DROUGHTS TOLL

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25055, 20 November 1944, Page 6

DROUGHTS TOLL

'500,000 ACRES LOST SOLDIERS FIGHT FIRES FARMERS LEAVE RIVERINA (Special Australian Correspondent) (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) SYDNEY. Nov. W Soldiers have successfully fought New South Wales bush fires which in the past two days caused damage estimated at £40,000. After three days of record high temperatures in many inland areas conditions have now moderated slightly. Thermometer readings of 113 dedegrees at some places were the highest recorded for 20 years. For the first time in the history of New South Wales farmers have been forced through the drought to make a mass migration. They are leaving the stricken Riverina to earn money harvesting in other districts. Their own crops have been ruined. Tho president of the New South Wales Farmers and Settlers' Association, Mr B. Cole, who has just returned from a 200-mile tour of the Riverina, says the drought will be catastrophic if it continues. In once rich wheat country there is not a single crop that can bo stripped. . During last week's dust storms, said to be tiie worst in the history of the State, as much as 24 inches of topsoil was blown away in some of the drought areas, according to tho Soil Conservation Director, Mr E. S. Clayton. "The red dust, which is blown as high as 13,000 feet and much of which will reach New Zealand, and even Fiji, represents the best part of our soil," he says. "All that is left in some areas is useless sand and gravel, which drifts against fences and destroys the remaining vegetation. Already 500,000 acres of fertile country land has been lost to New South Wales."