AUSTRALIAN CONDITIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1939, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN CONDITIONS

RECOVERY AFTER DROUGHT. [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. I WELLINGTON, May 15. The ability of Australian stock t withstand drought was commented m on by Mr. M. A. Elliott, of Palmei st on North, a member of the WelliiL ton Harbour Board, who returned b the Awatea to-day from a visit to Aus tralia. Mr. Elliott said he arrived in Aus tralia about three weeks after the dr; spell had broken in New South Wale: and North Victoria. In Western Vic toria- and South Australia, the conn try. was simply like the. roadway Curiously enough, he said, the steel looked in good condition, and evident ly they got a lot of nourishment I'ron the seeds on the ground, although tin

i grass had disappeared. Hand-feedinv i also had been resorted to. Wat.ji 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, ami ; the problem was to secure enough cattle to keep it down. In Eastern Victoria an early trot'l in March destroyed the maize crop. Australian dairy production os being well maintained, and he did not think the year’s production would be very badly affected by the drought. If the I country were, assured, of rainfall spread over the year, there was no part, of New Zealand that .would be able to compare with the prodm-fivby of the soil. Australian vegetation, however, was of such a strain that it withrteed drought, whereas in New Zea-' land a comparatively short drought was bad.

! Mr. Elliot' visited some of the mens in w.h.irli lire, had' destroyed lh(t -j. 11. and h<- raid he “as surpiiwd to sco the. rapid manner in which the bush was regenerating itself. Com trary to the habit, of New Zealand bull), which if once destroyed was dec Hioyed for ever, in some of the worst fin areas the bush was growing very well.