DROUGHT IN THE NORTH

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 114, 11 February 1928, Page 8

DROUGHT IN THE NORTH

GROUND CRACKING; COWS BEING HAY-FED A resident of Wellington, whose duties call him to all parts of the Dominion, has just returned home from a tour of the Auckland province, which he says is suffering from drought in a more acute form than has been the case in his memory. He states that for the most part there has been no rain worth mentioning in the province for the last two and a half months —■ since the end of November—during which time the weather has been unusually warm. So badly had the grass supply dropped away that the milk returns' had fallen 25 per cent., compared with what they usually were at tlie present time of the year, and the drop was becoming more accentuated every dav as the pastures withered almost into nothingness in places under the daily blaze. The midsummer potato season had been a failure in thp Waikato district, and hundreds of acres of “marbles” were being dug in, as there was now no chance of them coming on with the earth dusty dry. “Taranaki is suffering, too, from the abnormally long spell of rainless weather, plus the heat,” he said. “The pastures there have practically disappeared, and as early as the last week in January some of the farmers were hav-feeding their cows in the PateaWaverlev district. In some parts of the Bay' of Plenty district the ground is cracking in all directions for lack of moisture, in a manner, in some instances, that the oldest inhabitant cannot remember. Round Te Kowhatu, near Huntly, the ground also, shows drought cracks over a considerable area. . “The water of the Waikato River is still befouled by the pumice deposits let loose by the flooding of the new riverbed at Arapuni. After the water is filtered three times it is stilt milky in appearance. Local people do not seem to mind drinking it, but the stranger from without has his doubts about imbibing this ‘pumice squash.’ ” Auckland City itself is in a straitened condition for water. Most of the hotels have a notice in the bathrooms requesting guests to use as little water as possible.