AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3366, 19 December 1919, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

EFFECT UPON BANKING. —-- I AN OPTIMISTIC‘ DIRECTOR. I Reference to the drought in A,u.7.tra-‘ lie, was made by Sir Charles Mackellar I (the president) at the half-yearlyf meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of New South Wales. He said the advances were £1,538,000 more on the year, because of the gmater activity of the business generall‘_v, and because ef the eifects of the drought, which operated in ‘two ways, -first by increasing the demands for assist‘a.{lcc ‘with which to’ carry on, and lseevmd 'by interfering‘ with the returns Wllirth iusu'ally reduced seasonal 'inde'a:-adness ‘by sales of fat. and other stock. ' “While we realise,” he continued, “that 9. dry season of exeeprimrzl severity has come upon practically all Australia,. causing 'g,‘l‘eak aiixiety to pastoralists .<ll~Dd heavy expenditure for relief, these conditions h.lve,so far been fairly met by thelnieasures taken to cope with them_ Nevertheless there will be heavy losses of stock. “Agrieulturalists are naturally having a very bad time, too, and altogether the outlook for the 1)1'l1ll‘£ll'y_pI‘(‘|dueer is far from bright. But experience has taught-us that results in Australia depend on averages, and we have no reason to suppose that past experience will not be repeated in the present ease, and that good seasons will follow. So far as the bank’s business [ is concerned, we estimate for such cou;tingencies as far as is humanly pos- * sible,”