TWO YEARS’ DROUGHT

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20279, 23 August 1937, Page 6

TWO YEARS’ DROUGHT

CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA; CATTLE BLOWLY STARVING. WAIKATO FARMER’S VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. Monday. “It was pitiable,” said Mr Clivt Matthews, a prominent Waikato stock ! dealer, on his return from Australia 'by the Monterey to-day. •* Along tha ■ • northern coastal areas they have had jno rain for two years. I travelled 600 ' miles through parched-up areas where there was not a blade of green grass. Everything was yellow. Emaciated cattle were in a state of slow stsrvaj tion. and the whole appearance of the ( district was one of poverty. Apparently years will be needed to bring about a financial recovery. The mainstay of producers at present seems to be poultry." Mr Matthews also described the ravaging effect of the drought around Toowoomba, a wheat-producing district inland from Brisbane. Only parts of these wheat lands had been bene- ! flted by the mid-August rains which, j however, in the case of New South Wales, were estimated to be worth £8,000,000. He saw 5000 cattle sold weekly at auction at Brisbane, the top price realised being £ll, which is about 50 per cent, below recent valued for prime beasls at Westfield.