Drought Depresses N.I. Cattle Prices

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29714, 6 January 1962, Page 12

Drought Depresses N.I. Cattle Prices

(New Zealand Press Association)

HASTINGS, Jan. 5.

Some Hawke's Bay cattle auctions have developed into bargain as a result of the widespread North Island drought. Sheep sold for as little as 9s at a Waipukurau ewe fair today and fattening ewes were as tow as Bs. Farmers along much of the ■coastal belt between Napier and Danoevirke say they are on the brink of calamity. Feed is short and dams and streams are drying rapidly. Increased numbers of sheep and cattle are being killed in the two district freezing works at Whakatu and Tomoana. If rain does not fall soon, farmers will have to kill more of their capital stock. “Grim Situation”

“The situation is pretty grim, but we are not going to panic about it,” said the vice-chairman of the meat and wool section of Hawke’s Bay Federated Farmers (Mr H. A. Robinson) yesterday. Until recently there bad been a considerable outward movement of stock but an attempt was being made by farmers to hold on to their capital stock

Every effort was being made to obtain grazing but this was extremely short in the district. "It is most desirable that the Minister of Finance should indicate as early as possible if farmers are to be extended some measure of taxation relief when they have to sell capital stock,” he said.

Commenting upon this aspect of the farmers’ problem, the general secretary Of Federated Farmers (Mr A. P. O’Shea) said that the Government had been asked for districts affected to be declared drought areas. “It is fraught with considerable difficulty. but the Government will certainly give consideration to it,” said the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) today when asked at his press conference about tax relief for drought-stricken fwners.

Not since 1892—and, meteorologists say, possibly as far back as 100 years—has there been less rain between the end of winter and the beginning of a new year. The dry spell is seriously affecting dairy production. Company officials say milk yelds are still dropping.

Among those most affected is the East Tamaki Co-opera-tive Dairy Company. Figures at the end of last week showed that in 10 days the milk intake had dropped 22 per cent, compared with the same period last year. It is unlikely that milk production will rise again even when the drought breaks. At this stage of lactation the main hope is for cows to keep producing at the present level. North of Auckland the picture is much the same.

The general manager of the Kaipara Co-operative Dairy Factory Company, Ltd. (Mr G. McWhirter) said there had been a rapid falling off in production in the last few weeks. The normal daily butter output for this time of the year was about 420 boxes, he said. At present it was 360 boxes, which represented a decrease of about Ij tons a day. A forestry official said the country was experiencing one of the earliest danger seasons for grass and forest fires for many years, particularly in Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Manawatu and Canterbury. The fire situation was “very serious” in the New Zealand Forest Products' 187,000-acre forest at Tokoroa, the official said.

Shota At Building.— Men in a cream car tonight machinegunned the headquarters of the French Communist Party, wounding a night watchman. They were believed to be members of the anti-Gaullist extremist Secret Army Organisation.— Jan 4.