FIRES AND DROUGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 11

FIRES AND DROUGHT

AUSTRALIAN RECOVERY

VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS

The ability of Australian stock to withstand drought was commented upon by Mr. M. A. Eliott, pf Palmerston North, and a member of the Wellington Harbour Board, who returned by the Awatea today from a visit to Australia.

Mr. Eliott said that he arrived in Australia about three weeks after the dry spell had broken in New South Wales and north Victoria. In. western Victoria and South Australia the country was "simply like the roadway." Curiously enough, he said,. the stock looked in good condition, and evidently they got a lot ;of nourishment from the seeds on the, ground, although 4he grass had disappeared. Handfeeding, also, had been resorted to. Water holes were being dug everywhere in an effort to increase supplies of water. Rain fell about a fortnight after his arrival, and the growth of grass was phenomenal. It became so high that it was difficult for sheep to graze, and the problem was to secure enough cattle to keep it down. In eastern Victoria an early frost in March destroyed the maize crop.

Australian dairy production was being well maintained, and he did not think that the year's production would be very badly affected by the drought early in the year. If the country were assured of a rainfall spread over the year there was no part of New Zealand that would be able to compare with the productivity of the soil. The Australian vegetation, however, was of such a strain that it withstood drought, whereas in New Zealand a comparatively short drought was bad.

Mr. Eliott visited some of the areas in which fire had destroyed the bush, and he said that he was surprised to see the rapid manner in which the bush was regenerating itself, contrary to the habit of the New Zealand bush, which if once destroyed was destroyed for ever. In some of the worst fire areas the bush was growing very well.