NOTES FROM ARGENTINE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10301, 4 November 1911, Page 8

NOTES FROM ARGENTINE

-~—* [Fhom Our Correspondent.] BUENOS AYRES, September 6. A comparative statement has just been issued that should be of interest to those in your country who ar© in any way concerned in the progress of this republic. 1800. 1910. Population . . 4,512,342 6,060,825 £ £ Pundsd debt (internal) 11,644,740 29,186,388 Funded debt (external) 77,812,975 61,371,746 Floating debt . . 824,146 4,765,959 Total debt . . £90,281,861 £».5,324,0<tt Debt per head of the population . . . £2O osld £151456 d Interest and sinking • fund (cost per yaavj £1,881,454 .-£5,842,597 Annual charge pernead of population . . £1 Is 6d £ol9a 3d The public income comparison results are as follows : £ £ Customs duties . . 6,407,735 15,728,381 Other taxes . . . 4,709,983 7 ; &<!3,615 Revenue from .taxes, totals .... £1,111,718 £23,561,936 State lands and forests I yielded . . . 91,717 388,239 Railways . . . 331,170 074,281 j Post and f.e.legTaphs . 435,630 1,195,546 i Other services . . 1,137,426 1,762,811 Total income .£13,113,741 £36,191,783 Total re-venue per head £2 1S« Id £t 12s Od From taxation . . £2 9s 3d £3l7s9d From railways . . £0 Is 5d £0 3s 2d Tho Central Wool Market Company has just published its annual statement of accounts, and as the movement in this market is a fair index to the commercial movement of the Republic the following figures are of interest. The cereal figures of tins market have no real value, as the great bulk of the grain goes direct from country stations to ship's side, and in addition to this an enormous quantity goes out through other ports. Not so, however, in the wool and hide business. These all seem to gravitate to Buenos Ayres. For 1910 wool stood at 80.027 tons, while there were handled for 1911, 89,723 tons; for 1910 dried hides totalled 41,841 tons, and in 1911, 34,290 tons; while for 1910 cereals amounted to 71,003 tons, and in 1911, 38,231 tons. This market is cue of the largest in the world under one roof, covering as it does several acres. The s} r stem of handling and selling wool in this country is very different to that in vogue in Australasia. Here the sheepbreeder sends his wool in to the market in big sheets like these used in New Zealand, by fellmongers. In the Central : Market these sheets are opened and | the fleeces roughly graded into piles. The buyers come along and inspect the piles. Every facility is given them to arrive at a fair estimate of the quality of each lot. Sales are made from these in lots to suit purchasers. ' Some may take five or ten tons— I if more exists—perhaps the lot. "Wool [ is weighed out from the pile and goes from the big market to private woolclassing establishments. These establishments sell direct to most of the j large manufacturers in Europe under guarantee. This guarantee obliges both the buyer and the seller to pay for I or make good any loss in weight on scouring beyond that specified in the guarantee. * At the beginning of every season standards are set up and tho wool sold is as per standard so-and-so, the guarantee lieing such and such percentage of wool after scouring. If any shortage ooeurs the selling firms ] ]ere called " Earraquaeiros ' are compelled to refund; if on the other hancl the yield is in excess, the buyers pay for such excess. The- system seems to give general satisfaction. The railways open in Argentina on July 31 totalled 17,404 miles. Of this total the Groat Southern loads the way with 3337 miles, closely followed by the Pacific Railway Company with 3186 miles, while the Central Argentine is a good third with 2842. After these there is a big drop. The National line, known as the Ferro Carril Central Northern, has 1208 mile* open to traffic, while the Western operates over 1619. The French Company, locally known as the F.C.P.S.F. (Ferro Carril Provinciu dc Santa Fe), has 102 S. Tho most notable feature m the incomes for 1911 to date is a shrinkage of £100,102 in the Central Argentine for the months of July and August, as compared with the same months last year, while the three State lines, the F.C.C.N., F.C.C.N. (Chaco Branch) and the - F.C.A.- del N., show respectively increases of £893,594, £260,007 and £544,610. These increases are such that before long we may confidently expect to hear that the lines are to bo sold to this or that foreign railway company, as the Stato cannot run a line successfully. It has been thus with various other lines. The State has opened up new country, done the pioneering work, given outlying districts communication, faced the losses till settlement began to como in, and then as soon as the extension commenced, by its results, to give the lie direct to the statement that the State hero can do nothing in the matter of running a. railroad successfully, some " patriot," corrupted- by foreign gold, rises up in Congress and proposes that the line should bo sold to this or that company. Of course, if there is a scramble to buy, that must be avoided, and someone pockets the difference in price, and cuts the line up amongst various competitors. The nation must get the minimum return for its railway, as if to emphasise that the Sta.te should not go into such businesses, except on the outskirts of civilisation. Some of your Taranaki dairymen would howl if they had to put up with a service like that extended to the producer in this country by every one of the railway companies. Rapid transport to steamers in port for frozen space is, practically unobtainable. The railway companies have no idea of fostering or helping a struggling industry on to its feet. Tho wheat-grower has t-s produce wheat before the railways will '.oinraeiics ** ■provide rolling stock to carry it. Jn tho season the farmer who gets trucks for the transport of his grain without having to wait a fortnight is indeed lucky. Meantime, in a great many stations the railways have no proper storage accommodation, and the producer who has to cart his grain ten or twelve miles is expected to dump it down alongside the station and have men standing by to load the waggons when they do arrive. The railway will accept no responsibility, and if the waggons are not loaded within twelve hours of arrival they charge demurrage, but they will not pay one cent when the farmer asks for waggons and the railway has actually promised th-3m and the promise does not materialise. The same thing happens frequently with stock waggon*. A buyer asks for waggons for a given date, gets his stock ready for loading, and the waggons turn up a week later. In your country the farming element would set up such an agitation were they treated as producers are in this country, that the Government would be forced out of office. Horo, if tho public raise a row, a little palm oil is poured out to a few well placed Government officials, and the inquiry into

