THE DROUGHT IN AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7213, 26 November 1888, Page 5

THE DROUGHT IN AUSTRALIA.

m EXTRAORDINARY BUSH FIRES. RISE IN WHEAT. [pee press association.! Received November 24th, 2.15 p.m. Sydney, November 24. Fourteen hundred bags of New Zealand wheat have been sold at 4s 8d to 5s 6d per bushel. Famine prices prevail in country districts. At Hay the temperature reached 104 in the shade. Ten deaths have occurred from heat in the last two days. The whole country is a mass of fire. In some inland towns the smoke is so thick the sun has not been seen for days. Melbourne, November 24. The heat is 101 in the shade. Two deaths are reported from sunstroke at Horsham. AdeTiAlde, November 24. Excessive heat was experienced here to-day. The glass was IQS in the shade. Brisbane, November 24. There is a water famine at Charters Towers. It is expected the schools will be all closed inconsequence. Distressing accounts of the drought reach the city from the country districts. Received November 25th, 10.25 a.m. Sydney, November 24. Large bush fires near the town have enveloped the whole place in smoke, and vessels bound for Port Jackson have been unable to make land. The weather is very hot, and several cases of persons struck down are reported. One case to-day resulted fatally. Received November 2Sth, 2 a.m. MELBOtriiNB, November 26. The prospect of the Victorian harvest is gloomy, except at Gippslaud and the Western districts. The barley crops are a partial and the oats a total failure in the whole of the Northern district. Watercourses are drying up, and water has to be carried many miles.. The present prospect shows that the colony is unable to produce more than her own wants.