MEXICO THE MARVELLOUS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13664, 5 August 1908, Page 3

MEXICO THE MARVELLOUS.

A CHAT WITH MR. C.' J. CUTCLIFEE HYNE: Mexico, in my opinion (said the famous creator of " Captain Kettle". to a . representative of Pearson's Weekly), is parably, the land of the. future for the adventurous Briton with a . little /money, a little knowledge of mining' though the latter is not essential, and average- health, strength, and "grit." • Most people, even if they had.not read their Prescott, : have' heard of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, . and . the fabulousinineral wealth Cortez and' the conquistadores found there. There -is,: however;' I imagine, a general impression that the Spaniards took out of Mexico pretty well everything in the way of gold, silver and other precious metals that there was to be got. But this is. merely a mistaken idea. •. ;■

Cortez and Co., and their, successors, did no more than scratch; the surface of the country. • The wealth in sight, outcropping on the surface, was enough for even their avarice, and to-day, as far as its real mineral resources are concerned, Mexico is practically virgin territory. I am almost afraid to speak of what. I have seen' there, lesb I be put down as a hopeless—-romancer. And, indeed, the richness of the silver. mines, in which X am particularly interested, namely those of Ocotlan, , near Oaxaco, baffles description. For instance, we are at- present ously shipping ore "that is worth over £2O. a ton. All poorer than that goes. on the dump. It was Cortez, by the way, who,' when asked by Ferdinand and Isabella what reward he desired for his conquest of Mexico, replied, " Give me the vallay of Oaxaca." • The; best of the country, immensely rich though it . was, was nothing to him. if he could have that splendid bit, the valley amongst the Sierra Madre mountains. And, as I have said,. Cortez did no more than scratch the surface. However, it may giye you some idea of tie richness of the Mexican s'ilvei mine when I tell you: that gold running three to four ounces to a.ton of quartz is looked upon . as. a subsidiary product barely worth tihe trouble of discovery. Think of it! On the .Rand, quartz carrying one ounce of gold. to the ton would be considered great; in ; Mexico, it would be thrown away as waste. Moreover, in addition to silver and gold, there are rich veins of copper, iron, lead, .antimony, ■ bismuth, and other , precious metals but scarcely touched as yet, so: plentiful and so easily worked is the silver. Then, apart from mining, there are splendid ag cultural and manufacturing •. prospects in tie country. In short, .it wpuld -be nmpossible to exaggerate the potential and actual wealth of Mexico. - '

As to the social conditions, they are excellent, thanks to that wonderful old man, President Porfirio Diaz. When one looks round and thinks tilings over, it is easy to decide that Diaz is thebiggest man now alive in this world. A splendid despot, brooking no -nonsense. . Some time ago mail robberies were rife on the Mexican railways. There was little doubt the train officials were in the game, if not the actual robbers themselves. - Don Porfirio arranged a trap by which the mail train was stopped en route by his soldiers, who, as expected found the mailbags already rifled. Ten minutes later every official on that train had been shot. There are now no train robberies in" Mexico. A wonderful man Porfirio Diaz. From chaos he has evolved order, from bankruptcy solvency, and life and property in Mexico are now as safe as, and, in regard to the latter, perhaps safer than in England. . - • • I have said that Merico is the country of the future for Britons, and I will tell you why. The Mexican, dislikes all foreigners, or " gringoes,' as he calls them, but he dislikes the Englishman least, just as he most hates the American.

Americans woke years ago to the possibilities of Mexico, and the country is overrun with them. ' Buti they will never do mnch good here, for the Mexican won't have at any price, or, rather, only ab a price which most handicaps the American out- of the race. I mean: A friend of mine was buying a mine from a Mexican who asked 50,000 dollars, whereupon a Yankee standing by exclaimed : " Why, you scoundrel, you told me you wouldn't sell under 100,000 dollars." " Quite so," said the Mexican; "to an American my price is 100,000 dollars, to an Englishriian 50,000," And for everything in Mexico, the American has to pay double the ordinary market rate. You see, the majority of Americans who go to Mexico do so for reasons not unconnected with the laws of their own country, and if an American finds Americo too hob for him, you may be sure he is a very warm customer indeed. The Mexican, though incorrigibly lazy, is no fool, and he argues the matter out this way: " This utterly lost and condemned American is certain to ' do' me sooner or later, eo I'm not taking any risks, and I'll charge him double for anything he wants. The Englishman, on the other hand, I know may be, and oftfen is, an honest man, and I can afford to deal ' fairly with him." . It is sound philosophy. Therefore ,in Mexico, the Englishman will get a fair field, and even a certain amount of favour, whereas- the American finds every obstacle thrown in his way. As to climate, except on,the coast, where the mines are not, it is admirable.. : Of course, there are some drawback!?, but none very serious; the chief being, per-, haps, the labour question. ' Skilled drillmen draw- eighteenpence. a day, but .then

as thev can live tomfortably and bring up a family on two shillings a week, it is hard 'to . convince t liem of the beauty of regular toil. The peon will work hard enough while he is at it, but. saintsc' : days are, a i>ore trial to the. mine owner and manager. , 'l'o each d n in the Mexican calendar is allotted a saint, and the man bprn anv day is named after .the saint who be-, longs to it. When his name-day comes round it is incumbent:on him to .'.chuck work and to invite his dearest friends to; a fiesta, said friends responding . in land when their name-days come round. . And it is not only a case of .the celebrants losing one day's work, but it invariably takes them two days to recover from .the fiesta. , . . However, to an Englishman who can command, say, J3100&, and will be content during his . first few months in , the country to bida his time, learning the language and the ■ royesin general before investing in mining or other proposition, Mexico . offers, not only ~ a healthy, thoroughly enjoyable life, . but a probability amounting almost to a - certainty of amassinz a fortune.