AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 29 March 1926, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

A DISASTROUS SEASON

HEAVY LOSSES AMONG CATTLE

Men who have spent nearly 60 years in the pastoral industry state that present conditions in the far northern portions of South Australia are altogether unprecedented, says an Adelaide newspaper.

“We cannot feed goats up there,” said Mr. W. H. Smith, who arrived in Adelaide last month from 300 miles north-east of Marree. He told of the starvation of a flock of 300 goats which had been running at Clifton Hills, which he had been managing for the last five years. On one occasion he took 12,000 cattle from Newcastle Waters, and delivered them at various stations in Queensland and South Australia. In all his 56 years’ experience he has never witnessed such conditions as at present prevail in the northern portions of this State. “I have been caught in many a tight corner with stock,” he said, “but I have never seen a season when there was such a certainty of loss.” It must be very disheartening for men like Messrs E. and A. Brooks, of Clifton Hills, who have gone to a lot of trouble and. expense to secure thoroughbred bulls and! stallions to improve their stock, to see them die without being able to do anything to prevent it Mj\ Smith, as manager of the property, had done all that could be done to save the stock. Between 12,000 and 15,000 cattle had already died, and if the drought continued they must all go. Sir Sidney Kidman had lost 15,000 at The Bluff, and l his manager and other employees were living on tinned meat. He was losing stock on other properties as well. The smaller holders were in many instances in a. worse plight. “Some of them will be lucky if they carry their swags off their runs,” said Mr. Smith. NOTHING BUT DUST STORMS. “At Clifton Hills we have had only one inch of rain in three years,” he continued, “andl never more than 15 points at one time. I have seen three-year-old bullocks in fair order die coming from water. I put this down to sand. Bush horses in fair order have died in the same way. For a period of 13 days we have had nothing but dust storms. Thousands of tons of sand have been heaped round the homestead and yards?’ Motoring- down from the run, Mr. Smith had formed/the impression that all the stock between Marree and Bulya would be wiped out unless-1 rain came. The effect would be more farreaching than a few ruined graziers. The pastoral agencies in the city, who had advanced money, would be hard hit, 'and the finances of the State would feel the effect. SHEEP TOO WEAK TO MUSTER. Mr. Smith’s story is fully borne out by Mr. H. R. Adamson’ secretary of the Bentana and Mutooroo Pastoral Companies. The companies between them own Beltant, Mount Lyndhurst, iMJurnpebwie, Cordillo Downs, Mot-o-o-roo, Lilydale, and Mulyungarie stations, and in recent years have spent large sums of money on sinking bores. They have by the expenditure of capital,' made tenable portions of the country from which the pioneers were drived' by droughts far less severe than the present one. Mr. Adamson stated that the stations were having a had time. Belta-na had recently sold 12,000 sheep, and 10,000 more were to be sold at Jamestown. So far the loss had n«>t been heavy. The bores assured water, but feed could not be obtained. The- actual loss could only be roughiy estimated. as the sheep were too weak to muster. Reports indicated that excessive temperatures -were not so much a- source of complaint in these regions as the wind, which sweeps over the nastiues and cuts them 'down or else buries them in sand. “CATTLE KING’S” INSPECTION. Sir Sidney Kidman, who returned to Adelaide recently, after a visit of inspection of Iris properties in New South Wales and Queensland, found that- drought conditions, existed in many parts. At Nundoora, in New South Wales, which is a depot for sup-

plying cattle for the Adelaide market-, the country was in a. bad state, and thei-e was not a blade of grass along the track to Torrowangee, where they were trucked. Across the border inQueensland, at Naryilco. there were dead cattle along the w-ate r holes. Cattlemen on the Cooper considered it to he the worst season they, had had for 20 years. Cattle had died' in thousands. Sir Sidney considered there would be a big shortage in New South Wales —it looked as if there was going to be a famine. If it did. not rain soon it was hard to calculate what the losses would be. He feared that it would mean ruin to many small men. ,v .' ?