AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 14263, 8 November 1919, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

WORST EVER EXPERIENCED. ABANDONING- HOLDINGS OUT WEST. [By Electric Cable— Copyright.] [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.] (Received Friday, 8.10 p.m.) SYDNEY., Last Night. Drought conditions are daily growing more serious. It is stated that threefourths of New South Wales is suffering. Over these wide districts the drought is the worst ever experienced. The wheat crop is largely a failure, and is being cut for fodder reserve. Stocks, which arc almost used up, are selling at prohibitive prices. Pastoralists • are suffering tremendous losses, rushing stock to the market to prevent it dying, and selling at the lowest prices for years. In some districts owners are knocking lambs and calves on the heads, so as to give the mothers a chance of life. In the far west pastoralists are abandoning their holdings, after removing such stock as are able to travel. Cattle, sheep and horses arc dying by thousands. Sheep which arc too weak to walk are shorn in the paddocks, and then their throats are cut. It is predicted that unless there is rain before Christmas the drought will spell national calamity, and even if the rain comes soon it is feared that much of the stock will be too weak to recover.