THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1902. ARGENTINE RIVALRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12055, 27 August 1902, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1902. ARGENTINE RIVALRY.

Whichever way we turn in matters agricultural, we find our Argentine rivals close upon our heels. South Africa was suddenly opened up as a market and the Argentine disputed there successfully with the Australasian colonies. In the United Kingdom, she is our most dangerous rival in the meat-trade and our most dangerous rival in , the butter-trade for Denmark is, after all, a little, country and has won her standing: rather by the quality of her dairy output- than by its quantity, relatively large though that quantity is. And in catering for the unexampled demands of Australia, the Argentine again disputes with us; this morning's cable messages inform us that twenty thousand tons of maize are already afloat from the Plate for New South Wales and Sydney, and we may hear at any time that her mutton is beginning to compete with .ours in the depleted market of Sydney. At present this is not a deadly injury to our trade and will probably not be perceptibly felt by our farmers, while it will help to relieve the pressing wants of our Australian neighbours. But it should warn us as to what will happen when Australia rights herself in the fat years, when South Africa becomes an exporter of agricultural produce instead of an importer, and when the energies of the Argentine are concentrated upon the British market. For the activity of her Government and the vigour of her exporters-are enabling her to reap now a golden harvest, which will equip her for the great industrial battle of the near future wherein nations will fight not as now for increased profits, but for their very existence ac exporters.

We commonly, talk .as■'though the only nations worth considering in the looming commercial Armageddon were those of Teutonic extraction. This may be very largely so in the mechanical and manufacturing world, though, even there the looms

of India threaten the looms of Lancashire and the- hardware of Japan may : undersell the hardware of 'Sheffield" and Connecticut. But in the 'agricultural world things are upon a totally different footing. The United States still exports vast quantities of wheat, but she will soon be a buyer, of meat and may easily be made one of our principal customers. Germany is a rival of industrial ■•Britain, not of industrial New Zealand. Our colonial trade competitors are the . nations with great areas of. open land., whose .swelling outputs of foodstuff cannot "be consumed by their own populations and has consequently 'to be forced into the crowded countries where urban millions live by the mechanical arts.' As a trade competitor to this colony, Russia ii tar more dangerous than. Germany, though in the inter-dependence of our Imperial interests we are vitally interested in upholding British trade against German rivalry. But our real competitor is the Argentine, which is all the more dangerous because its Latin politicians are subject to the influence of shrewd and far-sighted Saxon " captains of industry" and are therefore actuated by far more intelligent and energetic motives than our own administrators, who too often resent expert advice, and refuse expert assistance, in matters of trade.

At the present moment a telling comparison, between the ways in which this colony- and its great rival are governed, is before us. The New Zealand Government and the Argentine Government have each attempted to open up regular steam communication with South Africa. Our melancholy failure contrasts with the brilliant Argentine success. A regular line from New Zealand to South African ports is as far off as ever. The Argentine Minister for Agriculture has satisfactorily completed his arrangements. Once a month a steamer leaves Buenos Ayres for the Cape, which not only carries cereals and live stock at fixed rates, but carries free of charge approved consignments intended to create a South African market and carries back at low rates families desirous of settling in the Argentine. We can hardly comment upon Latin apathy and indifference in the face of this biting criticism upon our own administrative incapacity. It is only by being more intelligent, more energetic, more highly organised, than such a rival that we can succeed against it, for though our climate is averagely much superior the tremendous areas of the Argentine provinces give them a countervailing advantage which we cannot afford to despise. The Province of Bue?'ios Ayres alone produces nearly a million tons of maize annually, with as much wheat; it carries five million head of cattle and sixty million sheep. It is altogether true that this province compares for fertility with others of the fourteen which compose the republic of the La Plata as New Zealand compares with \West Australia. But it is :no larger than New Zealand, while the entire * republic, including its'; territories, embraces one i and ; threequarter millions of square miles : If we make the utmost of New Zealand's productivity and miss no opportunity of pushing : its produce and of expanding its trade we need not fear that the greater output of the Argentine will crush, fc v r in . the front rank there is always room, however great I may be . the pressure in the ruck. But if we allow such rivals to outpace us and to out-class us—-what can we expect 1 •