OVERDRAWN ARGENTINE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXI, Issue 12061, 4 January 1907, Page 4

OVERDRAWN ARGENTINE.

A forukr resident in South Canterbury, writing from Buenos Ayres to a friend in Christchurch. gives a somewhat dismal I view of affairs in, the Argentine, so far as the frozen meat industry is concerned, which should be good news for those engaged in the trade in this colony. The Argentine, he says, may be competing with New Zealand in the London market, but there is a terrific loss to the companies interested. The greater part of these companies have made freight contracts for three or four years, and they must supply the freight. The markets .have gone against them here, and some of them are losing from £1000 to £2000 per week. These companies, while stock prices were low, could fling their meat into London and show a profit. Today they cannot, and never will, he suggests, so long as the tendency of the Argentine to go over from sheep breeding to agriculture continues. The stock of the country is steadily falling, and meat prices are keeping high. The companies' working costs are also very high. Coal is quoted at 3Us per ton. Freights are equal to the New Zealand rates, due to the excessive port charges and slow loading. Workmen are of a poor class, as compared with the colonials. All these conditions are now felt, and they have resulted in one of the big companies showing a working loss of £60,000 in 1904 and £30,000 in 1905. Some of the 1906 balance-sheets will give even worse results. The majority of these companies hold large tracts of land, and the sale of these at an enormous increase in value keep the companies going. This cannot go on for ever, while living on the unearned increment is certainly unsatisfactory for commercial concerns. " New Zealanders," this correspondent continues, " would be wiser to look at the Brazilian State of Rio Grande. The Government has just let a contract to a Yankee firm at £2,500,000 to open the entrance of the harbour to 30ft in that State. Good land costs from 3s 6d to 20s per acre, and the place has a future, while the Argentine never had nor will have. Brazil has very stiff duties on all produce. Fancy £12 per ton on potatoes and Is per bushel on wheat!"