Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, SEPT, 11, 1935. A PROLONGED DROUGHT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 243, 11 September 1935, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, SEPT, 11, 1935. A PROLONGED DROUGHT.

Until partial relief was given by Nature, extremely dry conditions prevailed recently over large areas in the nortli-west of New South Wales and Queensland. Actually in the north of the latter State a drought had continued for ten years. Such a protracted period makes one wonder how the pastoral industry of the State is able to stand up to the tremendous losses that occur when for month after month the sun shines from a cloudless sky and never a rain cloud appears. Put it survives though the men engaged in the industry suffer grievous hardship, and the parts of Queensland that have gained relief from the drought have now the problem of again stocking their land, a costly business, but one which must be undertaken if the national wealth is to be maintained. Eor the success of Australia’s pastoral industries means a prosperous Commonwealth. How much this is dependent upon rain is not perhaps fully realised, especially in a land like New Zealand which generally has a well distributed rainfall. Put experience has proved that even a few weeks of dry weather has a most serious effect upon our own farming industries, and there have been occasions when drought in Hawke’s Pay, on the East Coast, and in parts of the South Island, by no means comparable with Australia’s visitations, has left severe adversity in its wake. Of the total area of the Commonwealth over 35 per cent, has an average annual rainfall of less than 10 inches. A further 22 per cent, receives annually from 10 to 15 inches. There are wide variations, ranging from 100 inches on the northeast coast of Queensland to only four inches a year near Lake Eyre. Several causes contribute to the low rainfall in most parts, among them being a high degree of evaporation and the lack of mountains. Some New Zealand towns receive in a month what Australian places receive in one, two, or even three years. It is calculated that in more than onethird of Australia a permanent drought condition exists, while one half receives practically no rain for six months of the year. Drought is most feared in the borderlands between the arid and well watered regions, for there are to be found Australia’s main wheat and stock areas, depending for their successful fanning upon a sufficient rainfall. The effect of drought there has been most disastrous on several occasions. Though the opinion was authoritatively expressed as far back as 1909 that conditions were so good that, with existing* legislation and the better understanding of western conditions, the chances of failure were very largely reduced, bad times in Western New* South Wales were closer at hand than had been thought. Five years later the number of sheep in the area had fallen to four millions from seven millions, and the Western Lands Board admitted that it took eight years to build up the flocks and herds and that at the end of the succeeding three and a half years they were reduced almost to the same number as were returned for 1903. Such terrible effects are to some extent offset by the droughts acting as scavengers in getting rid of parasitic infestations produced by flush seasons. At the same time, a survey made recently in the south-west of Queensland, along the Northern Territory border, north of South Australia, and north-west of New South Wales shows that the settlers, in addition to the drought, have been suffering from plagues of rats, which had destroyed shrubs and herbage left by rabbits, and wild

cats. The former Avere seen in millions, like a moving* broA\ r n carpet, and no one kneAV Avhence they came nor where they go to. The drought problem is a real one to Australia, but settlers affected have the opportunity to receive help from other parts, for a universal shortage of rain is unusual, and they are by proper provision endeavouring* to alleviate the Avorst. results of dry conditions. Fodder conservation is receiving greater attention and in various Avays provision is being made, as far as possible, for the dry seasons when they come.