MARVELLOUS MEXICO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9322, 24 August 1908, Page 2

MARVELLOUS MEXICO.

A CHAT WITH MR C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE. Mexico, in my opinion (said the famous creator of "Captain Kettle"' to a representative of "Pearson's Weekly "), is incomparably the land of the future lor the adventurous Briton with a little money, a little knowledge of mining, though the latter is not essential, and average health, strength and " grit." Meet people, even if they had not read their Prescott, have heard of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and. the fabulous mineral wealth Cortez and theconquistadores found there. There is, however, 1 imagine, a general imprecision' that the Spaniards took out of Mexico pretty well everything in the way of gold, .silver and other precious nietak tnat there was to be got. But thus ifi merely a mistaken idea. Cortez and Co., and their successors, did no more- than scratch the surface of the- country. The. wealth in sight, out-' crop-ping on the surface, was enough for even their a. varico, 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 1 have eeeji there, lest 1 be put down as a hopelecss- -romancer. And, indeed, the richness of the silver mines, in which I am particularly interested, namely those of Ocotlan, near Oa-xa-ca, baffles dujcription. For instance, we are at present shipping ore that is worth over £20 a ion. All poorer than that goes on the dump. Jt was Cortez. by tho way, who, when asked by Ferdinand and Isabella what reward lie desired for his conquest of MexioO, replied, " (Jive me the valley ol Oaxaca." The best of the country, immensely rich though it was, was nothing k> .him if ho could have that splendid bit, the valley amongst the Sierra Mud re mountains. And. as I. have said, Cortez -did uo move than scratch the ; surface. However, it may .give you some, idea of the richness of tho .vxexican silver mine when 1 tell you that gold running three or four ounces to a ton of quartz is looked upon us a subsidiary product, barely .worth liio trouble cf discovery. Think of it! On the U and, 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 arc rich veins of copper, iron, lead, antimony, bismuth and other precious metals, but scarcely touched as y-et. so plentiful and so easily worked is tho silver. Then, apart from mining, them are splendid agricultural and miiufacturing prospects in the country. In short, it would bo impossible to exaggerate tho 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 things over, it is easy to decide that Diaz in the biggest man now alive in this world. A (splendid despot, brock ing no nonseuse. Some time- ago mail robberies were rife- on the Mexican railways. There was little doubt the train officials Mere in the game, if not the actual robbers themselves. Don. Porfirio arranged a trap by. which tho mail train was stoi>ped on route by his soldiers, who. as expected, found the mail-bags 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 iv Mexico ava now a«s safe as, and,' in regard to the latter, perhaps safer than, in England. 1 have said that Mexico is the country of the future for Britons, aad I will tell you why. . The Mexican dislikes all foreigners, c-r "' gvingoes I,''1 ,'' as he calls them, but he dislikes the Englishman, least, just as he most hates the American. Americans woke yearn? ago to the possibilities of Mexico, and the country is overrun with them. But they will never do much good here, for the Mexican won't have them at any price, or, rather, only at 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 lankee standing by exclaimed: "TV by. you scoundrel, you told me you wouldn t sell under 100,000 dollars. 7 ' "Quite > co." said the Mexican; "to an Amen- ■ can my price is 100.000 dollars; to an Englishman 50.000." And for overy- . -thing; in Mexico the American has to ' nay double the market rate. You see-, the majority of Americans ' who co to Mexico do «o for .reasons not unconnected with the laws of their own > country, and if an American finds: Ame- , rica too hot for him. you may be sure . he is a very warm customer indeed. The Mexican, though incorrigibly ' lazy, is no fool, and lm argues the mat- ? ter out in this way: " Tnis utterly lost J and condemned American is certain to 'do' me sooner or later, so- lm not [ taking any risks, and I'll charge him L double for anything lie wants. The * Englishman, on the other hand, 1 f know may bo, and often is an honest 3 !S ancfl can afford to deal airly •* with him " Tt i« sound philosophy. • Therefore, m Mexico the Englishman will get a fair field and oven a certain 1 amount of favour, whereas the Amen--1 can finds every obstacle thrown in In* f Jnv As to climatf, except on the 1 coast, where the mines arc not, it is ad--1 ""ofcourso, there arc some drawbacks. " but none very serious, the chief being '" wjrhaiw, th« labour question.. bkiHed - driTl-men draw oighteen-pence a day, 1 but then, as they can live comfortably and bring up a family on two shillings a week, it is hard to convince, them of > the beauty of regular toil. 1 The peon will work hard enough while r ho h at- it, but saints' days are a. sore j trial to the mine-owner ami manager. f To each day in the Mexican calendar is allotted a "saint, and the man born on any day is narm-d attor the saint who belong to it. When his name-day 1 comos round it is incumbent on him to r "chiW-" work and to invite Jm dearb est friend* to a fiesta, said friends re : «t>onding in kind whou their name- ' days come round. And it is not only a ' case of the celebrants losing one days * work, but it invariably takes them two r days to recover from the fiesta. y However, to an Englishman who can, s command, say. £1000. and will be conJ tent during his first few months in the country t«» bide 1»> tirn«\ l« a . rmn K tht l 1 lan fill age and the " rop«» u\ general £ before "iiivestin.ee in mining or other - nroooeition, Mexico offers not only a o healthy, thoroughly enjoyable- hie. but „ a probability amounting .almost to a t certainty of amassing a fortune.

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