A PROFESSOR'S TOUR.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 725, 26 January 1910, Page 8

A PROFESSOR'S TOUR.

-RESOURCES OF ARGENTINA. NEW LIGHT ON POLYNESXAIf ■ MiGEATIONS. /■, Professor MacMillan Brown, of Christchurch, returned, to New Zealand from Europe and America yesterday. During a lengthened. absence, he lias made some interesting; investigations. ■ , ~ , Before going to South " America,-, :Professor MacMillan Brown went to Spain. He. was. desirous of seeing tho' Mother Country before going to study her transplanted peoples. Then' he sailed for Buenos Ayrcs, calling at Brazilian and Uruguyan- ports-: en route. -He wished to make the trans-Andean journey to Chili, but the railway was not to be completed for six .weeks, so he had perforce to take a much more difficult route. In his journeying he saw a lot of North Argentina, and he' was prepared to' talk by the hour upon: the. possibilities of that; country, but, he added, it has the drawback of all Latin America—the ."tendency to revolution. From 50 to : 75' per cent. of. the people cannot read or ■write. The, Indians ' and. the ■ half-castes keep ,in separate, communities. South Argentina is alsb';prospering, and generally .the >of .the whole country , great. ..The people who' were : crowding; in' before- ..were mostly Italians, but. now, the. immigrants are Spanish; •„ These people work on tribute, obtaining: the land and the seed from the owner, who in return get-s a certain part of, the produce... In' one-;or_ two .good years they mll.pay off everything. _There', issplendid sheep-raising country in;the •south—as far south aliiost as the Strait of Magellan. Professor - Brown met . one English sheep-farmer who 'had, a' run near - the Straits, and who, boasted..: that ': he could. .raise better lambs _ than oould the Canterbury farmers. ..;;j :.• ■, -

A Great Grain-Producing Area: ; • Farther north you come into a gTeat grain-producing area, and' farther north' still there is tho maize and the. sugarcane country. You see hundreds of miles of sugar-cane, and there are many large; sugar 'factories'.': Undoubtedly Argentina is the most promising, ' except .perhaps Mexico, of . all the Latin countries of America, . and. one day • it may do much to interfere with the New Zealand ' market for produce t in England. The sheep-raising country is mainly.' in the far south, which the railways have-not yet reached. .When the .railways', do .get there—and.', they are' being made witn';yigour—then the New-Zea- ' land. sheep-farmers may ; look out" for. keen competition.' ;In Central Argentina the grasses are. coarser, -and so ;cattle-raising and dairying are the principal industries.. ■Alfalfa .is groifn! largely: for i'fodder, and the grasses;.are .too rank: for the raising of good mutton and lamb. ,;British capital, ■for railways and publio works'of all .sorts has simply been pouring' into Argentina, till non: there is : four;hundred millions -sterling :of British "'. capital invested. French capital is'also coming "in and' this -is being. used to:build - railways' ■to oompete against some 'of the railways built by "British . 'capital., ; Somo of - the British -.Tailway' .corporations . aro extremely wealthy. ■ Professor Brown travelled on a sft.-guage railway to Tuouman; Thence .a„ narrower'. 1 guage line took him to' Guguy ' (pronounced Hoo?wbee), and from 'this place to the border there 1 was a still! narrower.guage, .'which' -takesthe traveller ..'up to an .altitude'of 11,500 ft; At; that 'height tho rarity of the ■■ atmosphere was such that he could not deep.; Ho had; pains' in his ohest and ■ back, but some asperin 'tablets,'.which he carried, gave almost.immediate reUef.;.' He met.on' the "'journey, Signor 'Aramayo,; a-!Bplivian' millionaire—the ' wealthiest '. man*- * ? in Bolivia. He really , does r.ot know how wealthy; he .is. ,' He invited .-Professor Brown to . a berth; in his special i sleeping car. , Signor . Aramayo!.has one. mountain —Chorolquin—2l,oooft. high,, Mhich seems to be a veritable mountdn of. metals. ' He works a mine at -.a height -of 17,000 ft.-— more than four thousand feet; higher' than our -.'He'.oMy ,works the: gold and the copper; but the mountain abounds , in-silver and 1 -lead as well. ' The signor. also has a'mountain- of Bismuth, and.he controls the bismuth • market {'of the .world!,;'. ■■■';,';;■:' ■.'"<'

