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Otago Witness, Issue 3958, 21 January 1930, Page 49

The terrible conditions prevailing in the Mallee district of Victoria at the time he wrote are described by an ex-Southland resident now in Australia, in a letter to relatives in Invercargill. Writing from Ballarat he said that he was in the drought and poverty-stricken Mallee districts. Cattle were dying everywhere and there was no feed, no water, and no crops Most important of all there was no money and even the settlers were on the verge of starvation. “I had no idea this route was as it is,” said the writer, “ otherwise I would not have come through. All along the road one sees nothing but sheep and drovers. The sheep are mostly skeletons One drover offered me 500 for nothing’ I noticed that one lot of drought-stricken sheep went at £1 per 1000, and horses are realising from Is to 2s 6d each. This country is in an awful state. Thousands of people are tramping the country, including men with their wives and families, begging for food as they go along. It is disgraceful even to think of a country being in sucSi a state as this,” said the writer in conclusion.