ARGENTINE'S ENORMOUS RESOURCES.

Shannon News, 21 October 1924, Page 4

ARGENTINE'S ENORMOUS RESOURCES.

EXPLOITED. BY. BRITISH CAPITAL. "WIS MUST BE CONSTANTLY OH i'jiE ALERT." Although New Zealand is, in many respects, an ideal country tor 'sheepiajmung, and although the immediate prospects for the industry are good, yet it would be foolish lor .Dominion farmers to ignore the competition wliich they have to meet and which is constantly becoming stronger and

better organised. These words prefaced a strong warning by the chairman (Mr Jonn Cobbe) to the annual meeting of the Feilding Farmers' Freezing Company recently regarding the rivairy of Argentine, dome striking stastistics were quoted. Mr Cobbe said, further: "Through the courtesy of Mr King, formerly of Bulls, who is now pn-' vate secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, 1 have had the opportunity of reading the report of the Special Commissioner for the Australian Meat Council, how recently vis:ted the Argentines on behalf of that Council. "That report, like ths report issued last year by our own Meat Producers* Board, shows plainly that notwithstanding our many advantages of soil and climate, we will have to be constantly on the alert if we are to maintain our present place in the Home meat market. Our Most .Powerful Kival #

"In addition to her enormous area of- tillage land, the Argentine has 384,000,000 acres of rich pastoral land, the rainfall is gocu, and artesian water abundant. She has also 22J million acres of alialfa .There ar e £BSO, 000,000 ot ioreign capital invested in the country; of this marly £700,000, 000 is British. It will be seen from this that Great Britain is really much more interested in the- development and prosperity of Argentina than she is in the development of New Zealand. " .

"Owing to the much shorter distance from the English market, and the keen competition for South American freights, th e Argentine exporter has his frozen meat carried at about two-fifths of the rate we pay. Argentine's Advantage. . "Meat exporters from the Argentine have a tremendous advantage over us in the matter of exchange. The rate of exchange payable by the New Zealand exporter to-day is 45/per £IOO. The "Argentine exported pays the producer in the national money known,as the peso. The peso at par is worth a fraction under 1/3, but its actual value to-day' is only l/5i As there are nearly 115 pesos to the' pound sterling at par, it follows that the man who buys and exports in sterling makes about 3/9 in every £l. ~ . ■ ' Double the Stock and Half the "Wotks . "South America has also a big advantage in the fact that she handles about double the number of stock that is dealt with in the Dominion, and has only half the number of works. ' "'in stating these facts,.l am not in any way disparaging our own country, but I think it is well that farmers should be sometimes reminded of the competition they have to meet, and b e also reminded of the fact that New Zealand can never afford, to slacken her efforts to produce the best mutton and lamb that go into the Home market from overseas."