BUENOS AYRES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 457, 26 March 1890, Page 3

BUENOS AYRES.

IMPRESSIONS OF A NEW ZEALAND VISITOR; A few. particulars about Buenos Ayres and La Republica Argentina .might be interesting at the present time by one who has been there lately. That country is fast overshadowing these colonies. There was a statement in .the papers lately that their clip of wool.was as much. sheep for sheep, as was the Australian.. Such a thing would nob have been believed possible a few years back ; why, I cou'd not say, for they have a fine climate, good land, and far more regular rainfall; than that of Australia. Now that, the people see that a steady Government pays best revolutions, are almost a thing of the past. English capital, has been pouring mco the country, and witli it the be3t English stock. The suicidal policy which was practised by Spain when the country was in its infancy, has left lasting effects which time and an influx of foreign blood could only eradicate* Fancy, if in the early days of these colonies, England had circumscribed their intercourse with the Old Country to

one vessel of 100 tons burden twice a year ! Yet, such was the case with Buenos Ayres when ib was a colony of Spain. The country was also tied down to export only a very limited quantity of jerked beef, hides, etc.., to the Brazils and .other neighbouring countries. The duty on articles from Spain was something like 50 per cent. The effect of a few generations of this restriction must have thrown the colonials very much. Ont hemselves and developed characteristics and customs inimical to progress. Now, naturally, the Spaniard is inclined to be Conservative. A Spanish gentleman, if in very low water, couid be a personal attendant on another—a coachman, groom, or soldier —and it then used to be said that “ his gentility slumbered,” bub if he turned to a trade or any mechanical labour he was socially damned. Perhaps as an outcome partly of this idea, there are very few native mechanics. Foreigners of all countries fill the smaller trades, and as far as I could make out, the natives of the country were divided mainly into two classes—merchants, estancieros (owners of estancias), and the wild gaucho, or labouring peon of the camp. The army is recruited from the native population, or even foreigners can be pressed if they have not papers from their respective consuls, showing when they arrived in the country, etc. I should think that the native population must now be outnumbered by the foreign elements, for there is a great immigration, into the country. Sometimes as many as 3,000 Italians arrive in one week, to say nothing of other foreigners. THE CAPITAL CITY. I think that the population of the city of Buenos Ayres (or Aires, as ib is sometimes spelt) must be about 500,000, if not more. A stranger, on his arrival, is greatly struck with thejife and bustle of the streets. In the older part of the town the streets are narrow and badly paved, bub in the later portion the streets are very wide. Many of the buildings and squares are magnificent. Rents a-e exceedingly high, and hotel accommodation very dear in the better class of hostelries. In town and country two meals a day are the rule. Get up at sunrise, breakfast at noon, dinner after sunset. Business is in full swing at an hour in the morning when the sleepy-eyed housemaid at home has nob yet swept down the doorstep and polished the brasswork. Sundays are very much the same as week days. , Even many English houses and offices do full business on that day. The trains run as usual bo all parts of the Republic ; even the poor navvy, I believe, works as well on Sundays. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. The railways are nearly all owned by English Companies and under English supervision. When we were about to leave the and had taken our tickets for a steamer which sailed the nextday, our heavy luggage, 10 large boxes, did not arrive in time, bub through some oversight, probably my own fault,-had been left at the station 300 miles south of Buenos Ayres. I thought very likely that I should never see them again, but I explained the affair at the luggage office and also gave instructions to an express agency, Yillalonga and Co., a very institution, to receive the luggage from the Railway Station and forward it on by the next boat to England. The luggage arrived safely at home at the given time, and cost lesxf.by half than the same luggage did on the short journey from Auckland to Hawera. This earno “Agenda Expresso” (Villailonga and Cia) send agents and interpreters on board all steamers coming from Europe* and it is by far the best plan bo give your luggage, and yourself too, into their charge, and they will provide you with an hotel, and your luggage will be perfectly, safe and be forwarded on at your desire to any part of the Republic at a very reasonable charge. THE CURRENT LINGO. How very studious all our passengers were on the voyage out. . Crouched in every possible shady spot about the decks distractedly studying Ollendorff's were to be seenreverendseigneursandyouths—and how very ridiculous we must have looked -saying our lessons to each other ; reacting our schooldays over again. What labour lost! at any rate as regards the pronunciation. Our exact and grammatical Ollendorffian phrases were nob understood (as we thought they should have been) by the stupid natives of the country, and when one did catch our meaning it was worse still. His answer was certainly not in Ollendorff. We assuredly thought them very ignorant of their own language, bub after a month or two, when , the ear got to distinguish words and we had a, .better idea of the pronunciation, didn’t we think no end of ourselves? A curious thing with the Spanish language was, I found that I could bo most fluent when I had gob outside of a bottle of good Spanish wine. There must be an affinity between the two. Revenons a nos moutom. THE HYDE PARK OF BUENOS AYRES. ■ Weall weiitto see Palermo, the Hyde Park of Buenos Ayres. It is a grand place for a ride or drive, and here and there under the trees are cages of wild animals—monkeys, lions and tigers ; a far more pleasant way of. inspecting those “ critters ” outside in the open than in closehouses.There are trams all over the city. They call them tram vias.

