NEW ZEALAND AND THE ARGENTINE.

Grey River Argus, 31 January 1906, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND AND THE ARGENTINE.

Mr P. S. Smith, who owns an immense estate in the "Argentine — 44 square miles of territory, is at present on a visit to New Zealand. Mr Smith, in reviewing the great development of the Argentine, is emphatic in predicting a rebuff to New Zealand's oversea export trade, chiefly in respect to frozen meat and wool from the wide-rolling plains of the Argentine. There are now 130,---000,000 sheep and some 40,000,000 head of cattle in the country, and this number is being largely increased each year by the advance of settlement. With such a country so stocked, only half the distance from the Home markets that the colonies are, how was it possible that New Zealand could compete much longer as at present, unless Mr Chamberlain's preferential tariff scheme was adopted? One needed only to see the country to judge how futile it is for New Zealand to be regarded as a rival in the immediate future There labour is, half as cheap as in New Zealand, and in the summer time the half-breeds (farm labourers work from before sun-up (4 a.m) until after sun-down (7 p.m). Wages? Well, he paid his men £5 os per month, and in return received good and faithful service. They, indeed, became devoted to their employer. Of the hands he employed when he first took over- the place, ten years ago, only one had been dismissed — the rest were still on the ostancia. In the dairying industry says Mr Smith, another rebuff to this colony's trade must come from Canada, into which country immigrants are streaming by the thousand. He had been at Quebec and seen steamer after steamer arrive from England and the Continent with 200, 300, and 500 sturdy young men and women, and to each of the men the Cifivernment was giving 160 acres of land free of cost. What could they do with 160 acres? Nothing, but go in for. dairying. Vast areas were being cut up into small allotments in the west and northwest, the staple product of which must be butter, almost solely. And the.se |people were within a fortnight of England, "as against fortytwo days iii the case of New Zealand.