NOTES FROM ARGENTINA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13637, 5 July 1906, Page 10

NOTES FROM ARGENTINA.

(Fnoir Odb Own Correspondent,)

BUENOS AYRES. April 19. We have recently had a strike amongst tho medical students attending tho local university. It appears the professors aro allowed each, three or four assistants. These good meli, having large families, thought it a godd way, to augmenting their incomes by appointing their sons or sons-in-law to the .positions carrying salaries. Thus wo see one professor with three sons in positions and another with three sons and a son-iuMaw who were not even medical students. The medical students considered thift. Ihose'snlaries for assistants to the various professors should go to the best qualifiod.of the students in the respective classes. ; They formulated their grievances in the' form of a letter and approached the ruling powers, whose only reply was that; they' could see no ground for interfering, The students thereupon had a meeting, and declared themselves on strike. Tli/oy wore supported by those of the professors who had not been following the system of filling vacant positions with friends lor relations. These professors resigned in a body, thus showing their sympathy with tho students' movement when the authorities' decision was made known: Next tho students, to the number of 3000, paraded the streets and waited on the President of tho State to lay before ;him their grievances. The President promised to look into the matter, and; there the matter now stands. The next, move was made by a band of the students on strike. Some of ihe nonstrikers werb to sit for an examination, and a. dozen of; the strikers laid in wait for them, and on their rmssinsr in a motor car on their way to the university through, one of the'centra! streets of Ihe city the strikers opened a smart revolver fire on them. Thq non-strikers returned the fire, and a stand-up firiit took place. The chaffeur wt(s wounded and the automobile strikers wero to sit for an examination, and non-strikers' were all run in, but. two days

after were all granted their liberty by order of the .judge' after naying' a fine of about £2 each for carrying firearms. .At the sometime rtn Italian'worker gol 10 years for wounding another man by shoofin«r him ,in a, street raw. Such is tho condition; of Iho courts in this country that a rich man may do as he likes, while a poor man lias to walk willi care and look where lie is treading. We sometimes in New Zealand used to hear the cry of "One law for the rich, another for'the noor," but one wants to be hero to sco how things are rim.

I notice a number of Now Zealanders are coming over here by each steamer, some of them with only a few pounds on them. A warning should bo given, and I now give iu to all young men of small means to slay whrre they are—unless they have money or a billet to come to. The.

nverag'V colonial coming over here knows nothing of Pfianisii, and therefore cannot get work—unless lie be. an engineer or a carpenter. For engineers thcro are plenty o? openings, and still more for carpenters; while mssons and bricklayers get on richt enough, but they have to work wilh Spaniards, Italians, and Portuguese, and eolom'a's do not like' that. For farmers with £1000 or £2000 this is a, splendid country, but for farm labourers it is no trnod—unless one gets on to some good progressive estancia. Here land-holders do not l work the land; they let it lie. Tn summer it has oceans of trrnss: in winter the slock starve. To. plough for rape or srass is thought madness. There is therefore little opening unless a man can no on lo the land for him=elf. It is to be honed you will trivo this warning the greatest, prmuiu"uoo possible. If men eomc over here they must have money or friends. The former is the better friend of the two. 'For here, as in the States, it is tho dollar Ihal tells.

Capital continues to (low into the counIry. Tho gold in the Cajn. rip Conversion has reached and paused £20.000.000. and still keens com in?. Each week pops from £100.000 to £500 000 .arrive by (lie mail *teninev.s. Tlip French pronl«\ now that Hussion investments have lost fhnir confidence, are ■ turning to- Argentine, Last week a railway comnany formed to run a line between Posiirio and Bnhia {Blanca was fkifnd i„ Paris. The first issue of capital (£5.000.000) was covered 15 times over. French rnn-ifn! is also entering Uruguay, while the Yankees are attending to Brazil. That is the country with the greatest future for (he largo capitalist. There the Yankee ini'lior-Mre ran find_ a. fhousand-and-ono outlets for his capital. A country larger than Australasia rWonnwenlll,. all ' snlonrl.Mlv -aWcd and in manv parls covered with most valuable, timber, offers to the Yankee financial giants great inducements. No Monroe, dortrino trouWe« there. TTnele Ram 'vill wag the way they pull the strings. Germany seems to he the onlv Power interested, and they and the, Yankees will sooner or later come to loggerheads over the Rio firandp do Sul. On* of Ihe finest States in Brazil—containing as jf does millions of acres of magnificent- available lancl.—imwli of it better than Argentine, as it i.s rollins 1 downs, anil not- subiect to winter floods liko this country. While Britain goes 'on scrapping after Sonlh Africa. i\ far rcbor country from Ihe pasfornlist nrjint of view is n-radually sointr over to the Slates and Germany. Germany is makintr herself secure in the south, the Yankees in the centre and north, while Ttalv.has over 1-J million of colonists in Sao Paulo, the o-rcitosf colWpiwliiphie Stale in Ihe world. But while Italy puts in Ihe colonists Topic Sam and the Canadians are snapping up all the by-industrial enterprises. The railway companies have at last sot a rap on the knuckles from the Government. It has, been their game to extend [ their lines out of raoital in such an economical way that so lomr as the engine and trucks could get over the line if would do. _ Tip to this point the expense was debited to capital account.' The line was afterwards made up to '■ the ordinary standard later-all such cost being debited to'maintenances. In this way enormous sums of money havq been really transferred to capital account. So' glaring have some of them become in their little games that public opinion has at last forced the Government; to take action, and the powers have now served the railwav companies that their accodnfs will for the future he revised by a board of arbitration. This hoard will settle what part of each work goes to njainionance and what to capital account. I The railways have been playing tlio same game thatmany New Zealand companies have so successfully worked. Extensions are all carefully hid in expenses account, and the true value only comes i out when the municipality talks of buying the company out. Then it is found a concern estimated as per balance since! to be worth £15.000 to £20.000 is suddenly valued at £50.000 to £60,000. Where does the rise come from ?

