A NEW ARGENTINA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22961, 12 February 1938, Page 17

A NEW ARGENTINA

INDUSTRIAL NATION

EXAMPLE TO DOMINION

PROBLEM FOR BRITAIN

SOURCE OF PRIMARY PRODUCE Nowadays Argentina produces not only such staples as wheat, meat and wool, as she did at one time, but her industrial activity is phenomenal, and in a few years she may become a major industrial nation, says Mr. F. R. .Baker, Argentine manager of the New Zealand Insurance Company, Limited, who is in Auckland on six months' furlough. In his opinion the example set by Argentina might well be followed by New Zealand. "The time lias gone when New Zealand can regard itself as a country suited purely to the production of meat and wool, butter and cheese," Mr. BakCr said yesterday. "It has to be remembered that, from the point of view of climate, general resources and the proportion of usable to unusable land, Argentina is superior to Australia and New Zealand combined. Very little of the land there is not capable of being used, whereas in Australia there are vast deserts, while in the Dominion there is a great deal of waste land. Manufacture ol Textiles "New Zealand should realise the force of what is being done in Argentina. Only recently a huge factory was built there for the manufacture of rayon, and already woollen and cotton goods are being made there in appreciable quantities, and the quality of these products is very good." . " Mr. Baker .said that, in addition, the country was favoured with a welldiversified climate, from the cold in the south to the tropical heat of the north, where sugar and cotton and maize were grown, a circumstance which gave enormous advantages over many other nations.

It said much for British diplomacy that, although Britain had a great deal of capital invested in Argentina, to whom she sold light and heavy machinery for various purposes, and in return bought heavily of her frozen and chilled meats, the balance between Britain and her Dominions was well maintained, and the demands of New Zealand and Australia. .were eo well met. - 4 Possible future Choice .. Nevertheless, .st some time in the future. Britain might find herself faced with the troubling problem of having to choose between the Dominions and Argentina for supplies of primary products. For this and other reasons, said Mr, Baker, New Zealand and Australia should give some thought to the development of secondary, industries. _ One of those reasons was, that within the last year or so Japan had begun to buy muttoßi and beef in ever-increas-ing quantitieu from Argentina, Mr. Baker concluded. Apparently the Japanese dietary was changing, and the Argentine was taking full advantage of the change.