GOLDEN RAIN

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 42, 19 February 1930, Page 10

GOLDEN RAIN

WEATHER IN AUSTRALIA

MORE OPTIMISTIC • OUTLOOK

(From "The Post's" Representative.) ■ SYDNEY, 13th February.■■■

According to' amateur economists New South . Wales will! benefit,:• to! the extent of £1,000,000 or more as a re!.sult of the recent rain. While it is hard to calculate the value of rain in. hard terms of pounds/ shillings, and pence, and. while these estimates r are about as unsatisfactory as the frequent bald statement that the /drought has' been broken, in . this district or that, there is no doubt that, over a wide area, especially of parched country, the rain has come as the very grace of Heaven. The fact.that; in the: dairying country^ for, example, cream cheques have gone' up is one of. the best illustrations : of the effect of good rain. • . ■ . • ■

Fanners will bo able to meet some of their liabilities to . the stores. The. latter, in turn, will be able to reduce their bank. overdrafts, and so benefit will pass from one to another. As far as the wool industry is concerned—incidentally, the Prime Minister's offer in Sydney to assist any scheme to. put it on its feet has been warmly applauded—the need of the moment 'is not rain, but the stabilisation of /the market. Even drenching rain, however welcome and beneficial it has been in other parts, cannot dissipate the" dread spectre of something approaching ruin in many cases through . the.'. £ all in prices. *> ,: ■ The grim fact confronting . woolgrowers, whether, their lands are.deep in succulent grass or are parched by; drought, is that fleeces are being sold at a loss, and that their wool cheque is-likely.to.be, about £20,000,000 less in Australia this year than last. Rain, as has been pointed out, brings to growers a sense of confidence, as an,' insurance upon futurity,. but . that as-, pect of the position is distinct, front and. just now very much subordinate . to. the grave economic; problem of -supply and demand in the industry. ;