THE DROUGHT.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1919, Page 3

THE DROUGHT.

SYDNEY, Nov. 4. Three parts of New South Wales is suffering from drought, and the remain ing part can render very little assistance. Another two months of such con ditions, and there will be a. national calamity (states the Sydney “Daily Telegraph”). All new hay is being cut into chaff. Where will the fodder for next winter come from ? When general rain falls, stock to markfet will be reduced 75 per cent. In cases, sheep, too weak to walk, are shorn in the paddock, and then their throats are cpt. Cattle are dying in thousands. Draught horses and colts stagger and fall, and thfcir eyes are then picked out by the crows. This terrible story of the toll of the drought is told by Mr Wearne, M.L.A. secretary of the country committee of the State Nationalist Par-

: Hamentary Committee, who has just re- j ' turned from a tour of the north-western : districts. “This.” he says “is a series : of droughts, one on top of the other, 1 I covering on the aggregate a period of 1 of nearly three years. Rain would fall ( and bring slight, and temporary relief, j bnt before any more rain would fall i whatever relief had been given would pass a\yay, and conditions be worse than ever. Queensland has failed, and thousands of sheep and cattle which New South Wales sent across the border are now being brought back to die at home. In 1902 the highest I ever paid for chaff was £lO 16s per ton. At the same place to-day, is is £l6 per ton, and difficult to purchase, and this in spite of the fact that the Government is carrying fodder over 800 miles for Isj 8d per ton, or 10s for a 6-ton truck. The wheat crop has failed, and failed badly, and, taking into account the most reasonable estimate of wheat in the few favoured districts, there will be little more wheat than. is required for seed for next year s seeding. Already the Government has sent buyers to other States to buy wheat for food supplies. The Sydney market to-day is supplied by stock half fat, sent in by owners to make room for !the weaker stock that are left on the place, and to roduce the exponse of feeding. Cattle ar e now dying in thousands. One place alone has lost 7000 head of cattle, and another lost 7000' head of cattle, and another station in my electorate has lost 40,000 sheep, after spending over £IO,OOO in fodder. “No attempt is being made to save horses. Beautiful draught colts and Tillies walk and walk, looking in vain for a mautttful, until' they stagger and fall. A few weeks ago, near Narrabri, I saw 10 horses given away * 1

by one man who had fed them as long as he could, and could do so no longer. For some time past in many parts of the North-West,” proceeded Mr Wearne, “ as soon as the calf or lamb is born it is knocked on the head, so that the mother may have, a chance to live. Those calves or lambs in many cases, meant to the owner the difference between reovery and absolute ruin.”