AUSTRALIA'S GREAT DROUGHT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9460, 23 June 1902, Page 4

AUSTRALIA'S GREAT DROUGHT.

A NEW ZEAL ANDERS IMPRESSIONS.

TASMANIA'S GOLDEN HARVEST

"I saw hundreds of miles of country us bare as a ioa,d and not a, vestige of grass or any kind of food to be seen," Mr A. W. Beaven, of Christchurch, remarked to a reporter last week. He was referring to parts of Australia which he visited recently during a business trip to the Commonwealth, out of which the duties have not kept the firm's manufactures. He saw sturdy bluegums on stony rises which had withstood the elements for thirty or forty years, standing withered and dead, having succumbed to the terrible drought which has swept over the country. Prices for almost all kinds of foodstuff have gone up to exorbitant figures, and many farmers are feeling the position acutely. On j the whole, however, the farmers in the Darling Downs and most other parts of Australia have had good crops this year, and there is 'plenty of straw, but absolutely nothing else. Those who had straw and cut it up into chaff are keeping stock in fairly good condition, but even they are looking forward anxiously to the coming of the cold weather, expecting a heavy mortality. The New Zealander noticed that the Queensland farmers are making great use of the windmills. Tlie water is about thirty or forty feet below the surface, on the Downs, and the farmers there are not in such a bad plight as those in other parts. In the New England district of New South Wales, which is generally well watered, there is hardly any water at all. One farmer was carrying water for his stock over six miles. He was in fear that even that supply would last for only another week, and he did not know where he would be able to go for* a fresh supply. The unfortunate man, when Mr Beaven was there, was going about his farm with a divining-rod, in the forlorn hope that he would be able to find an indication of the precious iluid. This is what is happening in a part of New South Wales which in past years was recognised as the place to which stock, in time of drought, could be sent. The visitor went to the western district as far as Narromine. \i is an early district, and many farmers had sold their straw and wheat before the lasting effects of the drought were realised. The result is that they had been very severely afflicted. Owing to the hardness of tlie soil, j they have been unable to plough for this year's crop much less than is usually the case, and have bad to use two plougnsharcs a day, and extra horses. It is the central grain-growing and grazing district that is suffering most. In Now South Wales and the northern districts of Victoria, farmers are killing off their lambs in hopes of saving the ewes, and they realise that the absence of all kinds of green stuff would make it impossible to rear the lambs. Mr Beaven spent only a short time in tlie northern Victorian districts, but found that they are quite as bad as the western districts of New South Wales. On the southern side of the dividing range he saw green grass again for the first time since he left New Zealand. ■'' "Tasmania is coining money," Mr Beaven remarked when he referred to his visit to.the north-western district of that State. | "Probably the busiest scene I set-eyes on was at Devonport. The wharves and the railway lines there were covered with all kinds of produce, such as potatoes, bales of straw, chaff and oats, and swedes in bags. Owing to the drought, there are few vegetables in Australia, and very quantities are being imported from 'Tasmania. The Tasmanians certainly have no intention of losing the hold on Australia given them by the Federal tariff. They feel they can supply all the needs of the other States, and are taking full advantage of the only /bait the other States could hold out to them when FedNew Zealand will be called upon to supply Australia with potatoes, after the present year is over. • The Tasmanian and Victorian farmers will always resist any alteration of the present tariff in favor of New Zealand." Mr Beaven, however, thinks that if the drought continues much longer there will be a considerable demand from Australia for chaff, especially straw chaff, as the Jiext season will be much later than usual. At Dubbo, he heard of a farmer offering 4000 sheep at a shilling a head. Seeing that tlje skins would be worth.from Is 6d to 2s each, there was evidently great difficulty in disposing of the carcases. At Orange.,' it was reported, 40 cattle out of a mob of 600, had died in one night. The losses, however, are individual ones, and the ordinary small farmer, on the whole, ow-1 ing to the high prices, is doing fairly well. A comparatively few individuals, and some of the great financial institutions are the worst sufferers. It is next year' that the ordinary farmer will feel the full effects of the drought, owing to the difficulties of getting in this year's crops, and to the loss of his sheep.