A Thirsty Land

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 14, 2 April 1903, Page 18

A Thirsty Land

To a representative of the 'Otago Daily Times' Sir Joseph Ward, on his arrival at the Bluff on Monday, gave a realistic description of the drought that is starving a great area of Australia. Here is an extract which will help our farmers and graziers to realise the blessings of living in a country of green fields and clear, running waters, such as our New Zealand is :—: —

'To give you some idea of what It means to feed sheep during a drought like that which the country is now suffering from, I may mention,' said Sir Joseph, 'the cases of three squatters whom I met, and who gave me some figures of the losses they had sustained entirely owing to the drought, and of the cost to keep the sheep that remained on the runs. One man, who owned 30,000, came down to 3000. To keep those 3000 cost 25s a head. It would probably have paid him better to have allowed them to go, but, anticipating rain, artificial feeding appeared to be the right thing to do. In another instance the squatter had 120,000 sheep, which were reduced by the drought to 30,000, and these cost about the same as the others referred to for artificial feeding. In the third case the squatter had 80,000 sheep, which were reduced to 16,000. On this side we can scarcely even begin to realise what it means- to some of the best men in Australia, who have been fighting against a drought that has continued for a greater tune than has hitherto been known. In other cases whole stocks have been swept away.'