitability of land South- east of Darwin fro castle raising. If the report is facourable. an order will be made removing the buffalo from the list of protected animals. And the slaughter will begin

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Adaptable Ancestors Announced Apparently Australians Beats Begin Bovines Buffalo Buffaloes Clinging Cracked Crazed Crust Darwin Decision Drought Eastwards Emerge Endless Executioner Expected Fate Finnish Firm Formations Freely Ghastly Grazing Herds Hundreds Inhospitable Instinct Invaders Kangaroos Lacking Lumbering Marsupials Merciless Mobile Mobs Morass Nurtured Occupants Perished Precarious Protected Raising Rejected Remainder Removing Reports Roam Saved Seek Sighted Slaughter Suitability Survey Survived Unable Ventured Wiped

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