DROUGHT STILL ON

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 8

DROUGHT STILL ON

Australia’s drought is not yet over, according to Mr 11. D. Matson, stud stock manager of the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand, Ltd., of Christchurch, who has just returned from a visit to Australia. Mr Matson said this week that he had visited Molong, 200 miles west of Sydney, where there had been no effective rain for 15 months. The country was completely devoid of vegetation, he said, even the odd tufts of grass that might have been expected around fence posts having gone. Referring to the effects of the drought, Mr Matson said that he had

beeu told that a farmer in the Bourke area in western New South Wales, who had shorn 45,000 sheep two years ago, had only shorn 3000 in the most recent period. A problem currently facing farmers in drought-stricken areas with the winter approaching was that they had no hay and no prospects of making any. A big stud property was reported to have spent more than £250,000 on the purchase of supplementary feed. When the drought did eventually break and farmers had feed again, Mr Matson said it seemed that there would be a problem in obtaining sheep to stock up.