AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1924, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

PLAGUE OE GRASSHOPPERS. SYDNEY, -March 20. Last week reference was made to a certain type of caterpillar which appears periodically in different parts of Australia and mows down large areas of herbage. Since then reports have come down from the Bathurst district of the depredations of a similar post m the shape of clouds of grasshoppers. These are so vicious ami numerous that they completely denude a tann of grass in the course ol one day. and 110 means of combatting them has been discovered. Fortunately such a visitation does not last for long, hut it is truly a plague to file locality in which it occurs during the weeks that it does last. On one occasion near Broken Hill the swarms of grasshoppers were so great that they brought a train to a standstill, the mangled remains of those that were mown down making the line so slippery that the wheels of the engine would not grip the rails. Tho Bathurst visitation of the past few days has proved disastrous to some farmers. They had I teen congratulating themselves upon the luxuriance of the growth following the recent rains, which had acted with almost magical effect on the droughtdried ground, when the very abundance of the growth seemed to bring the swarms of grasshoppers into existence. In Lite Artlinrville quarter of the district the farmers are left with scarcely a blade of grass, and, with the winter upon them, they will have to seek assistance elsewhere in order to keep their stock alive, just as they would in time of drought. One farmer in the district, .Mr Harold Lane, had all his grass swept away in less than one day. The pest is so rare that it is not worth anvhody’s while to experiment

villi preventive measures. There is lot even any form of insurance in •oguc against it, so that fanners have limply to grin and bear their losses.