Old news from Armidale and New England

The Farmer and Settler (NSW), Thursday 11 September 1941

Amazed at Drift from Country

SURPRISE that Australia had progressed so little since the last war was expressed by Brother Gregory, of the Augustine Order, in an interview with ‘Macleay Argus.’

He said that he was amazed at the drift of people from the country to the cities.

Brother Gregory, well known as Jim Fitzgerald, of Kunderang station, Upper Macleay, recently returned from Rome, where he had resided until several months after the outbreak of the present war.

At the end of the 1914-18 war, he went to Ireland and thence to Rome.

Drift from the country was particularly noticeable when he went to the Upper Macleay, said Brother Gregory. There were but one or two families now on large areas of country where dozens had formerly gained a livelihood from the soil.

After visiting his mother in Armidale, Brother Gregory spent a happy time at Kunderang station, now managed by Mr. Alex McDonald, and helped to muster cattle in the ranges.