THE KING COUNTRY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 2261, 22 April 1926, Page 5

THE KING COUNTRY.

A COMPARISON.

(Contributed.)

Only by contrast can any fair idea be obtained as to the value of any district—or any country. Much that is disparaging is spoken and written about the King Country. Compare it, however, with conditions to-day, in many districts on the East Coast of this island, where the absence of rain has caused a well nigh devastating drought—and the comparison must bo in favour of the King Country. Go farther afield and read the following, contributed by the Queensland correspondent of the Australasion, referring to "the hand of drought" heavy upon large areas of Queensland's best pastoral country which recall memories of the great drought which terminated in 1902. Losses of sheep are heavy. In many places hand-feeding has been resorted to. The trouble is acentuated by the difficulty of finding relief country, for the drought has affected so many districts, and the demand for this class of country has been so keen that any available has been eagerly occupied, leaving many anxious men with starving sheep and cattle with no prospect of saving their live stock. The hopelessness of the outlook until recently was grimly illustrated by a sheep owner having to sell a large Hock for 2s a head. He had bought the sheep for the purpose of stocking a holding in the Gulf country but when he got them towards lambo he found the roads impossible to travel. Then he turned back to Clareville, intending to try to get them through to relief country in New South Wales, but evidently this Avas impracticable, for he decided to sell rather than risk losing everything. It is stated that the mob numbered .10,000.—C.H.