SOUTH AFRICAN DROUGHT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18255, 25 November 1933, Page 8

SOUTH AFRICAN DROUGHT

6,000,000 SHEEP DIE FARMERS FACED WITH RUIN JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 12. South Africa is facing one of the gravest droughts in its history. More than 6.000,(XX) sheep have already succumbed to it, and unless rain falls before December, the consequences, it is declared, will be disastrous. Some areas have been without rain for three years, and there is no sign of any break in the drought. Parts of the Orange River have dried up. Similar conditions exist on tho Vaal River, which at Iloopstad can he crossed on foot dvyshod. The Limpopo River, dividing Beclmanalaud from the South African Union, is but a. dusty tteuch. Cattle aro wandering across it and making the work of the foot-and-mouth disease patrols almost impossible. Jf rain does not fall soon about 75 per cent, of the farmers m the lleilbion district Avilt bo reduced to penury and forced to abandon their farms. They liavft already appealed to the Government for financial assistance. Owing to the. heavy losses of sheep, the season’s wool clip, according to authorities in the trade, will be at least 90,000 bales short compared Avith that of last year. A further shortage ol 120,000 liales is feared, because the surviving sheep are producing at least, one pound a head of wool less owing to the •poverty of the pasture. Even some of the Band mines are being threatened with a shortage of water. In the eastern mining area some of the dams have shrunk to half their normal size, rendering necessary the laying of special pipelines with which to draw extra supplies from Johannesburg’s domestic; service.