TERRIBLE TOLL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 114, 17 May 1938, Page 9

TERRIBLE TOLL.

SHEEP PERISHING.

N.S.W. PLAGUED BY LOCUSTS.

THOUSANDS FED OX WHEAT.

Plagued by omnivorous locusts for the third year in succession, western districts of New South Wales and portions of Victoria have been denuded of pastures and eheep are dying off in large numbers. The conditions, which are the worst Australia has experienced since 1908, were described this morning by Mr. W. S. Haylock, a Takapuna farmer, who returned to Auckland yesterday from an extensive tour of New South Wales and its hinterland.

"Hundreds of thousands of eheep are suffering in the far western districts, and many farmers who can do so are feeding them on wheat," said Mr. Haylock. "The farmer takes a few bags of wheat out on a dray and whittles—the sheep liavq long eince learned the significance of that whistle—and by making a hole in the bags the grain is spread for the sheep to eat. At Yoval, which is about 200 miles inland from Sydney, the silos have been opened and farmers are taking back wheat they have stored in an endeavour to save their flocks.

"One man more fortunate than the others contrived to obtain grazing rights for 3000 acree where there was grass, and he is reported to have paid £1 an acre for three monthe. Grazing land cannot be had by other farmers and they have to do the 'beet they can. In some places, around Trundle "and Tullimore, for instance, the eheep are dying off,