The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1889. A Disaster Predicted

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 45, 3 October 1889, Page 2

The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1889. A Disaster Predicted

♦- In our Sydney telegrams it will be seen that the weather authorities there predict an extensive drought in New South Wales lasting from the middle of 1890 to the end of 1893. There can be no question that the scientific men who have made this statement have only done so after submitting their data on which it is based, to the severest crucial tests Whether they have considered the effect their prophecy may have on the value of property in stock and stations is another thing. It may not be immediately disastrous, but it must direct a degree of attention to those securities which can only result in a deterioration of their value to a greater or less extent. On the other hand, should any faith be put in this vaticination by capitalists whose property would be endangered by its fulfilment, the latter may be induced by their fears to take steps to obviate any of the preventible evils by the inauguration by a complete system of irrigation. This idea has already been promulgated and acted upon in certain parts of that colony, and, after all, it might probably resolve itself into a mere matter of extension. As- ' suming that it is impossible for any such terrible calamity as an universal drought to overtake this more favored colony of New Zealand, it will be well for our farmers to keep in their minds-eye this possibility of a grass famine in New South Wales, in order i that they be prepared to take tho fullest advantage of that market for their produce.