The houses are not planned anything like ours. They have a .** patio,” or court, into which you enter from the street. In this court there may be flowers and shrubs, arid it is a common practice to have meals outside in the “patio.” The rooms of the house open on to this little quadrarigle, and if you shut the front door you can be quite private. In the hotels, -at ’breakfast and dinner,' light wirie3 ad lib . are served without extra charge. The. courses are numerous; but you keep the same knife and fork right through. Coffee is always served after breakfast or dinner. . v

Drunkenness is. rare.:- The English are the grpa -st drinkers in the country.::-

Spanish is the universal language, and by being able to speak the language one can converse with an inhabitant of almost every country in Europe. You might travel a whole day in a train and not discover that your next-door neighbour is English. The police are armed with a short sword, and revolver also, I believe. They do not perambulate, but one stands at. the corner of each square, and as the city is built in quadrangles, there is not much chance of a law-breaker getting away. In fact the police uso their weapons without much ado. If they cannot run you in, they run you through. I believe Buenos Ayres to be a safer city than San Francisco. _ LOVE OF HORSES. The rich native is very fond of horses. The carriage horses that are affected very much are of the Russian breed. They are large, active-looking horses, with some peculiarities of form. I have only seen therh there. The English racehorse is in great favour, and racing, alter the approved fashion at Home, is getting into great repute. As with other stock, there was and still is a constant current of blood horses coming out here from England. If there were direct boats from Now Zealand to Buenos Ayres I have often thought what grand prices some of our racehorses would fetch, to say nothing of sheep and cattle. The rich folks in Buenos Ayres are really rich, and will give large sums for what takes their fancy. Did not Patti clear a clean thousand per night for every appearance on the stage ? Perhaps it was more. THE LADIES. From Patti to ladies in general is an easy transition, and from the ladies to their dresses is-quite natural. I cannot describe a dress, but it did certainly strike me that

the out-door apparel of the women kind was both rich in colour and material. The prettiest part of the turn out was the uncovered head of the lady, perhaps draped with a little lace, just enough to set off the rich dark,glossy hair, whych has so often been described by writers as belonging to the Spanish beauty. Hats or bonnets were common' enough, but I preferred the uncovered head. THE COUNTRY. Now for the country. I took an engagement on an estancia, which lay about 300 miles to the south of Buenos Ayres. Jt belonged to Don Juan Anchorina, the richest man in South America. lam afraid to say how many millions in English money he is worth, or how many leagues of land he owns. Enough to say that I was going on one of his places, managed entirely on the native plan. La Estania do la Lomaquen consists of about 500,000 acres, and depastures principally cattle. During one season of eight months thore were sent away into Buenos Ayres 8,000 head of fat cattle, 1,000 per month, and you could not see any difference in the herds! Of sheep we had about 10,000, the breed being that of the country crossed by the Spanish merino. The estancia was subdivided, but into such large paddocks that, although the land was perfectly flat, standing at one line of fencing the other would be a long way sunk below the horizon. To reach this place we started from Buenos Ayres by train and travelled all day over a dead level country of good land. The estancia houses, which are built on slight risings of the ground and surrounded by plantations of trees, principally the Eucalyptus, were the only breaks to the scenery. Our fellow-passengers were veryinteresting. There were representatives of every nationality in Europe. All were jolly and lighthearted, and when the lunch baskets were opened you were made as welcome to their contents as if you were an old acquaintance. The baskets always contained a bottle or two of wine, which they insisted upon your sharing. . As to costumes, bombachos, or wide trousers drawn in at the ankles, like what the French Zouaves wear, are very common. In cold weather they are of thick stuff, and long boots up to the knees are worn over them. They are very warm and comfortable. In summer the material is light holland or alpacca, and often, instead of boots, long white stockings are pulled over them up to the knee, and a kind of slipper worn instead of the heavy boots. They are , very, comfortable, and give great freedom to the limbs, jj These bombachos are worn alike by the rich estanciero and the labouring man,; ..the only difference "being, in ..the material and general finish. A slouch Billycock hat and the famous poncho, hiding a broad ornamental belt, in which money and valuable papers are carried,-.with the ever-present long knife stuck in at the back, completed the, costume. These knives aro supposed to be not, worn exposed in the towns, but country it does not matter. The above _'jsi, ; npt . the national costume . complete. This is - only,.,,worn by the real . camp gauebo and - a few old-fashioned estancieros. The difference is in the covering of the nether limbs. Instead of bombachos or trousers a piece of stuff of about the same size as the ordinary poncho is draped round the waist and the end taken up between the legs, leaving the knees both before and behind covered by a gracefully hangingfold of the stuff. Drawers are worn underneath, sometimes of cambric, with a highly-embroidered fringe, and the whole is finished oft by a pair of boots up to the knees, or stockings and slippers only, if the weather be hot. The tout ensemble is both graceful and becoming to the swarthy natives, who have a very dignified air and walk. In mounting a horse they seldom use the tiny horn stirrip of the country, but placing the two hands together near the wither, they spring lightly on; Their feet and hands are small and they are of a light, active, and sinewy build, though with wellformed chests and square shoulders. They are uneducated, but are trained from earliest childhood bo ride, throw the lasso and bolas, which they can all do with marvellous and incredible accuracy. Ask any of them whether they can throw the lasso or bolas. “ Cemo no.” “ Why not ?” he will calmly answer. Their saddle is not of the Mexican patt rn, bub of a moro simple construction of their own manufacture, all of raw hide. Some of the plaiting of their headstalls and reins is very fine. In gala dress a great deal of silver is exhibited in their belts, knives and horse furniture. MARVELLOUS DEXTERITY AS STOCKMEN.

