WHERE TATTLE GO A-BEGGING.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1923, Page 3

WHERE TATTLE GO A-BEGGING.

BUENOS Alli ES. A grout crisis Ims i'iilloii (i(juil tiio cattle-raising industry of this llopu 1)lie. and the “estaucieros." or pastoralists. ordinarily tlic richest and most iidliicniial group- of men in Argentum, are .-tillering severely. Cattle values have fallen to the lowest figure in the history of the industry while llie* herds of prime steek. hred up a lid improved from the fin-si stud animals exported from .England and Scotland, have inereased pheiiomeiially. Steers are being sold to-day at one third of the priee they were hringing ill 1920. and cows and calves can hardly be sold at all. During the past week one lot ol rows was sold at six shillings each, and at a public sale the auctioneer saw the futility of offering the animals under the usual system of so much per head, and called for a hid on the mob as it stood. The first offer he received was less than two pounds! At .such prices it is impossible for the rattle-raiser to make a profit, lie has his idea of what lie should get. and seeing, no prospect of getting it he idesperate. In answer to his loud protests lie mis been told that the inexorable law » supply and demand is operating; that there are too many cattle; and u'e orders from Europe tor Argentine prune beef do not warrant better prices than the packers are willing to pay. fifty years or more ago, when Argentina could not sell all the beet si. produced. when the herds gie» to tremendous proportions and Hie enulitre was in danger oi being eaten out. cattle were ruthlessly slaughtered to adjust one economic condition to aiiother. The boosts were killed f"i n.ut hides. . , ~ . That is what is going to happen, an is happening now. in Argentina, met a cattleman the other da\ '> 10 told me that neither he nor any ol m> ■fellows who could a fiord doing hi would give way to the would prefer to slaughter then sto. k and cease breeding till the demand overtook the supply. ~ “On the estaneia next to mine, s-iitl “the maior-domo has instructions to kill off. and each morning lie rules out and shoots every calf that has been Urn overnight. That's the way to meet the situation."