PERU TO-DAY

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20989, 18 October 1933, Page 15

PERU TO-DAY

; © | PEOPLE AND ECONOMIC | RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT BY FOREIGNERS The people, education system, ecoInomic resources and handicaps, and political condition of Peru were dis- : cussed by Dr. Herbert Money, who ihas returned to Christchurch on ; furlough from Lima, in an interview ; yesterday. Dr. Money, who is a j graduate of Canterbury College, has ( taught for several years at the Anglo-Peruvian College at Lima, and is a professor in the Institute of Education at the ancient university of San Marcos, which was established about 1554. Dr. Money graduated M.A. with first class honours in education in 1925, and after a period of postgraduate work, and teaching at the | Christchurch Technical College, left j in 1927 for Peru, where he had been : appointed to the staff of the Anglo- ! Peruvian College. While there he ) ! studied at the University of Lima. ; mainly as a means of gaining a I

thorough knowledge of Spanish. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree of that university, which is a very old •foundation, for his study of the life of the Peruvian jungle tribes.

Educational Differences. The education system in Peru was different from the New Zealand system, in that while here and in other British countries the aim was to give a sound knowledge of various subjects', in Peru the aim was more to enable pupils to talk about their subjects, said Dr. Money. There was a lack of a practical bent to educa-

, tion there, and while Peruvian boys ; were very much at ease in a drawl ing-room, for example, they tended 'to be at a loss when something practical had to be done. There were, '. of course, government primary and J secondary schools, but such a school jas the Anglo-Peruvian College exj isted to correct what appeared to be | a weakness in the system. I The better-class Peruvians prejferred to send their children to a i good private school. It was mainly la matter of keeping up appearances jwith them. Even when they were faced with greatly shrunken inj comes they continued to send their | children to expensive schools, so j that they might not appear to have 'come down in the world. This was : one of the reasons why Dr. Money's | school had even in the worst times I suffered very little shrinkage in its revenue from the fees paid by . pupils.

An Easy-going: Lite. i This led Dr. Money to speak of the manner of life of the large landowning class in Peru, the traditional aristocracy of the country. Their ■ main desire, he said, was to live a life of ease, with no contact with •the labour necessary to provide an income. Consequently they did not manage their large estates themselves, but left them to a steward, of whom they expected merely that each year he should provide enough money to keep them in their normal state of luxury. So lived in splendid style at the capital—often also possessing fine houses in Paris, where indeed some of them spent a large part of their time—dressed like princes, and owned three or four motor-cars. They were concerned solely with agriculture and had no part in business activities. Consequently the vast mineral resources of the country had been developed by foreigners. Sometimes the Peruvians showed some resentment at the thought that such vast amounts of the national wealth were going out of the country, but when any suggestion was made that they themselves might have done what the foreigners had they showed no inclination to change their manner of life.

I Barriers Jo Development. Peru could never be developed as | New Zealand had been, Dr. Money ' continued. The country was divided into three regions, which were almost insurmountably divided from one another geographically. The coastal strip up to a level of 6000 |feet was rainless, and then mountains up to 16,000 feet and more had to be crossed to reach the fertile I Sierra. The cost of transporting ; anything from the coast by a rail:way which climbed to such a height i could be imagined, and it was a great barrier to development. The (railway was the highest broadI gauge track in the world. I The central region was very rich, ! being one mass of metal—copper, ■ gold, silver, lead, and mercury. At ;Casapalca Dr. Money had been taken through a two-kilometre tunnel into a hill which seemed to be pure metal. One effect of the vast mineral deposits was that much of the water was poisonous from contamination with copper and lead. The mineral deposits were so rich that it paid to carry the ore in small sacks on the backs of mules and donkeys for vast distances to the works where it was treated, and long pack trains of these animals were constantly being met on the roads.

Llamas were also used as pack animals, and usually carried a load of about 100 pounds. If slightly more than this weight was put on the llama sat down until the extra was taken off, so acute was its judgment of what it should carrv.

j Present Revival. j The jungle region of Peru, on the [Amazon side, produced splendid ! timber, but it was so remote that ! practically none of it could be transi ported to the dry coastal area, where it was wanted. Consequently timber was imported from the United States. In the same way, although wheat and coal were produced in the Sierra, it had been found cheaper for the coastal belt to import Australian wheat and British coal.

! At present a wave of prosperitywas being experienced in Peru, fol- : lowing the change in the presidency jin May last. Dr. Money could not {say how soundly based it was, but internal trade had been very brisk I in spite of the very low prices in the {world market for Peruvian produce, j mainly cotton, sugar cane, and : minerals. Dr. Money had an unusual story ;to tell of the way in which the war j between Peru and Colombia came to an end. One of the purposes of the war seemed to have been to keep the mind of the people awav from internal affairs. On May 2of this year, when President Cerro was reviewing troops about to leave for the front, he was assassinated, and his Minister for War, General Benavides, succeeded him. Benavides found that an intimate friend was leader of the Liberal party in Colombia. He sent him a friendly note, plenipotentiaries went to Colombia, and in a few days not only was the war over, but thoroughly cordial relations Were established between the two coun- . tries. '