NICARAGUA

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1914, Page 2

NICARAGUA

"A HOT-BED OF REVOLUTION." A NEW ZEALANDEIVS EXPERIENCE. Mr. Bain Hogg, metallurgist, formerly of the Thames School of Mines, was a passenger by the s.s. Moana, which arrived from San Francisco to-day. Mr. Hogg left the Thames in 1896, and was for seven years connected with a West Australian Mining Company, which secured interests in Nicaragua, and Mr. Bain was appointed to take charge of their gold cyanide treatment plant in that Republic. He has returned to New Zealand for health reasons and in orfW to educate his children, there being no English school there. "A hot-bed of revolution" is how Mr. Hogg describes the Latin American Republic of Nicaragua. "During my stay there were isix changes of President and Government in four and a-half yeare, and these changeb were brought about by revolutions and force of arms. The last one was settled in 1912 by United States intervention. Things were fairly quiet when I left, but the Government iis not stable at all. Gold mining is in j its infancy in Nicaragua. I met a number of Thames "boys" there occupying prominent positions connected with the gold-mining industry. "On my way up the Western Coast ol Central America to join the Moana at San Francisco our steamer called in at Mazatlan, a Mexican port. The rebels were entrenched within two miles of the j town, which was in the hands of the Government troops and was being well defended. Business was going on a« usual, and there was nothing in the way of war noticeable to the ordinary traveller — the fighting having been chiefly confined to the northern States. We passed a couple of Mexican troopships, and in the harbour there was a United States and two German warships protect, ing foreign interests." \ If things quieten down politically, | Mr. Hogg intends to Teturn to Mexico next year. He says the gold and silver I mining prospects there are good. An j enormous amount of English and Ameri- I can capital is invested in the mining industry, ac well as in. oil, and g?ld mm- { ing is being carried on on up-to-date methods. The revolutions and constant warfare are the great drawbacks to the country. j Mr. and Mrs. Hogg and their family leave for the North by the Victoria this afternoon.