RICH BUENOS AIRES.

Shannon News, 16 October 1925, Page 3

RICH BUENOS AIRES.

I AN EXPENSIVE CITY I The new buildings that are going up —"racing up", would be perhaps the more accurate description —in Buenos Aires, bear witness to the business activity of the city. Blocks of offices, embodying the latest idea of light, hygiene, and convenience' are replacing the old Spanish architecture, which was neither picturesque nor utilitarian. The difficulty is to find sites, for land in the cenrte of the city is fabulously exponuivc. Rents are high—the cost of living i s high. You have 1o pay for the privilege of living in this progressive city, for the privilege of carrying on a business or professon of any kind, and the "patcnte" (trading license) i s graduated down from the thousands of dollars paid by a foreign insurance company \ to the few dollars which the Turkish I pedlar contributes (writes H. T. I Powell-Jones in the "Daily Mail"). But thi s gives you the right to do business only in Buenos Aires itself. If. you open a branch in any of the provinces or send a traveller to the Interior towns there i R a local "patente" varying, according to the nature of the business and the requirements of the local authorities. But there are no rates to pay and practically no taxes, with the exception of the "contribucion direeta," which is a land tax. An attempt is being made by the Argentine Government to introduce an income tax, but. the results have not been encouraging. "Why are there no poor people in thfes city?" is a question frequently asked by new arrivals in Buenos Aires. The answer is supplied by the hundreds of "Agendas do> JLoterias." where tickets in the National Lotteries are sold. The proceeds of these lotteries go to the upkeep of various public services—hospitals, orphanages, schools and general charities. They are invariably fully subscribed; 75 per cent, of the proceeds are distributed, in prizes varying from £SO(>O to n<; 000 down to a.little more than the (test of the ticket. The poor can buy the lifth or tenth-part of a ticket. The flippant answer to the question about the absence of poor is that no poor man can survive in this city, which is another way of saying the cost of living is high. Until the last ten years every single manufactured article for ordinary consumption was imported into Argentina from Europe or America, paying a heavy duty on arrival.

During- the war Argentine manufacturers learnt to stand on their own feet. This development is certainly one of the most noteworthy features of modern Argentina, latest reports claim that the production of local oil will shortly be sufficient to meet local requirements and provide cheap fuel for Argentine factories. It is a development which deserves the careful attention of British exporters. If Argentina is going- to build mills to manufacture her own wool, factories will require machinery and plant Which can and should be supplied from Great Britain. The visit of the Prince of Wales to Argentina cannot fail to stimulate the 'trading relations which already ex\st between the two countries. It will, moreover, show the Argentines the personification of one of their favourite phrases "un tipo ingles" ("A typical Englishman") and will be taken by the Argentina nation as conveying a greeting of good comradeship from our ccnturie:-old to their hundredyears -old country.