Fascinating Theories. . ~ • t But Professor Mnomillan. Brown's neyir.gs' had more" to do with than with agriculture .or . with.. mining. Professor Brown , has theories . abbut Polynesian ■ migrations ; that "; are ,; quite fascinating', and. when : to. : these;-he adds his Trans-Audean deductions ;they- become'' still. more fascinating.,-and more ■ important... ; . Some-.of - his , BohemiiUi' investigations ;have; led to "conclusions of.-a. revolutionary nature,-..'and: who shall say that these' revolutionary 'reasonings - are not accurate?. Professor.; Brown ;has. 'the data' now- at ;his .. fingers', endsrsuffiment apparently -to fill a large; volume—and he is prepared to prove his theories. One can only, briefly; .allude. ; to them in a newspaper, article.- r-Most- interesting'.were hi 9 .observations .of ;. the .'famous'.ancient ruins of Tiahuanaco,. which from a cal-. culation he made about,.the. silting.<up. of the Lake on whose borders it onoe was must have been in its glory- eight .thou-, sand years' ago! '.' This " ancient ■ city is .now.. seventeen .miles' south of. the '.Lake 'and 120 feet - above' its .'.present :, surface. It. must -have" been a very wealthy city in the. .dim .past,- and the reason lot its prominence ,was no. doubt: due to the _fact that it occupied: a: commanding: position on the' shores; of- Lake Titicaca—some 13,000. feet above :sea level, 'and was the .centre, of:- communication between the Indians- of the-north ,and 'the south;. At Ponu when, the Spanish first came four hundred years ago there wcro three little islands, in the lake. -.They are no longer islands, '- I 'but. ar© ' joined 'to - th© mainland.-by'a.reody marsh. From this it - is . apparent,-that the, lake ■ sunk five feet' in- 400; years.' ; That is-'at the rate" of one foot : in- eighty,.years,,bo -that: as the lake has ■ been lowered more than 100 feet ,6ince-Tiahuanaco lost its predominance/ as . ..the; lake-side .city eight thousand v; years mufit > . have passed , since. .. that date., American arohaeoiogista had -not ventured to -place the- decline of. the' 1 city beyond about 1500 years, ,: and ", when Professor Brown": put this reasoning before .them they became greatly', interested, and said the new line -of' reasoning- would explain 'much that; w'as<not hitherto>clear.

Tho Polynesians. Professor Brown examined carefully the stone pilgrims, * of : ivhicli ; there' are' a series .in • a gateway in the ; Stonehenge of Tiahuanaco. In these are to he traced the conventionalised- condor's head that also appears in; the rained cities of. Mexicoand Yucatan, and :he'/argues fro in this and; other evidences that' the civilisation ;of Central America and Mexico started not from the east, but from the west, by a people who arrival from the coast, of Peru, and he farther says he:has ample evidence to show that the. original civilisers : 'were the' Polynesians, -who : landed in, tlioir. ocean w-noes, and cvcn became the- rulers. of' Peruvian';:'cities. .- Then, again, in Mexico ;and Tucatan he found three llamas heads—two on old ': Vases and one on an Astecdrnm, proving that the Peruvians in;olden times must have emigrated' to Mexico .because the. -llama; does not exist: below altitudes ■ of 10,000 feet,' and there be; none in these northern cities. Prescott had. stated that there, .'had bien no : connection . between Peru' and Mexico. That, said the professor, was rubbish. ; His' investigations; lead him to the conclusion that the Polynesians -.began : to. arrive on. the Pacific' coast of America ;when' had .still • the blond'hair and bine eyes; of which traces-are.yet"to be seen,-in : the Tfrewera ' Coun&y. in New Zealand, in'the islands: of . the- Pacific, andalso in South America. The islands of 'the Pacific had been sinking for thousands of years, and great bodies of the people migrated to find a new home in South America;. They Went: there probably about ten thousand years ago. They were, a people who could cut and sculpture immense blocks of stone, and they raised buildings and built these ruined cities. Prom them' the Ineas: learned to build their immense cities. : Ho believed, that these Polynesian expeditions continued up to our own era, and though he could, not, prove this, there woro many things that indicated it.