LIFE AND PROPERTY IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 1862, 29 July 1887, Page 22

LIFE AND PROPERTY IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

Whatever advantages the woolgrowers of the Argentine Eepublic may have over Australian squatters in the matter of climate, there can be little doubt that the progress of sheepfarming is seriously hampered by tbe insecurity of life and property prevailing! ll the former country. The Buenos AyK 3 Standard of June 6 writes on this question." " The Montevidean -authorities last weekpo' a summary end to a noted • matrero,' who b^ long been the terror of Artigas and Cevio Largo. He was simply outlawed, and tbe police shot him as they would a tiger. *' cannot fail to strike most people in Buenos Ayres that a similar mode of proceeding J} much required in this country. When P* 6sl ; dent. Sarmiento was in office he made some i ot the banditti of Santa Fe feel the weight of w arm. But at present there is practically tw most complete impunity for crime. A'^ weeks ago a whole family was murcletf* 1 in Ayacucho by a noted assassin, «M had previously killed his stepfather, j> n the matter excited so little notice tw» the murderer is still at large. We cannot expect people of means to come oo from Europe and settle in our camps, as tW} do in New Zealand or South Africa, so loD «

as the lives of every man and the lives of I his family are unprotected by law." Not a month passes without one or other horrible murder in the camp, and the only wonder is that the people have not introduced lynch law in self-protection. Perhaps because the copulation is so scattered there is much diiticulty in getting together 20 resolute men to hunt down an assassin like that of Ayacucho. By degrees the camps will be more populous, and then we shall hope to see lynch law in ful1 ' Every murderer 'will be removed in 24 hours after his crime. It would be quite Utopian to wish that instead, of lynch law the legal authorities were to condemn and execute assassins within 48 hours of committing a murder. The bandits know that the law is powerless. They murder at will, and simply mount a horse to go into the next fartido. Dr Valentin Alsina's rural code has laid down severe penalties on those persons who keep bees within three miles of any camp town, lest they should injure fruit and vegetables. But to murder a whole family, such as Senor Ledesma's at Ayacucho, is an offence which escaped the learned lawgiver's enactment."