the cause of the row takes months, or if needs be years, to reach headquarters. Buenos Aires is the place to see j.ustice ridiculed by those in power. Recently a certain case was before the Courts, and the Judge found it necessary to obtain certain information from the municipal records. He therefore applied to the Mayor for a c-Jpy of certain records. The Mayor supplied what he alleged ■to be a true copy, but the Judge had reason to know that the information supplied was not the whole truth, but on his applying a second, thir*d and fourth time, indicating the number of the document and the book in which the official copy oould be found, the Mayor ignored the application. The Judge then issued a summons calling on the Mayor to attend with the information asked for. This summons was ignored. The Judge then applied to the Chief of Police, and thi3 official had to instruct those under, him to enter the municipal buildings and break open the vaults where the records were and obtain the information essential for the information of the Judge. Some idea of the seriousness of the bearing of this matter on the communal interest may be formed when it is known that the question that the Judge was investigating was the cause of the death of a woman and her five children, due, it is alleged, to the carelessness of a company that is very closely oonnected with the heads of the municipality. There cannot be the slightest doubt that the Mayor was doing nil that was possible to burk i justice, and in his endeavours did not scruple to put forward a halftruth that was a first-class ready-made whole lie. But the Mayor of Buenos Ayres is one of the wealthiest men in the Argentine Republic, and if a man is wealthy here he can do with impunity what any other man, not having wealth behind him. would be deported for and sent to penal servitude. The following figures may be of interest as snowing the exports of wheat, oats, • linseed and maize since January, 1911 : Wheat, 2,010,277 tons;'maize, 1,129,548 tons; linseed, 560,101 tons; oats, 287,210 tons. Those figures, compared with the corresponding period of last year, show a falling off of 500,000 tons in ■maizo, 250,000 in linseed, while in wheat there is an increase of half a million tons and 200,000 tons in oats. In round figures, therefore, the years j 1910 and 1911, in so far as cereals are j concerned, are just about equal, but 1909 showed, to the same date, an excess of over two million tons over this year's figures, maize being 1,600,000 tons over to-day's total. At a value cf, say, £5 per ten, this shortage alone for two consecutive years means over twenty millions sterling. Notwithstanding this shortage, gold continues to flow into the country. In 1908-1909 the imnorts of gold aggregated £10,162,500 sterling, while in 1909-10 it touched £19,175,058 sterling. The j inrush of gold has sent land 'values skyward, and to-day high prices are hindering settlement. Men are holding land for speculative purposes instead of for use. What is wanted here is a whipping stiff land-tax. Such a tax. on honest valuations, would result in the country going forward by leaps and bounds. As it is, there are hundreds of those who come here returning to Italy and to Spain, unable to get work. "There are millions of acres only awaiting the application of labour to the virgin soil to yield a golden harvest for all, and yet a monopolistic few deny to the many even the right to work.

In some parts T hear they are still suffering from want of rain, but in a country the size of this there are always some p-arts that may suffer from want of moisture or. from excess of it. In the great majority of the districts tho outlook is all that could be desired. On tho whole feed is plentiful for this time of year, although round about Laprida, a district midway between here and Bahia Blanca, there are quite a number of large properties upon which the losses in both cattle and have been fairly heavy. In the great majority of cases these places are, however, run on the old Argentine lines, being owned by very wealthy men who never think of providing winter feed, and who do not seem to care whether 50 per cent of their stock die on one place, as in tho great majority of instances these men own four or five places in different parts of the republic, and if the season is bad in one place, well, most likely, it is good in some other where they have places, and in any case they own such an amount of property that a heavy knock is scarcely felt.

The exports for the first six months of the current year show a total of £39,607,000 sterling, while the imports total £37,773,000' sterling. On the figures the nurplus does not nearly represent the interest on. investments in railways, much less the interest and repayment of capital of the debts due to'foreign bondholders. The most remarkable disclosure niadn in the figures published is the immense strides Germany is making in this part of the world. Comparing the results of the first six months of this year with those of last year, we find that Germany has increased her trade, her exports in the six months by no loss than £500,000 sterling; France has gone- forward by £BSO 000, while Britain shows an. increase of only £90,000 sterling, and this notwithstanding that British imports total over ten millions, whilo those of Germany art* only a little over six and a half millions. While Germany has increased by 8 per cent her trade with this country, Britain has onlv increased hers by one-tenth per cent. Tho imports into the country are steadily growing. In 100*2 the total value for ,the first six months of the year was £10,000.000 sterling, this year" £3,773,000 sterling, while the exports have onlv increased from £21,000,000 to £39,500,000 sterling.