THE ARGENTINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3102, 27 August 1913, Page 21

THE ARGENTINE.

RECORD EXPANSION. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW ZEALAND. iFcom Our Own Corhbbfondknt ) WELLINGTON, August 25. An interesting story of how the Argentine is advancing is told by Mr A. M. Haynes, senior proprietor of Mundo Argentine (the Argentine World), who is on on extended* tour of the world. After being in Wellington for some days he left this morning for Auckland. Buenos Aires, he said, now covered an area of 150 square kilometres, and money was being expended like water by the municipality in the improvement of the town. The subterranean tube system was being installed, and would probably bo opened this year. A sum equivalent to eleven millions sterling was being expended in opening up new avenues, and the town was pushing its way further and further back into the suburbs. No less than 25 daily papers, morning and evening, were published, including the English daily morning journal—The Standard—the oldest paper published in the State. The dock accommodation, which was built about the year 1888, and which was then considered sufficient for fifty years bo come, had proved entirely inadequate, and was now being duplicated. All the principal railways, with two exceptions, belonged to English companies, and the English people had something like £239,000,000 sterling vested in railways alone, Most of the tramways, waterworks, and gasworks also belonged to English companies, and the British were undoubtedly the most influential and richest of the European population. Speaking of the American meat trust, Mr Haynes said that although it was striving strenuously to get its tentacles round the meat industry, great opposition was being shown by the English companies, which at present sent all their meat to Europe. The steamship companies were also up against the trust, and if it did get a proper footing it would only he after a stiff struggle. The feeling generally among the English people was quite opposed to the trust. Mr Haynes further remarked that the American Government was sending a commissioner to visit the Argentine, Australia, and New Zealand to inquire into the meat trade, the States

I being anxious to acquire the importation of meat from other countries. “A great deal of the country formerly taken up for cattle and sheep raising is now being devoted to pastoral pursuits,” said Mr Haynes, “and the large estancias are going more and more out into the interior of the country. It is estimated that within the last 15 years the number of sheep in the country has decreased by thirty millions. The Argentine meat is not considered to be of the high quality of New Zealand mutton, nor does it find such favoured acceptance in England as does the New Zealand product. “I would like to emphasise the fact,” concluded the visitor, “that there is a great market in the Argentine, Uruguay, and Brazil for apples and potatoes. A decent apple in Buenos Aires costs from 8d to Is; but if New Zealand desires to capture this trade she must step in straight away. The demand for the outside product is not likely to be permanent, as both tire soil and climate of Argentine are suitable for apple-growing; and when the easy-going Spanish population wakes up to this fact it is probable that a sufficient supply of fruit will be produced to meet the home demand.”