DROUGHT LOSSES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16202, 27 November 1926, Page 5

DROUGHT LOSSES

QUEENSLAND SUFFERS WHOLE FLOCKS GONE BRISBANE, November 17. Hopes entertained in September when good thunderstorms were experienced over the greater part of the west, that the drought had at last broken appear to have been premature.

Experienced pastoralists were deceived by the signs at the time, for many of them, expecting tho September storms to be the usual forerunners of good rains, returned their flocks from tho agistment country. Now they have been caught by the drought settling down again, on areas that are being rapidly burnt up by high temperatures.

The outlook in such places has again become very serious. There are some parts which load sufficient rain to produce a good growth of grass, but ia oiitor places further heavy losses tiro still likelv.

It is reported that the drought has extended into the Gulf country, which is usually so well favored, and into which thousands of sheep were sent on agistment. Watercourses in that part of tho State, which heretofore have never been dry, arc failing. Reports of drought losses are distressing. A message from Longroach, in the central-west, gives tho average as 60 per cent., and it is doubtful if that district is the worst off. Private advices indicate that in some cases whole flocks have- been practically wiped out. It is estimated that the losses of sheep so far in Queensland must reach between six and seven millions.