Argentine Republic.

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 15, 22 November 1904, Page 3

Argentine Republic.

Australasia’s Chief Competitor (Continued from last issue.) The manner of living is Continental, not even English -a cup of coffee w ith a roll in the early morning; breakfast at 11 to 12.30 (which is a meal in courses), and dinner at 7.30, the principal meal of the day. This is the custom among all classes, high and low; and there is another custom (it is strange how soon you fall into it ), tea or coffee or “ matte ” (a species of steeped herb “verba”), pressed into a peculiar little gourd used as a bow'l and drawn out of it with a hollow silver tube called a “ mattestick,” a sample of which I have brought home with me.

The Spanish language, which is the national language, is spoken everywhere; but, as might be expected in a cosmopolitan city, French, Italian, English, and German are spoken almost everywhere, particularly French. As English money and Englishmen have done more than any to develop the country, have built, own, and nm nearly all the railways, many of the great estancias, and other businesses, particularly commercial, the English have a large say. The telephone service is in the hands of private companies; the capital invested is over 10,000.000 dollars gold; there are about 12,000 subscribers. There are no really long-distance lines, except one recently opened to Rosario district. The city has a very extensive system of water and .drainage works, costing nearly 40,000,000 dollars gold, discharging the sewerage fifteen miles distant, and the storm-waters by great sewers, now being completed, into the river in front of the city. The city waterworks take their water above the city, where it is never contaminated.

The water of the River Plate is good, but of a reddish colour or muddy. It is clarified in settling-basins before being delivered to the distributing-reservoir, built on one of the highest points of the city. The distributing-reservoir is a work of art, and well worth seeing; it is covered with glaze d tiles over which is pressed brick. These works altogether have made Buenos Aires one of the healthiest cities in the world, as the deathrate proves. The Government is soon to flrftend the works at a cost of five or six nnlffoijs gold. Ten years ago, upon the completion of the main works, the mortality per 1,000 was 30; now it is 16£. This compares very favourably with other large cities. Loudon has 19.2, Glasgow 21.6, New York 19.7, Philadelphia 17.7, Boston 19.0.

Buenos Aires is well provided with newspapers. They have all told over 150 monthly, weekly, and daily papers. There are five small English papers published, three German, one Russian, and one Basque; the balance is composed of 119 Spanish, eleven Italian, and nine French. There have also beeu established lately three periodicals in the Scandinavian language, also two more in Basque, one in Hebrew', and one in Arabic. It is said, and I believe truly so, that the national daily newspapers are as keenly alive to the necessities of modem thirst for daily information as in any country in the world. The supply of cable and telegraphic news from all parts of the world is really excellent. This latter may be said more particularly of that wonderful Spanish paper “La Prensa.” I only wish I could show' a photop-aph of this w onderful ncwspajier institution. This building is one of the grandest structures in Buenos Aires. It stands in a prominent position facing the grand street Ayenida Le Mayo. The “ Prensa ” building is devoted entirely to the morning paper. Of course, if the Wellington people received fifty thousand copies of it some morning instead of the

“ Post” and “ Times,” it would not be of much use to them. I think I can say that there are no newspaper offices'in the world that can compare with this building in elegance and convenience in all its interior apx>ointments. The room w'here guests from foreign countries are received is the most delightful sight I have ever 6een. The stairs leading into ' the main entrance and the main banister is a masteipiece, being constructed in the most elegant design from solid blocks of granite and beautiful marble. The re-ception-reom is such a master-piece I could hardly describe it and give it justice. I must say something about the wonderful harbour of Buenos Aires, which is a revelation to any person who has never seen it. Particularly noteworthy are the new docks, which are very extensive, and lie along the immediate front of the city and connected with it. They were designed by the well-known English firm of engineers, Hawkshaw and Ilayter, and carried out under the supervision of Mr. James Dobson, the resident engineer. The concessionaire was an Argentino. In 1885 the National Government begun the construction of very large docks at Buenos Aires; hitherto all the. business had been done, from the anchorage, about twelve miles from the city, the intervening space being a great mud bar, the water from a depth of 25ft. gradually shoaling to the shore-line at the city. This was so flat that it was necessary often to transfer the passengers and goods from the lighters, in which they had come from the vessels, to small boats and then to get great wheel carts that went out a long distance in the water to meet the lighters. In order to reach the docks from the sea, a channel has had to he excavated in the mud from the anchorage. This channel (the North one) is at low tide 21ft. deep and 330 ft. wide, and about five and a half miles long from its intersection with a channel, w’hich already existed by previous dredging from the other end of the port, at the mouth of a small sluggish stream called the Richuelo. The tide of 2ft. or 3ft., depending largely upon the direction and force of the wind and very uncertain, permits vessels drawing about 23^ft. to enter by the North Channel. The* new port was connected with the older port, and now both channels are being used, and the depths in them are about as stated above. The works are built in the most substantial manner—masonry walls founded on what is ealled “tosca” (loess), the hard substratum that is found in this j part of the country. The four docks, or basins, are from 620 to-750 yards long, and are all 170 yards wide, connected by passage-ways 22 to 27 yards wide, over which passes by hydraulic turning the ! foot, vehicular, and rail traffic, A sea- | wall in front protects the entire part.

On the 4Slty Hide, are three- and fourstorey brick warehouses, thirty-two in all, with a total frontage Of a mile and a half. Sheds, cattle-yards, rajlroadtracks, hydraulic; cranes and capstans, and other important appurtenances give the port modern facilities for handling cargo. When the docks were opened at the southern end in 1899, the registered tonnage of vessels arriving and departing at the Port of Buenos Aires was 3,800,00(j; in 1901, 8,661,229, more than 100 per cent, increase. There aro only twelve ports in the world of greater tonnage, and nono of them show such phenomenal growth. In 1880, about the time that the works v.ere proposed, the tonnage was 044,570., and the plans were made for 2,000,000 tans only. The Government lias recently Begun the extension of the North Channel straight out to the anchorage, and later will deepen it to 22ft. or 23ft. In the meantime the navigation uses a crooked channel beyond the intersection, which has been partly dredged. The depth of water in the northern entrance basdn of the port is about 21ft., but in tin? four great docks 23ft., with tidal gates, so that the vessels at low tide may bo o.flout. The plan also provides facilities for “ inilammabAes ” —coal, petroleum, gasoline, naptha, and some explosives. The Standard Oil.-Company of New York is now arranging to bring bulk oil in tank steamers to Argentine, and the Shell Transport Company is preparing to make, a specialty of vhe importation of fuel-oil from Texas and the Dutch East Indies. The work of (enlargement of the port is divided into sections, so that it can be carried out section by section, as the increase of commerce will require. The general plan akso includes the protection and deepening hi the entrance - channel s . One of the principal porta of the country is Rosario. Ocean navigation reaches it, and, for that matter, reaches Colastine, the port of the City of Santa Fe, the capital of the province. (To be Continued.J