PASTORAL TOPICS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 136, 5 December 1903, Page 9

PASTORAL TOPICS.

The splendid weather which has been experienced in Victoria is rapidly bringing the harvest on, and stripping has already commenced in many districts, so that before long the ingathering of the record wheat harvest will be in full swing. Every effort is being made by the Railway Department to cope witi the large trallic that is imminent, and far more engine* and trucks are available than in previous seasons. In New South Wales it is feared that bush fires, if once started, .will be a calamity as serious hs the drought itself. Tho magnificent season has resulted in a growth of gross and herbage unprecedented in the history of the State, and as the Sydney Morning Herald renWks it would not take much to start a fire woulfl barn itself with woful emphasis into the records, of th« century. Fire brigades are being organised 1 by the "farmers in various parts of the State, and in some districts co-opera-tion has resulted in the withholding fr«m solo of wax matches during the summer. A few months ago the papers were filled with articles on irrigation and water conservation, but now that the drought has ended and the immediate need has passed, the subject has become o« dead as th» traditional door-nail. During th© paatsession in New South Wales not th* slightest interest was evinced in tho question by either people or Parliament. The land at present is clothed with, grass, th« tanks are nilod to overflowing, and there, it seems, things will rest till the next bad season.