THE DROUGHT. OTAGO SUFFERING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 08, 10 January 1908, Page 8

THE DROUGHT. OTAGO SUFFERING.

WATER FAMINE AT ALEXANDRA. THREATENED. [BT TELEGEAPS — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, 'This Day. weather in central Otago is being severely felt by the mining and agricultural industries. During the past three weeks the heat about Alexandra and Cromwell has been excessive, the thermometer on several occasions registering 100 degrees in tbe shade, and 130 degrees in the sun. As a result of prevailing hot winds the crops are ripening before their time, and unless steady rain falls soon there is every promise of the country being dried up completely. Grass paddocks that, only a couple of weeks ago, looked better than they had been for years, are now burnt up, but the turnip crops are reported to be good, and in some cases far abov© the average yield. In Alexandra water for domestic purposes is running short, and a water famine in the near future is threatened. The Dunedin Star's Alexandra correspondent says the Borough Council recently purchased «i valuable right for two heads from Butchei's , Gully, which is fed from Old Man's Range, where water, even now, is plentiful, and the residents are agitating .that the Government bo applied ' for a loan of £800 to enable water to be brought into town from this source. Mining throughout the district is at a standstill owing to the want of water. As a result of the dry season the potato crop at Ashburton is said to be a failure. There does not appear to have been enough moisture in the soil to induce the growth of the tubers (says the Lyttelton Times) and one potato of fair size and a number about as large as spar-row-eggs are found to be the produce of most plants, especially in the case of the late-sown varieties. In swampy country, and in those instances where potatoes have been systematically irrigated, the crops are said 'to be promising.