THE DROUGHT IN THE DARLING DISTRICT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 103, 19 April 1876, Page 4

THE DROUGHT IN THE DARLING DISTRICT

A correspondent of the Wilcannia Times, of the 15th of March, writes as follows of the state of the Darling district during the months of January and February last, and as, up to the latest accounts, no rain had falleu, the condition ofthe country must now be very much worse. The writer says : — " The river ia low and becoming stagnant. At Jandra, the first station one comes to after leaving Bomke, there is not very much to complain of, because there has been a little rain on portions of that run. At Yanda, the next station, real misery begios to be developed, the cattle perishing in hundreds. At the Fort Bourke Btation, a serious loss in cattle has already been entailed. At Buckambie, Kallarn, aDd the other stations lower down the river to Wilcannia, the Crown tenant is nearly in despair ; no rain, nor any signs of rain even now (the 7th March). At tbe Mount Murchison run, the sheep and lambs are perishing in thousands ; the poor creatures crawl to the river for water, get bogged, and, being too weak to extricate themselves, die in clusters. The aggregate losses that must inevitably be sustained during the present drought is beyond calculation, and may yet be beyond all precedent. Those who have to travel back are zealously watched by the boundary riders; the sheep and cattle naust travel their legal distance daily, if at all possible. A little latitude is allowed on aome runs ; but this is of little value

when there is not a scrap of grass or herbage half a mile on either side of , the road. From Wiloaoriia to Wentworth the cry is for rain ! The clouds are watched, thn diiectionjOf she wind noticed, and prophecies indulged in morning, noon,, and night. Men are ; ' whaling ' it on both sides of the river, all the way (say)— * all the way from Manchester, and wanting work to'do.' In fact, the squatters cannot employ them until a good supply of rain comes. |On several stations, fat cattle could be mustered for market, but it would be madness to risk the journey. When passing Louth, -I was ! informed that rain had fallen at Cobar, and tbat the tanks there were only half filled. No man cares now to travel oh horseback ; he is either likely to lose the animal, ; which will go out in the back country ifor feed, br it will knock up on the road. A horse team and wagon left i Wilenntia on the 2nd of January, with timber for Winb'ar, and the timber was not delivered till the last day of February. They lost some horses, and reduced the others to nearly skeletons. To describe the devastation on one run is nearly a sketch applicable to all. Flour is Is., and on some s* * tions it is j Is; 6d. perlb."