SERIOUS DROUGHT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 8, 8 December 1936, Page 9

SERIOUS DROUGHT.

OUTLOOK IN EASTERN AUSTRALIA. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Dec. 7. In contrast to the feeling of wellbeing and prosperity that is apparent in Australian cities are the livelihoods of 500,000 people in Queensland and New South Wales menaced by the most serious drought for fifty years. Dairying and fruit-growing districts have hud little rain the past eighteen months, and with the hot summer again in swing'the outlook is bad. Mr J. M. A. Ilott, of Wellington, who returned to-day from a. three weeks' business visit to Melbourne and Sydney, said the drought extended down the coast from Townsville for 1500 miles and inwards for fifty miles. The northern rivers of New South Wales were badly affected, but on the other side of the range rain was plentiful. Away from the unavoidable penalties of the" weather, there was brisk prosperity and optimism in the cities. Sydney to-da.y could be counted among the most modern cities in the world, said Mr Tlott. Modern architecture was leaving its stamp, and to those who knew the citv a few years ago the progress and changes were remarkable. The building of the City Mutual Insurance Company was really an architectural triumph —a magnificent block that would . hold its own anywhere. Manv other buildings in Sydney were a credit to the city; builders were working at pressure, changing the skyline and fashioning a brighter capital.