OVERDRAWN ARGENTINE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1970, 4 January 1907, Page 3

OVERDRAWN ARGENTINE.

A DISMAL VIEW. A former resident in. South Canterbury, writing from Buenos Ayres to a friend in Christchurch, says:—“l note your remarks in regard to New Zealanders having their attention drawn to the Argentine on account of the rivalry in frozen meat. The Argentine 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 ',£looo to £2OOO per week. These companies, while stock prices were low, could [ling their meat into London, and show a profit. To-day they cannot, and never will, so long as the tendency of the Argentine to go over from sheep breeding t 6 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 30s per ton, Freights arc equal to the New Zealand rates, due to the excessive port charges and slow loading. Workmen ary 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 show | ina working los* of £60,000 in 100! s aml £50.000 in 1905. . Some of tin ) 1906 balance-sheets will give evei worse results. The majority of thesi i companies hold large tracts of land and the sale of these at an onormou a increase in value keeps the compani i 0 going. This cannot go on for evei ~ while living on the unearned inert •5 nient is certainly unsatisfactory fo ,s commercial concerns.” “New Zealanders,” this correspoi

dent continues, “would be wiser to look at the Brazilian State of Rio Grande. The Government has just lef a contract to a Yankee’firin'"at £2,500,000 to open the entrance of the harbor to 30 feet in that State. Good land costs from 3s Od to 30s per acre, and the place has a future while the Argentine never had nor will have. Brazil lias very stiff duties un all produce. Fancy £l2 per ton on potatoes, and Is per bushel on wheat!”