DROUGHT IN AUSTRALIA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 281, 24 May 1912, Page 1

DROUGHT IN AUSTRALIA

DEAD (SHEEP AND THOUSANDS OF CROWS. Wantabadgery estate, which last September shore about 50,000 sheep, is said to have lost 25,000 head from dry conditions, and every day adds to the destruction, wrote a correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald a fortnight ago. Crows are around by the thousands, despite that one man named Seymour poisoned 1100, another secured 700, and two other men 500 and 300 head respectively. The royalty of 6d per head was paid on the lot by the pastures board. At present sheep stumble, never to rise, and are instantly attacked by crows, who remove the eyes at once, in many instances attacking the sheep before they fall. This loss is not only due to dry conditions, though there is certainly a dearth of grass. Last year there was close on 30 inches of rain (far above the average), and a large portion of rain fell at the end of the year, and yet a few months after there are paddocks (none watered better in the State at present) bare as a sheep cap. The ttftuble is the rabbits (have eaten all before them. The trouble appears to be that the rabbits were not kept down prior to the dry spell.