THE ARGENTINE

Otago Witness, Issue 2501, 19 February 1902, Page 17

THE ARGENTINE

It is estimated by Mr Shaw Lefevrc. in a Tecer.t aiticle in the Nineteenth Contury, thai about 250 millions of British capital have bseu invested m Aigentiua. R>ihvay=, trani•wayc, wharfo, shops, farms, aid cstaucias aie very largely owned by Brili&h investors, ond the valuable steamship lines which run iiom Buenos Ayres to Liverpool arc among the best managed to be found anywhere in the world. The railways are described as being up to the best Americaa standard, and fai *>uperior to anything that can be found ia Australia. Competition between rival routes is so ke.cn that the comfort of the passengers, suid the.still .moyfe important essential of low rates oi freight for goods arc studied- in a way fhal is practically impossible in..Australia. The great drawbacks to. which the Argentine is subject are the political unrest which prevails, the debased monetary standard, the mixture of races among ■the cultivators of the soil, the poor quality of the work done by a certa'.n proportion of the labourers, aud the comparatively low type of live stock from which bleeders have to evolve their improved strains. Last, but not least, must be enumerated the fickleness of the seasons, which are hardly any more trustworthy than those of Australia. Millions of sheep were drowned by floods last year, and this loss, together with the death 3 from foot and mouth disease, and the consequent decrease in the lambing percentage, is said to have been responsible for a shortage oi 10 millions in the flocks. Many estancia owners have been ruined, but on the other hand the wheat crop in most parts of the Republic was good. The British Comm-ssion for 'he purchase of .horses for South Africa bought 25,000 remounts last year. Mr Shaw Lefevre, when he visited the Argentine, saw one estate which was as large a3s.ana 3s. an English county, aud which was worked by 60 Englishmen and 250 employees of other nationalities, including Italians, Basques, Frenchmen, Germans, and Russians, the latter ■being apparently religious refugees. These are the men against whom the Australasian farmer and the Australasian stockowner h.'ve to compete in the world's markets.

3TEW ZEALAND PRODUCE IN LONDON. "The Agent-general's cablegram, dated London, loth inst. reports : " No alteration in the muttpn market since last week. Average price to-day Canterbury lamb, sid; market weak. Australian in large supply. No alteration in the beef market. Stocks of New Zealand on hand light. Butter, Ills; market very firm. No alteration in cheese. Hemp firm. Good fair .Wellington, £38; June-August shipments, 435. Cocksfoot, steady, New Zealand 171b standard, 40s per cwt."

- FRUIT CROP IN THE NORTH. Vte rqnntfcoa tkg. state and. jposj^ects oi uuit

crops, compiled by the Department of Agriture, states that in the Bunnythorpe district the apple crop is heavy. Apricots are medium, v blackberries a?e'rage,~cherries poor, red currants fair, black currants very poor, gooseberries I average, grapes (indoor) -fair, grapes (outddor) j good, medlars fair, mulberries average, nuts average, peaches average, pears good, plums very good, plums (Japanese) very bad, quinces average, raspberries very poor, strawberries very good, tomatoes fair, walnuts average. All fruit has been damaged by hail. Black-fepot is bad on apples, and root-fungus on raspbesries very bad. * Codlin moth shows a slight increase. Ac Haweia apricots, Cape gooseberries, bjack currants, figs, lemons, loquats, nectarines, peaches, quinces, strawberries, and tomatoes are poor, while all other crops are looking well. Leech, mildew and black-spot are said to be prevalent in many orchards. At Blenheim not a single crop is considered poor, although a good deal of fruit has dropped, owing to early drought £".id high winds. The apple crop is heavy throughout the colony. , . .