DROUGHT CALAMITY.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 383, 15 March 1937, Page 3

DROUGHT CALAMITY.

Western Australia Suffers. Details of the terrific drought under which West Australia is at .present suffering were given, by the ?lon. Norman Keenan, K.C., leader of the National party in. that State, who arrived on a brief holiday visit by the Strathnaver, which berthed at Auckland yesterday, ft was the worst drought experienced in the State within living memory, and many of the stations there were practically denuded of sheep, he told a newspaper representative. The drought had affected mainly the Upper and Lower Murchison areas, he said, and about Kimberley in despairing efforts to keep the sheep alive they had cut the scrub. As a result of that move there would be no top feed for a number of years. Great difficulty was being experienced in getting feed, and it was almost impossible at present to get fresh stock to replace those that had been killed oft by the ravages of the drought. Such Wat' the scarcity that good flock Merino ewes were selling at as high as £2 each, a prohibitive price. As the result of ail this, in spite of the high price that was being paid for Wool, the outlook of Australia from the pastoral point of view was very gloomy. Referring to the defeat of the Federal marketing proposals at The recent referendum, Mr Keenan said that it would make no difference to West Australia. The proposals hat been based on a home consumption price, and in years of good harvests and wool clips they were useless. It would be a “piece of colossal impudence” if the Commonwealth Government attempted to prevent the export of the Yampi pig iron ore to Japan, he said. They had tried for years, but had been unable to dispose of it in Australia because of transportation difficulties, and the present arrangement would enable them to employ a good deal of Australian labour in the production of the ore.