MODERN MEXICO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14143, 19 August 1909, Page 6

MODERN MEXICO.

NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE.

[JJV TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Wednesday. "As silver is to gold, so was the Mexico of 20 years ago compared with, the country today." So said Don Manuel Mascarenas to an interviewer to-day. The Don had just arrived from Sydney, and he intends to return there on Friday, staying only two days in New Zealand. Don Mascarenas is on a long tour of the world, and his short stay in New Zealand will be spent in Wellington. He goes to Sydney and Melbourne, then to Bombay, Singapore, Siam, Hongkong, up the Shanghai River, Canton, Hankow, Pekin, Corea, Japan, and through Manchuria to Siberia and on to St. Petersburg and Europe. The visitor is a banker, ranch owner, and mine and railway owner. He assured his interviewer that there were unlimited openings for investment of capital in Mexico, and there was sunk in the country an enormous amount of American and British capital. The opening up of the fourtrack railway at Tehuantepec would, when completed shortly, give a much quicker route to Europe from Australia and New Zealand than would the Panama Canal. The railway was being built and was owned by the Government, but it was to all intents and purposes an international line. The opening of the line should have considerable interest for New Zealand.

Speaking of New Zealand produce for Mexico, Don Mascarenas said that there would be very little opening for meat there, but New Zealand butter and cheese should have, a ready and profitable sale. There would be a limited market for wool, and samples of all products likely to find a market in Mexico should certainly be sent to the British Consul-General in Mexico City. There would be no chance of Australian fruit competing with that of California.