THE LAST GASP.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15972, 14 November 1919, Page 2

THE LAST GASP.

DROUGHT IN NEW SOUTH WALES. STATIONS ABANDONED. SYDNEY, November 7. The appalling devastation of the drought in the far north-western corner of the State is disclosed in a report from a correspondent alb Tibooburra. The country so sorely afflicted is a province iu itself, in the angle where three States meet. _ Tibooburra is (says this correspondent) in the midst of a terrible drought. Water has given out, and the only supply is now obtained from soakages, which are salty, and rapidly failing. The price of wafter is 10b per 200 gallon tank. Chaff is £1 7s Gd per bag, and m> meat is obtainable in the district. Supplies have to be got from Broken Hill, a distance of 220 miles. There lias not been a general rainfail at Tibooburra for three yeara, and the district has been 22 months without rain. Surface waiter has disappeared for hundreds of milts. The • stock have been removed, and most of the ..stations have closed down. Unless rain comes by Christmas it is anticipated iihe people of Tibooburra and Milparinka will. haye to leave their homes. About two-thirds of the total stock in Itihe district have perished. One station could only muster 5400 sheep out of 23,000. It will ta.ke many years to re-stock the stations.