DROUGHT IN AFRICA

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LI, Issue 8097, 23 September 1922, Page 4

DROUGHT IN AFRICA

♦ —-—- Capetown, Aug Id. Drought is on the land - such a dn light as has never been known mi the history of this country From nottli to south, from east to west, for a thousand mile.- and mere, a pitiless; sun blazes down from a steely blue, cloudless sky <m to a land that is scorched white, a burnt shrivelled up, lifeless waste of white {writes a special correspondent ) Heie is a. -mi that hums. At Minrise this morning the thermcim te.- stood at a little under Rl degree.. One hour and a-half later it registered 79 degrees, and so it increasi 1 until Ly mid-day it went to 107. In twelve months them have been a few odd showers in what is usually oiq- rainy season. That is now over. The last .rain that fell was at the beginning' of Januarv. Ahead of n- lies the long bleak, dry winter - six certain rainless mouths after nfnq months ref drought I For hundreds of miles you can pass tluough a bate sweltering dried up desert, For hundreds of miles there, is not a vestige of grass not a drop of water. Farm afttq- farm f- without a sign of life. The dams are honedry; Die wells and boreholes have given iu. The owners have trekked taken to tlie. road with sheep and cattle and horses, in the hop/ of finding water and grazing somewhere ahead hundreds of miles ahead. It is doubtful whether half the stock will eve/, come Lack il is certain that some of than will never reach their destination. Hut in the blazing sun they crawl along the 1 ard white read, surrounded by a cloud of dust that is faq- ever over them throughout the long, dry days Some of the trees are scorched yellow' there is only enough water in the dam to last two weeks. When that is finished six hundred head of slock will have to bo driven daily to a windmill, below which I have arlangod a series of Doughs all filled with water in readiness. The '“lands' - oi fields - that should be green : with winter feed are just bare, brown, empty acres. And yet in all this there is a won(lei ful appeal a strange fascination I am at grips with, something really fig. Six hundred head of stockand myself are threatened. We have got to juifi through.