Land sales continue to occupy (he public .attention. A splendid station called the Pacific came under the hammer '-the other day, and sold at 150dol per hectare—say £5 5s per acre This land is all firstclass agricultural land,, within 180 miles from Buenos Ayres—subdivided, with windmills, buildings, and other improvements. The land is similar in quality to ihat round the Temuka district in South Can-terbury-land that in New Zealand would bring from £15 to £20 iper acre. Sheep have taken a.very decided jump during the past few days. On April 19 sales wore clt'ected at public auction to up to £1 per head. No wonder there is a boom on in Argentine land at sheep selling at such a figure in April. Everyone is asking at what price are they going to sell before next shearing comes round. Dredging returns have commenced to come in, the first, .'from the Rio Oscar Gold Dredging Company, showing some 250z, and that for a. company capitalized to about £50.000. Dividends look a long way off. The Matro Grosso. a Brazilian venture, shows a return of about 17oz arid one or two small diamonds. People here are getting the measure of these mining and dredging swindles and commencing to realise that they are better institutions for dredging gold out of the public's pockets than out of the South American rivers. Yet the public is always content to come in for a gamble-and just as reguiarly gets left. Some of the promoters, of the San Juan Company did very well. The public seemed 12 months ago to never tire of talking.of San Juan: now the knowing crowd are able to retire, and the public-it got tired all at once.

The export of frozen meat for the month have been as under:—Mutton, 251,667 carcases; boef, 152,344 quarters; chilled beef, 41,049 quarters. For the quarter ending March 31 mutton stands at 648.935, against 820,190 for the corresponding period of last. year. Frozen beef. 436,095 quarters against 333,190; and chilled, 107,836 quarters against 73,731. The export of beef has increased considerably—mutton has gone back; but all tho companies are now operating heavily on mutton, and next quarter should show considerable increase, although the year's output, in mutton should not run into figures equal to last, year's. The Argentine Whalintr Company has just issued its first balance sheet. This company operates down south. Its first year's results enable tho directors to write £4000 oft' the value of the steamer purchased. Unlike most. Argentine companies, tho shareholders were content to do without a dividend. The company got 949 tons of oil and 14 tons of whalebone for the year's work. Thero are some good men connected with this company, and there is evidently money in the business, as £25,000 further capital was subscribed at the meeting to increase tho fleet. Shareholders aro hot usually so anxious for shares in a non-dividend-payer unless thero is something behind it. all. Evidently tho Southern Seas can give a harvest good enough to attract capital-and that capital that looks for a return of 15 to 20 per cent. _ TJie British Bank of South America has just got out its balance sheet, to 31st December, 1905. Profits clear of working expenses and taxes, £117,220; appropriation to reserve fund, £35,000; pension fund, £5000; bonus to staff, £4000; dividend. £45,000, or 9 per cent, per annum. The bank earned over 20 per cent, for the year. Theso figures speak well for the profit-earning capitalists of the institution. Prohibition, evidently, is not feared in ■Argentine. The share list of a brewery with capital of £150,000 was opened and closed in one afternoon last week. There seems to be such a plenitude of money that any venture presenting at all a reasonable prospect of paying dividends is floated with the greatest ease.

During the week ending 13th April. 1906, cattle numbering 13,520 and 65,897 sheep were sold in the Tablada markets. Freezing steers. 85dol to 95t10l (llidoi to the pound); sheep, £1 to 17s 6d; lambs, to 12s 3d (but very few on offer).

Rosaria and Bahia Blanca continue to grow rapidly. Tlio latlor place presents almul llie best openings in Argentine for men with capital setting up in business. There is an immense—an almost limitless --field behind it. In 20 or 30 years' time Bahia Blanca will lie a second Buenos Ay res on a small scale. Land values are growing there' at a great rate, while business places in the city are not procurable.