DISMAL OUTLOOK IN CANTERBURY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12411, 22 March 1911, Page 5

DISMAL OUTLOOK IN CANTERBURY.

(Per Press Association.') CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The long-continued spell of dry weather is having a very serious effect throughout Canterbury, and if rain doos not coon fall the outlook for winter will be, rather dismal. Feed has gone off. everywhere, the paddocks being baro and brown, and the worst feature of the trouble is that winter as well as | summer feed has gone. Farmers are i putting m green feed now to try and save the. situation, but unless rain comes soon this will have- little or no growth. TIMARU, last night. This morning was very hot, equal to midsummer, and. the afternoon was sultry, with a light nor'-wester. The country is parching, and it is feared that rain will be too late how to do much good, as frost is sure to follow fl decided change. In. some parts of the district settlers have to cart water. "The drought now prevailing on the West Coast is the worst ever known there," said Mr 'W. ,0. Kensington, Urjder-Seeretary for Lands, to a Post representative. The, heat, he added, was phenomenal for that part of the Dominion, and' ■the rivers were-, lower than anyone : could reiriember. The Hokitika river is a mere trickle, and m the Grey river they are taking out gold at a depth never, before worked. On the othfer hand, the bush-burning operations have been most successful. In the Maruia- and Matakitahi valleys an area of 10,000 acres of bush has been burned, and if the rain comes fairly early it will mean a considerable impetus to settlement m general and the dairying industry m particular. Giving evidence at tho Supremo Court to-day, Mr C. H. Crauby, of Napier, stated that tho trawling industry at Hawke's Bay had been unfortunate lately. Fortunes'- had not been made recently ; m fact half of those interested had had to give it up. The result was a number of the trawlers had been laid up, and a number were being sent away.