THE ARGENTINE.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 6 October 1920, Page 4

THE ARGENTINE.

CHEAP LAND. In conversation with a reporter at Masterton, Mr Robert AV. McLaren, who has been eighteen years in the Argentine Republic, stated that good grazing land in that country could be bought at from £l6 to £2O per acre. Tiro cuttle raising industry had enormously developed iu recent year.,, and attention was also being paid to sheep. A big percentage of the cattle were irhorthorus, and the sheep were principally Romneys and Lincoln:. When lie left in .June last, beef cattle were selling' at an average of £26 to £27 for a Tuulb or SOOlb beast. Wether sheep were fetching from 55s to -taper head. Iu the retail shops, beef was selling at from iOd to Is 2d per lb, and mutton at about the same price as in New Zealand. The cost of living in the best hotels in Bueno; Ayres, where there was about a population of about 2,600,000, was from 26s to 50s per day. Butter was selling at from Is I'd to 2s'per pound. The railways arc chiefly run by British companies, and a large portion of the capital invested in the Republic is British. Petroleum springs were being worked by the Government iu the south of the Republic. There are very few secondary industries in the Argentine, which is essentially a stucktaising country. The Government has Use til lurid for sale in the back country, but so far there has been little demand for it. There are vast areadill capable of improvement. The export trade has enormously increased in recent years. There are about 16 freezing works in operation up the river. The labour employed on the esraneios is chiefly Spanish. Alfalfa, or lucerne, is the chief cattle feed iu the Republic.