A THREE YEARS' DROUGHT.

West Coast Times, Issue 72, 18 November 1865, Page 3

A THREE YEARS' DROUGHT.

(From the " Australasian.")

It is now becoming a very serious question with us whether wo aro entering on the second uummer of such a period of drought or not. These have occurred more than once since the first settlement of Australia, although few Victorians have had the opportunity of learning what they are, for there has not been one for about a quarter of a century. The extremes of climate to which New Holland is subject, are to be judged of from the fiwjt that one explorer declared the freat interior to be a vast sea, without any limits apparent to him after several days travel along its shores, and there is no reason to doubt that he truly described what he saw, even though another explorer almost perished for want of water in an arid desert where once this supposed sea vwaß.v waB. Such were the very opposite experiences of Oxley and Sturt, and such • are the extremes of climates in what are now included in the settled parts of Australia. A later explorer, M'Kinlay, had difficulty in escaping from floods and a wide expanse of water in the same desert interior, thus proving that the 'story of its having been before covered with water was not altogether fabulous, as many were beginning to think ; so we may well suppose that these extremes of wet and drought are not yet at an end. It is only, perhaps, within the tropics that falls of rain capable of effecting such a change are to be looked for ; but in the interior, dry .weather to a certainty predominates, and we are quite within the influence of it. Hound the south coast, and to a certain extent back from the sea, no absolute drought is to be feared ; but tho plains north of the coast-range are all more or less subject to this, and over a great portion of the Darling country and tho plains north of the Murray there was not a drop of rain for the last three years during the time of the last great drought. Only a few cattlo and horses were then in the tract of the country we speak of, so the effects then were not very serious, but tho drought, though not so absolute, extended in full force over the greater part of New South Wales/ causing loss enough there, and raising agricultural produce of all sorts to such prices as cannot be contemplated without dismay, now that the number of people to be fed has increased so enormously. The number of persons engaged in raising food has, of course, increased in proportion ; but unfortunately these will be all converted into consumers instead of producers, in those parts of the country visited by tho drought, for no amount of work of an 'ordinary kind can prevail against it. We have always been inclined to flatter ourselves that this small territory of ours is so happily situated as to bo free from the extreme vicissitudes of climate which are traditionary in New South Wales, but last year gave some idea of the mischief one dry so<ison can do, with the runs pretty fully stocked, and tho farmers wedded to a shortsighted, thriftless system ; and how will it bo if^that was only the first of three ? , \ Should such really be the orcf<?al through which these colonies have onfte itgain to pass, the prospect before us i&

a sad ono. Already are the consequences of a want of rain becoming ruinous in many parts of Now South Wales and South Australia. In this last-named, colony, the tracts of country farthest away from the sea, taken up and occupied with profit during a succession of wet seasons, have had to bo abandoned with tho loss of nearly all tho stock once upon them, now that the winter has passed over without rain ; and throughout a great extent of New South Wales, cattle, sheep, and horses are dying for want of a sufficiency of either feed or water, and hundreds of small settlers, dependent partly on tillage and partly on stock, are barely ablo to find food 'for themselves, and altogether unable to pay their debts. If such is the case with tho small settlers after one dry winter and summer, only too n:any of the large settlers in badly watered parts of the country will bo in like circumstances after the second dry summer, which to all appearance has now commenced. Deep wells may hold out, but dams will be useless without rain to fill the tanks and reservoirs ;j and how many millions of sheep arid thousands of cattle aro now dependent on theso alone for water throughout the level plains pf tho interior ? Many of such sources of supply failed last summer, and have remained dry, and how many more will not havo utterly failed before six months are over ? Then, as for grass, there will be absolutely none at all on thoso plains which have for several years past furnished so much of the meat we eat, and the wool we export, unless there should bo such rains as we have no right to expect over a tract of country which has before been unvisited by a singlo shower for three years together. And even on this side of tho Murray things promise to be little better away from the ranges. Only too many of the stockowners had no increase last year, owing to, the low condition of their stock, which, speaking generally, has had no chance of picking up during the winter and spring, and will therefore succumb early to a second period of semi -starvation. Thus if ono dry season prevented an increase, a second will cause a rapid decrease, not, unfortunately, t;o be guarded against by any means available now.

• The decline at present in the value of fat stock is only too commonly hailed as the passing away of a temporary pressure ; but this may quite as well be take as an omen of worse evils to come. Thft settlers are only too well aware of the. state of their own stock and of the country at large, not to know that meat must be very much higher a few months hence than it is now, and thus only sell what they havo fat, in despair of being able to wait for these better prices. So scarce is feed on most runs, even thus early in the year, that those animals which are marketable must be got out of the way of those which are not, as the only hope of keeping these last alive. Then, as each day elapses after shearing there will be less chance of fat stock finding ' even the most moderate picking beside the roads on their way to market, for many and many a flock of sheep will be sent on its travels this summer to avoid the calamity of absolute starvation at home. No, the temporary .over-supply must not be taken as a hopeful sign, but rather the contrary — as a compulsory waste of resources, And when this ceases, it is hard to foresee what the price of meat may not rise to, for no one can tell where enough is to come from. The few runs that will retain their fattening properties can only furnish a tenth of what will be required for the consumption of the towns, and even if store sheep are to be obtained for these there will be few store • cattle forthcoming, for the Mpnaroo Plains and other great tracts of breeding country in New South Wales bid fair to be {almost entirely cleared of stock by starvation and disease combined. Pork must be our last resource, and as the harvest will be light, there will bo little grain for the pigs, except at a high price. Then fresh butter will be a greater luxury than ever, dear as it was last year, and the supply of salt butter will depend entirely on importations from Europe. A light harvest means a short supply of breadstuffs, as well as little grain to spare for feeding purposes, and this will be followed by a poor yield of potatoes and other roots, and of vegetables and fruit. Thus the second year of the drought will leave us without enough of any of the chief articles of food, and with diminished powers to purchase. Breadstuff arid grain may be imported, and so may butter and cheese, in sufficient quantity ; but vegetables andfruit cannot, nor canfreshmeat, to an extent that will enable the poorer classes to continue anything like their present consumption of it. We will again be reduce to the condition brought about by the first great influx of gold-seekers, without a sufficiency of wholesome food, but dependent on the damaged grain and flour, the salt meat and two-year-old Cork butter, wherewith importers may deem fit to furnish us ; and this too without the money tho new arrivals brought with them, and tho gold they so quickly raised to purchase what was needed. Then the evil brought its own cure, but a drought will not only produce liko bad results, but will do this by destroying the actual sources of our national incomo and wealth at tho same time. It will render meat scarce by killing of our flocks and herds, and broad scarce by drying up tho soil to a state of aridity. It will diminish tho yield of golil, and in every way reduce •tho. amount of employment offered. It will bring us dear food, compulsory idleness, and low wages, and all this without ono singlo countervailing advantage. • Such is the dismal picturo of what a second year of drought must bring in its train, if it runs its ctfurse

without the providential intervention of such rains as wo have now no right to calculate on or expect. To a third year of suffering and impoverishment we may or may not havo to look forward, but with even the second thus imminent, it seems strange that so few of either our public men or private individuals appear to be alive to our danger. The weather cannot be changed at command ; clouds dropping rain and plenty ovor the face of the earth cannot be made to rise from the sea just when wo need them. But such resources as we havo may bo husbanded far moro carefully than they are, and until all fears of a three-years' drought havo passed away no public or private undertaking of any importance should bo entered on without due reference to the evils possibly, nay, most probably, impending.