(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT) MELBOURNE, November 20.

Otago Witness, Issue 1932, 30 November 1888, Page 15

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT) MELBOURNE, November 20.

The news concerning the drought from New South Wales is very dispiriting, Light rains have fallen in some quarters, but they have done no good. A gentleman who has just returned from a tour through the pastoral districts tells me that in an experience of 40 years he has never seen things in so bad a state at this early period of the year. Sheep aro already dying by thousands. What -Will be the condition ere the summer is ended it is painful to imagine. He mentions one very curious and significant fact — namely, that this year the native birds have neglected to build nests and are not rearing any young, but that in some districts they are dying oft" in large numbers. In his report of the rainfall for September, Mr H. O. Russell, Government astronomer of New South Wales, writes :— " The rainfall for September is too much like that for many months proceeding it, and is far below the average. It is a remarkable fact that in the first nine months of this year, which are generally the wettest, the total fall at the great majoriby of the stations is only about 30 per cent, of the average for the year. In some cases places have only had a quarter of their average, and in a few the fall amounts only to one-fifth of the average rainfall. Some, in fact, are worse oil than we in Sydney, for we have had 15£ in, with an average annual fall of 50in. The dryness of this year is altogether unprecedented, and the wonder is, not that the colony is suffering so much, but so little, when we consider what a very small quantity of rain has fallen compared with that which is required for vegetation."