TRAGEDY ON VELDT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 63, 12 February 1936, Page 8

TRAGEDY ON VELDT

LONG DROUGHT IN TRANSVAAL A WATERLESS WASTE. The Transvaal correspondent of the London Times writes:—* “Tlit worst drought in living memory”—the recent disastrous experience of the Northern Transvaal has been so described. Happily, at the time of writing (December 5), news comes ol good rains in many districts, but even if they herald the. break-up of the drought they cannot in any degree compensate for the suffering endured or the losses sustained. The greater part of the Northern Transvaal, stretching from Pretoria to the River Limpopo, the border of the Union and Southern Rhodesia —a distance of about 300 miles —has been reduced almost to a waterless waste. Cattle worth tens of thousands of pounds in good seasons have perished through lack of water and pasturage, and it is common to find once prosperous farmers and cream producers now living with their wives and children on Government rations of menlie meal, hoping for rains that will still enable them to carry on. Others, again, are trekking m thenox wagons, when tlieir animals are strong enough to draw the load, in search of water and grazing places. Numerous farmers have been driven off tlieir parched land, which had seen no rain for over two years, and are drifting to the towns, particularly the Witwatersrand, in search of employment.

DESOLATE FARAIS. The writer has just returned from a 1000-mile motor-trip through the drought-stricken areas as far as the Limpopo in the north and to the borders of Bechunnaland in the west. It Would not be exaggerating to say that one could not have gathered a sugarbag of grass in tho whole of this sunscorched land, which is nearly the size of England. Every district is in a heartrending state. Scraggy cattle nibble at thorn bushes and nose in vain along the hare veldt, harms covered a couple of years ago with tall, green grass are now desolate wastes criss-crossed with hone-dry river-beds and scarred by dongas and ravines which are eating into the land. Poor as is the Petersburg district, 200 miles from Johannesburg, in water supplies and pasturage, and pitiful as are the stories of farmers losing most of their beasts, its plight is as nothing compared with that of the Zoutpansherg areas, especially on the Limpopo side of. Louis Tric-liardt, ■ the town named after a famous Boer leader. For anile niter mile the temperature was 110 degress in the shade. The merciless sun beat down on rotted trees lying by the wayside, tiny stalks -that once were maize but are now greedily uprooted by starving cattle, _ and useless shrubs which exist in spite of the drought and themselves. It can only be described as a wilderness apparently incapable of sustaining human or animal life. THE VANISHED RIVER.

On the way visits were paid to the native locations, among them the Ramngoepas and Matoks. They are like chunks of the Kalahari in the Transvaal, and are each peopled by about 5000 natives. Mile aftei mile tlieir veldt stretched bare and desolate. It caused one to ask in amazement on what the natives’ scrub cattle manage to keep alive; for they are now skin and bone and frequently unable to regain tlieir feet when they fall. As fains one could see their only food was thornbushes and soil. The natives have to dig for water these days, and they 'declare that there is now “little food left foi tiie pots.” (Saving the natives from starvation may easily become a problem for the Government before long. Beyond the Zoutpansbcrg and all tlie way to the Limpopo the farms visited gave evidence of disaster. Perhaps tlie most amazing sight of all during an amazing journey was the great Limpopo, dry as a bone as though no \yater had run there for years. Conditions in the wide belt of Rhodesian territory adjoining the Beit Bridge are reported to be equally bad. Lions are ■roving the countryside seeking water. One runner said he allowed a lion and lioness to roam at will and would not lift a rifle at them, for it was merciful to let them kill the game which, in any ease, would die of thirst. In two years .in this area only about 4in of rain have .fallen. There is a widespread feeling that only large irrigation projects undertaken by the Union Government can prevent a similar disaster in the future. At present, after rains the dry river beds become raging torrents and the water rushes oif to the sea without irrigating an acre of land on tlie way. Unless every possible drop of rain water is conserved, it is stated, tlie ■ future of farming in the Northern Transvaal will be gloomy and the farmers reduced to direst poverty. ■

Telegraphing later the Johannesburg correspondent of the limes said.Although rain has fallen in the Rietersburg and other districts of Northern Transvaal and lias brought some relief, much more is needed to save the agricultural community from the >'rave effects of the prolonged drought. in some areas, however, farmers who can have started ploughing in the lmpe that more ram will follow.