A Terrible Visitation.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 143, 16 May 1884, Page 2

A Terrible Visitation.

Ths Late Drought m New South Wales.

The story of the drought (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) is a ghastly revelation of dumb suffering, far-spread* inj desolation, and ruinous loss. For weeks past men have spoken m the metropolis with 'bated breath of the disasters which have attended the drought m the interior. Perhaps the first outflow of sympathy has been towards the unhappy squatters and farmers, who are fast held m the double grip of pitiless skies and pitiless banks. But this morning it is impossible to read the reoord of the rainless country without a larger outflow of tenderer feeling towards the millions of sheep and cattle, bred for our prosperity, now enduring the pangs of hunger and thirst, dying m dumb agony m thousands every day. The imagination is incapable of realising, and wor,ds have not vivid meaning enough, to describe this vast paiD. It is to be hoped that no other part of the globe surpasses Australia has a scene of animal snffering. And it is to be hoped that science and legislation may soon lessen the magnitude of this reproach to colonisation. The terribleness of the actual loss up to date cannot be over-estimated, and the out-look is the most gloomy that settlers have had to face for many autumns. A poverty-stricken winter threatens large tracts of country. Mudgee reports that, though m the immediate vicinity of the town and effects of the drought are not desperate, towards the Oastlereagh there is not a blade of grass or a drop of water. Bathurst reports that the harvest has been short, and farmers cannot plough till rain comes ; that bush fires have destroyed much of the feed for the stook ; and that the Macquarie has ceased running, and that the town water is of bad quality. Dubbo reports that the Macquarie is only a series of water-holes, some of which are miles apart ; that siuce Noreraber less than lin of rain has fallen ; that terrible stories of desolation are coming m from the Rogan stations ; aud that forage for Western teams is at fabulous prices. Nyngan reports that the contractors for the railway extension to Bourke have to dispatch a 12-truck water-train daily to the head of the line, and water is carted thence 40 miles to the gangs working on ahead ; And that all along the line may be seen the bodies of horses, cattle, sheep, dingoes and emus ; that stock are walking skeletons, and that a squatter killed 400 calves to save the cows, and then lost the cows, besides thousands of cattle. Wilcanni* .reports that the loss of stock must be over half-a-million m that district alone; that the rainfall for 1883 was only eight inches ; and that the season is the worst ever experienced. Wentworth reports that though the fall of rain at the beginning of the month gave many stations a two- months' supply, the condition of things up the Darling is very serious, cattle, sheep and horses dying m all directions.