A VOICE FROM ARGENTINE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6313, 13 September 1907, Page 3

A VOICE FROM ARGENTINE.

THE WARNING "DON'T.'’ A CAPITALISTS' COUNTRY. A gentleman who for many years lived in Buenos Ayres, and for other years in the heart *of the pastoral portion of the Argentine, chatted interestingly to a "Times’ 1 reporter yesterday on the Republic he had left to make his permanent home in this country* : Questioned as to the wisdom of leaving Now Zealand to take up land in the Argentine, he was most emphatic m suymg that Argentine was not the j country for the email man. It is not a new j country In any sense of the word. It I i« a very largo country, and most of ■ tho land is hold by Spanish families who are descendants of men who have held : it for generations past. Then great Engglish companies owned vast tracts of the land, and, although it was a comparatively easy matter to acquire land uC a loss price than it is accessary to pay in New Zealand, tho competition is so keen and tho wealth of tho competitors so great that tho small man is likely to be left in the ruck. The gentleman from tho Argentine is of opinion that the man of small means who voluntarily resigns life under present New Zealand conditions to go into an unknown one, where the customs, manners and language are distinctive, is ill-advised. There is at present in the Argentine a fiercer commercial competition than has been known hitherto. The estancieros arc, as a very general thing, men of great keenness and wealth. They will pay any price for a good bull, a good ram, or a good stallion, and the country is full of freezing plants, which are yearly turning out tremendous quantities of meat for export. Labour on farms is generally done by the native peon, who works for next to nothing and the odour of an onion per day. The heavy work is done by Italians, who get a dollar a day, or thereabouts. In tho harvest season thousands of Italians go from their native country to Argentine for work, and return when the harvest is over to Italy. They may make two dollars a day, which keeps them in food, garlic, wine, and money for the lottery until the nest Argentine harvest. This recently-arrived gentleman is very clear on the point that Argentine is a wonderful country for stock-raising, jnd that the man who has a great deal of money and is willing to stay in the country idle while he spies out the land may probably make a great deal more than he already possesses. There has been a land boom, both on the prairie and in the city, for the past five years, and land values have enormously increased, especially in Buenos Ayres, which, with its million inhabitants, is one of tho finest, most cultured and advanced of modern cities. The people, either in tho towns or in the country, are, says rmr informant, the most hospitable and charming he has ever met. They will go to any trouble to please a stranger, and to help him in every way. Argentines are not brigands, and tho stories one hears about tho ready knife and the ever-cocked revolver exist but in the imagination of people who don't know the country. Trouble can be met by search anywhere. On© has to desire trouble to get It, even in Buenos Ayres. There is great culture in the capital, and music is adored. There is the second largest opera house m the world in this city, and very many other theatres. The earth’s artists look upon Buenos Ayres as the Mecca of -all prima donnas. Other cities are growing with great rapidity. There are Rosario and Bahia Blanca, towns which are expanding with the increase in the meat export trade. Most of the trouble people may meet with in Argentine is in making the usual English endeavour to teach tho Argentine how to “suck eggs," so to speak. The "newchum" arrives, armed to the teeth, and is surprised to find that nobody rushes at him with a handful of stilettos as soon as he lands. All Argentine cities are cosmopolitan, most of the railways are owned by British companies, and the rich English who settle in the country are greatly increasing yearly. Everything sporting happens on Sundays, because everybody works harder on Saturday than any other day. The occasional teast-dnys afford cessation from toil for a half or whole day, and then Argentine buckles on its silver spurs, assumes its biggest sombrero, and has a good time. But the small man, or the man who when in Argentine will not do as the Argentines do is not wanted in the country. "And anyhow," says the man from thence, "What's the matter with New Zealand? It's the best place I know anything about. I'm staying here, and my Argentine wife is staying, too."