VAST RESOURCES

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1932, Page 8

VAST RESOURCES

PROMISING FUTURE OF BRAZIL

PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPMENT

“I do not know any foreign resident in Brazil who is pessimistic about the country’s future. The progress since the beginning of the century, especially .in the south, has been amazing,'’ declared the Ikv. Alexander Reese, 1 a' fonner Christchurch . man,, who has been working for, 23- ypa,rs in Brazil' under the Presbyterian Ultui-ch' of the United States, and wJiq "recently paid a short visit to Nbtf "Zealand. Mr Reese is an old: boy of the Christchurch Boys’; High, School, and was educated at Canter-j bury College and the University of Chicago and Xenia Theological Seminary.

While, in Christchurch he gave some interesting informing about, Brazil, its termendous resources, and' its problems of the present day. “Brazil’s resources can only be described as prodigious,’’. he said. “Take ■a, State such as Bahia, which I happen to know pretty well, having lived in it for over twenty years. It has been exploited loss by . foreign capital than most of the other States, and the Bahjans themselves think "that, economically, it is one of■ the least developed. It has a glorious climate, and fertile Undfe that wifi produce 'anything, millions of acres of cotton' lands, with abundance of water for “irrigating much of it ) and waterfalls for power; as well a» supplies of copper, manganese, diamonds, and gold. One has only to see its undeveloped resources to- appreciate how much New Zealand and the other Dominions ow r e to Great Britain fnr •the*provision’ of abundant capital for their industries j and a free market for the expanding exportation of all their products.

INTERNAL PROBLEMS. Brazil’s very size—she is as big a,* Riusdiv—constitutes oner of her ’••rdblems in administration and education, and, in ' fact, everything. The dis- mcc« aitj: enormous. The , coast lands 'and the south are served by railways but the vast interior to the north and north-west only by two or three water-ways such as the Amazon and the San Fpo.noi.rco, drove-tracks, and a few plain motor roads made largely by private persons. For the roost port, Government officials, Catholic priests, commercial travellers, and Protestant ministers have to get about the. inti irio,r by mule teams. It is not long since I made a trip of 1800 mites in this way, yet the n<rea 'covered was, in proportion, like Sehvyn County to tho rest of New Zealand. Thfa vast interior' is already getting some relief from its isolation by the arrival of the motor-oar. Perhaps in a few years the aeroplane will develop * sufficiently to be of real service,” THE BURNING OF COFFEE.

Mr Ree e said that the news of the burning of surplus coffee in Brazil had gone -around the world. It was net generally known, howteveir, that Brazil in failing to hold up prices by artificial means, had failed in good company. America with wheat, Japan with pearls, Britain and the Malay States with rubber and New Zealand with dairy produce, had all tried' experiments similar to Brazil’s, in trying to get better return for the primary producer.

“Brazil took other courageous measures, beyond burning coffee, to rectify the situation caused by over-produc-tion.. On the advice of Sir Otto Niemeyer she imposed an export tax of 10s a .sack on all eoffde exported ;■ she restricted greatly and has now prohibited for a term j the planting of fresh areas of coffee. Lastly, she set to work with great 'energy to cultivate other crops beside coffee. Her immense and varied territory, and a climate that varies from intensely tropical to temperate, favour the culivation of all kinds of fruits for exportation, and of grasses for cattle raising. In both directions a strong start has been'made. RIVALS OF THE ARGENTINE.

“How far Brazil will go in rivalling the Argentine on the BDtish market it is impossible to .say ; m any ca ' e the Ottawa Conference has solved the question until the next free-trade Government comes into power in England. A few years ago Armour’s built immense refrigerating works, outside St paul 0 city, at an expense of about three million pounds. All seemed .set for a big advance, but when the beef of the ‘zebu’ (a sort of * hunch-ba c k cattle) was marketed in England, H was graded much below the Argen. ’tifiei’s. Until a year or two ago, Armour’s works wire lying idle as a result. Brazilians believe that, their inert vcdis not graded on its merits, but arbitrarily. and under a pretext, like tlte ? exclusion of Canadian . cattle from Britain' until fifteen years M°, and that this was done so that the Argentine, one of England’s best elastomers, should not be injured. Possibly there is some truth in the suggestion, for the ‘zebu’ gives excellent, beef. It should bo said that this type of cattle, imported from Ind'a, I believe, w n r chosen because it stands up better than English breeds to the tropical conditions.

“Not much that is helpful can b r said by a foreigner about the revolnt'on lit PrnP.il. The former regime adopted miu'h of the constitutions of other (Republics, but avoided two grO ß t dangers Rv rcs n rvipg tte,. banking and marriage laws for the Federal Government. This was a great improvement The most interesting feature in th" row regime is tfm Federal Government’s assumption of power to choose the presidents or interventors of the States; and the interveniors having

tb' l power to choose the mayors of cities.

POLITICAL UNREST.

“ T n othe r words, Brazil seems to be 'seeking •& unified republic, instead of the federated one !*he had up to the revolution. The counter-reyi'-uticn of recent months arose from the delays in setting up a constituent ‘ assembly to adopt a new constitution. It has ended in the' continuance in power of the provisio'nal government of Dr Getulio Vargas. “Until’the recent unrest, Brazil ,W enjoyed a very long spell‘of settled government and progress. But the veryi efficiency of this provisional government ill carrying out its programme of retrenchment and reform, and its temporary measure (in t-h° interests of economy) of closing all the State As'fmt'es, created many difficulties for it. The present has been no ' time for inaugurating social services such as. Hi Eng’and and other parts, have quietened the revolutionary .element. Social services in most States aro in their infancy. On the other hand, tlio Catholic .institution of god-parents p'ays a great, if, silent, part in the relief fif distress. Multitudes of orphans all over Latin America have been cared for under a relationship that is closer than; mariy natural ties, but the place of this institution in the life of the community is probably appraised rightly only by dispassionate foreigners, who struck by the value of a social institution that the. population takes ns a matter of course.” Mr Reese said that Brazil was divided into forty-reight Catholic bishoprics, efficiently organised in recent years. The Protestant community was, about -600,000. The field that lie was working in was as big as the South Island, and there was no other Protestant minister in the area.