Page 7 Advertisements Column 2

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13750, 15 May 1908, Page 7

A very serious state of ' affairs prevails in New South Wales at the present time (says the April issue of the Australian Meat Trades' Journal). A large area of the State is absolutely bare of feed, and, though plenty of good grass-country is available in the north, stockowners cannot move their sheep to it, for the simple reason that there are no trucks available. They can only sit down and wait for trucks, watching their stock die in the meantime. "We have heard of one man ■who expects to lose all his ewes (some 18,0.00), just because lie cannot get trucks to take them to grass. - The ewes are due to lamb earlv hi May, and he cannot get any trucks till the middle or that month, so"that the lambs will be dropping when trucks are available, and it will be impossible to shift the ewes.. Then, if the drought continues, it only means a few weeks or months before they are all wiped out. This eort ot thing is operating in scores of instances, and if it continues, the losses at the end of the year must aggregate a formidable total. The railways, at a crisis like the present, could render invaluable »-iseistance, but it appears that they have failed entirely. The Commissioners should, at least, cater for normal requirements, and, as, taking the State as a whole, there are more lean years than fat years, they should be more prepared for an emergency like the present."