ON PARAGUAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1905, 13 November 1913, Page 4

ON PARAGUAY.

IMPRESSIONS OF tOL MALI.

RICH SLICE OF COUNTRY. Colonel Stewart Newnll, C.8., officer commanding the mounted special constables, has only recently returned from a lengthy abseiwe abroad. Ono of tho colonel's daughters is Mrs. Frederick Bower, whose husband and his two brothers own a cattle ranch of 7G,00Q acres in Paraguay. Colonel Newall was tliere for eighteen months, and was impressed with the possibilities of tho country, The province lie resided in is called tho Missiones, after tho missions established there by tho Jesuit Fathers in tlio days of the Spanish Conquest. It is as most people know a tract of country lying between the great. Paraguay and ParanaRivers. Between the two waterways is an area of wonderfully-fine country, for tho inost part well watered and grassed with rolling downs, and clumps of forest land. On Bower Bros.' ranch there were, when Colonel Newall left, about 25,000 herd of cattle. These wero bred not for export, but for consumption within the State.

"They aro drafted up to Ascu.ucion, tho capital, in mobs of from 150 to 200 head," said tho colonel, "and smaller mobs aro sent to Villa Mearnatione and other smaller centrcs_ down as far as Cofri-entes, a largo city wliieh is situated at thb confluence of the Paraguay and Parana Rivers, which together form the K.io do la Plata.

"The people of the country aro the result of the mSiigliiig of tljo native Paraguayan, Indian, and Spanish bloot! —the Indians and Conquestradflros, as the Spaniards were victoriously called. They are a dark-skinned race of great inteJligc-irce—very fond of music and dancing, and other light amusements. The men are magnificent riders and ate. experts in the handling of cattle. As to their disposition. I would describe them as a mild and gentle race. Cattle-rais-ing is the principal industry of . the country, but they raise crops of maize and mandioea for their own consumption. The mandioea is a tuber that is not unlike the parsnip, and which makes an excellent substitute for potatoes. It is a fine fruit-growing country, too, though the people do not cultivate it commercially. Beautiful oranges grow.- wild in the forest, and with th® exception ol'January, February, and perhaps part of March, are ripe tho year round. These ' oranges are supposed to havo been planted originally by tlio Jesuit fathers, and aro presumed to b& from Seville stock. 1 whatever they are, they aro mighty pleasing to the palate. Other fruits they have aro peaches, guava (a kind of wild pear), aijd pawpaw. The whole of tho country is beautifully watered, and the streams aso well pleiiished with fish, but llofc of a high quality as provender! Tho point of departuro from the ranch to the outer world was Sail Josemi (on tho Parana), about 4-5 miles away from" the homestead. This is about a thousand miles up the river frortt Buenos Ayres. About another ICO miles above, on the' Parana, is the great waterfall, which, in volume and height, is said te bo greater than tlio Niagara : Falls. . As the way is long artd rntlter difficult I did Sot see the falls, which aro said to afford a very fine spectacle. Oue of the principle towns on tho Pa ■i ana is Villa Meiirnatioue, at which point tho railway from Ascmicion (the capital) to Gorrieutos (in Eastern Argentina)' is 'to cross the river. Both

rii ers are navigable, a good distance higher up than the places named, and are served by a fleet of splendid steamers, mostly built by tlio Cl.vdo by Denny Bros. ' Tlio older and chief company, whic-h had a monopoly of the river for

many years, is controlled by an Austrian named Mehaniviteh, who has certainly placed -a fine lot of vessels on the great waterways of the country.

A Big Diocese, "Whilst journeying up the river I had tile great pleasure and advantage of travelling in tho company of Bishop Every, of the Falkland Islands, whoso huge diocese embraces Argentina and Paraguay. I found him a delightful companion, and tho only ono who could speak English 011 the steamer. Spanish is. tho language most generally spoken, bat there arc large eaniinun.itics of people who speak a la.ngnago of tlieir own, known as quarani, which is quite rut of tlio scope of any European to acquire. The Bishop was delighted to learn that'l had been personally aoquaintcd with tlvo late Bishop Selwya, of New Zealand."

Revolution. ''Soon after I arrived at Missioncs a revolution broke out against th'e Government, but it happily came to an a few months later, owing to the fall in action of Colonel Jara (pronounced Hara>, the leader of the revolutionaries, au ox-President of Paraguay, and a ft:a.n, it Was said, of fine soldierly qualities. Unfortunately for him, ho got into the zone of fire of a Maxim gun in an action at Villa Bioa (on the railway line), tiiid died. On one occasion 500 Government troops visited tho ismell, and I saw my daughter (Mrs Bower) giving toa to eighteen officers, en the verandah, whilst five fat cattle" were requisitioned for the men. These were lassooed, slaughtered, ;skiiincd, roasted, and eaten within two hours and a half,"

Valuable Timber. "Tli© forests yield a good variety of valuable timber," continued tho Colonel, "including cedar, lapacho, and urundei. Tho latter is even harder than New Zealand pxiriri, and, used as fencing-posts, is practically imperishable, Unfortunately, it is so heavy that! it wiil not float. Bamboo grotty along ' tho banks of every river, and 'is used for many purposes. I have seen it used as fence, rails, each rail being from SO to 60 feet in length. It is of great strength, hut is easily subject, to dryrot. The only gamo birds I found were two kinds of partridges—-a large one called ,tho wariuietta, and a small 0110 called the- perdiso (which was a little larger than Californian quail). Paraguay has three kinds of deer—the long antler swamp deer, the Im-h deer, and the- (open, plain or veldt) deer. Ostriches are also native to the country, and move about in families of twelve or fifteen. . They tiro exceedingly wary birds, and always keep one of the flock oil t'ha look-out for danger of any kind. I hit an 'ostrich one day, but I could not. get it. It is proposed to extend tho railway to Santa Rosa, somo twelve miles distant from Pindors (near the Bower Bros.' ranch), ami a railway is - in conrso of construction that will one day connect Aspuncioii with 3iio do Janeiro, This will follow a line drawn right through -central Brazil, and will avoid tho long winding journey down the river to tho sea. / this will, be ono of tho greatest of modem railway undertakings, and will serve to open ,up ono of tlio greatest and leastknown countries in the world."