DROUGHT IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 8

DROUGHT IN NEW SOUTH WALES

COUNTRY BROWN AND PARCHED

Mr. Louis Salek. of Wellington, who has just returned from Australia, stated that while in Sydney he motored a good deal within a radius of a hundred miles of the city. Though the district he saw had not, perhaps, suffered to the same extent as the outback, it was bad enough in all conscience. The whole of the country, which had been without any rain to speak of, -was brown and parched. There was no green land—as far as the eye could see. and the heat was intense. Good Friday was «. real Scoreher. It was a common thing on the country roads to see carts with tanks, used for the sale of water to the settlers at 8s per 2000 gallons. The people were offering up prayers for rain, and special trains were being applied for to convey the cattle from the drought areas to those which still offered some kind of pasturage. If tain did not fall soon in considerable Quantity, Mr. Salek was very much afraid great losses would be sustained by the farmers. On the other hand, the Royal Agricultural Show in Sydney was an enormous success. It was said to he bigger and brighter than ever, and from the crowds present one would have imagined that every farm in the State had been deserted.