RAIN AT LAST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 13

RAIN AT LAST.

" MILLIONS IN IT."

DROUGHT HAS BROKEN.

relief just in time.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, May 27.

The news that has reached Sydney from the western and north-western districts during the past two days is the best that city and State have heard for the last 12 months. For over a vear a very large section of the best wheat and sheep country in New South Wales has b.een in the grip of a drought which many farmers think is the worst that the country has. known for 16 years.

But the. older men who have been on the land since the beginning of the century tell us that tliey have to go back to the great drought of 1902-3 to find any adequate parallel to the drought which began to break in the middle of this current week.

It is difficult to give anyone unfamiliar with Australia and its eccentric climate any adequate idea of what a drought in this country really means. When no rain of any appreciable volume or value falls within twelve months or more the personal and domestic hardships endured by farmers and settlers and their wives and children are almost inconceivable to those whose lives are passed amid the comforts of amenities of cities. Two months ago, trains were carrying water in all directions in the west, and north-west to supply settlers whose! wells and tanks had given out. Water from the Murrumbidge© was railed from Wagga nearly 50 miles to relieve the shortage, and housewives at Lockhart were taking their washing to dams twelve miles out of town. Menace of Ruin. But these personal difficulties are relatively small matters compared with the ever present menace of ruin which looms over all who make their living on the land or from the land in drought time. Not the least terrible aspect of the drought i# the appalling loss of sheep and cattle which are ita inevitable consequence. By the end of March the "Telegraph" told its readers: "Unless good rain falls soon, millions of. sheep will soon die in the south-western, western and northwestern parts of the State. Already many thousands of sheep have died and more are dying every day." A month later the news from west and north-west was as gloomy as ever, and still there WHS no sign of rain. "Sheep dying in increasing numberfs, water and vegetation almost gone," was the report from the police station at.Quirindi.

"It is absolutely awful," wrote one correspondent. "The plains are bare from here to Gunnedah, and there has not been a cloud in the sky for weeks."

And from Gilgandra came this terse and pathetic message: "A lot of sheep are dying and a lot of people are praying for rain."

What all this means to our "sheep men," who are financially and economically considered "the backbone of Australia," tan be but faintly conceived bjk outsiders. They must keep their flocks alive as long as possible, and this may mean absolute impoverishment before the drought breaks.

A report from the west during the first week in May informed us that one man in the Trangie district had been hand-feeding his sheep for 64 weeks at a cost of £100 a week. A settler near Warren who last year was worth £8000 is practically "starting from scratch" again to-day.

Some of the larger western stations, carrying 30,000 or 40,000 sheep, are paying out from £2000 to £3000 per week to keep things going.

One of the most famous of the western wool stations is Bundemar, "in the Narromine country—about 50.000 acres carrying about 20,000 sheep. This station has carried off the championship for Merino stud she»p many times at the Royal Show, but only by desperate efforts has its manager "kept his end up" during the drought.

Six months ago the natural water gave out, and they have depended since on sub-artesian boreb. They have been ; hand-feeding their sheep for 15 months, and the cost on this item alone has been at least £1000 a week. "The worst drought since 1902," says the manager, and hb-and many other experts estimated a month ago that if the rains did not come before midwinter the State's sheep flocks would show a return of 20,000,000 fewer than last season. Inscrutable Combination. The sheep'farmers of the western districts have had -fco wait long for relief, and several times their hopes have been raised only to be dashed to earth again. In March and again in April there were heavy falls of rain in the northern district, and the flooded rivers inflicted severe damage on many holdings. A month ago the promise of rain all over the west was suddenly thwarted by the incursion of a cyclonic disturbance from the north, but now at last the necessary conditions seem to have combined in some inscrutable way to ensure the breaking of the drought and the long-expected rains have come.

So far, though the north-west and the western sections of the State have experienced a wonderful relief, the rain has not yet spread decisively to the south-west, where the outlook has been almost equally despera|e. But enough rain has now fallen to secure both sheep men and wheat men in the districts affected against some of the worst dieasters that thev feared.

The excitement and enthusiasm of the settlers and farmers in the western districts have been almost uncontrollable. Several townships are reported to have "gone drunk" comprehensively, and at Bourke a substantial landowner standing over his boot tops in a street puddle declaimed joyously, "There's millions in it," as the rain fell fast around him.

As matters now stand, the State may escape with the loss of only 10,000,000 sheep or less, but while the Government will make every effort to assist the farmers and settlers by loans and low railway freights, the men on the land in New South Wales can confidently expect the periodic recurrence of these disasters unless water conservation is organised on a large seale and the farmers themselves save up their fodder against the evil days to come.