WANGANUI

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 142, 11 March 1919, Page 8

WANGANUI

It was predioted "(says the Waitotara correspondent of a Wnnganui paper) that a long spell of dry weather would follow as the result of the almost unprecedented rains and storms which characterised tho past year. The production has been verified and we are now experiencing a veritable drought. The country round is beginning to wear a parched aspect, fodder is getting scarce and as a result the drovers are being keijt busy. Largo mobs of cattle and thousands of sheep are daily passing alomj the main road and to the railway station. In the back-blocks bush fires aro in vogue. Tho upriver roads, which were rendered impassable owing to 6corcs of slips and heavy mud, have been cleared of the obstructions just sufficient in many bad places to permit of vehicular traffic being resumed. The scarcity of labour, I understand, is accountable in .a great measure for the County Engineer being unable to get the necessary repairs effected so as to" get the roads back to normal, There is no metal available for these * voads, thus in place of mud there is now a layer of several inches of dust. The consequence is that, when mobs of sheep and cattle are being driven over them the drovers and their herds become enveloped in a moving and almost impenetrable cloud. The Waitotara River, which was, almost constantly in a swollen condition throughout last year, is now so low as to be fordablo at many places in the upper reaches. Household suoplies of water are at a very low ebb, and unless the tanks aro soon replenished tho river will have to supply tho necessitous.

The Waitotara Maoris suffered badly from the effects of the influenza epidemic. In one instance, that of Waki Epou, he, his wife, a son, a brother and other relatives succumbed in rapid successionsome fourteen in all, .