The natives are always employed in cattle work, and there is none of the amateur about them at that. The best colonial stockman would look very foolish working cattle in their company. I never saw an animal escape them; a bullock, no matter how “rusty” he may turn, has got: to do as they want exactly and to the letter. Out in the open they could catch and kill for you any beast you wished from a herd of 3,000 or 4,000 wild cattle, including giving you a steak from it, all under five minutes. It would take too long to give examples of the dexterity with which they handle their horses and lassos.

They do not like steady, work on foot. They are hospitable and courteous to you in their little huts or “ranches,” as they are called out there. Never.quarrel with them, and if you value your , life never strike one, fortheyarevery hot-blooded and revengeful. When out with the cattle, they will cheerfully go without any food for a oouple of days and take it as a matter of course. Their food, as well as that- of any other

working man on an estancia, especially if under native “regime,” is meat, beef or mutton unlimited ; salt and yerba, which

latter is made into a decoction called

“ mate.” It is very refreshing and counteracts the effects of so much meat. Bread and vegetables are a luxury and a rarity, and anyone working on an estancia would have to buy with his own money a kind of biscuit called galletbas, if he wanted bread.

In our part of the country, anyhow, the gauchos were quiet and well behaved and not by any means the shouting, stabbing lot you read about as inhabiting some parts of the United States. DRIVING IN THE COUNTRY.

Bub to return once more to our journeyOn arriving at> a station called Peran, we alighted, and a day or two afterwards did the rest of the journey in a cart. Don’t imagine that this was a slow mode of progression. The cart of the country has two wheels of immense diameter, 6 or 8 feet; the native horses are small, hardy and un- ! tiring, and the horses on our estancia were all in good order. We had a troop of them with us for changing, they being driven on 1 ahead by a native. Five or six little fiery brutes were harnessed to our cart, and when ill was ready wo quietly got in, the driver got up, and off we set at a gallop, which was kept up till we changed horses. Horses may trot in a cart, but such a thing as walking is unknown. In riding, it is a gallop the whole way and get a fresh horse from your tropilla, or troop, when the one you aro riding is tired. There was no use made of the whip on the journey, it was enough for the driver to raise his whip-hand a little, and the horses, not all having blinkers on, would tear away again as madly as ever. It takes about ten acres (more or less) to turn them round in when fresh like ours were. (I have seen two capsizes, and was in one and did nob like it.)

Goingab bhisspeed,we reachedLaEstancia dela Lomaquen before night. It was a large, old brick house plastered all over, and surrounded on three sides with a wide piazza, the. windows being all defended by iron bars. The house was situated on the high banks of a largo lagoon and surrounded by the usual plantation of trees. The place was alive with birds ; hundreds of pretty little doves hopped about tamely almost at our feet, and the little humming birds and others of gorgeous plumage crowded the trees, whilst the lagoon was swarming with flamingoes, herons, swans and ducks. Nobody cared about shooting them, and so there they were, as many as the lagoon could support. The ground game consisted of neutras (amphibious, a kind of beaver, I think), biscachos, a burrowing animal like the prairie dog, comadrejas, and the fearful little polecat or skunk, which was far too numerous. I have been awakened out of sleep at night by their smell when they had been disturbed in some of their wanderings near the house by dogs. There were also ostriches and wild deer, but not a great quantity. Notwithstanding all this beauty, life was rather monotonous. Work from sunrise to sunset all tho year round. I had the looking after some stud sheep. We had Rambouillet, Negretti, and Imperial rams. Two flocks of other sheep were also under my charge Sheep aro always yarded at night. My work was varied by sometimes working cattle, which I always enjoyed. | SHEEP ON ESTANCIAS

arejdivided into flocks of 1,000 or 1,500, andjare putin charge of men who live in different parts of the estate. Their duty is te Vard them at night and lob them out at sunrise, to watch them during the day, or to dip or clean them, etc., when necessary. Scab is almost universal. We did not use a dip, but rubbed an extract of tobacco on them. Flocks were often “ cured ” once a fortnight. Our average per sheep was abejut 51b ; of course some of the higher grade flocks were above this. The sheep is bieel by its four legs in shearing, and each fleece is tied up and then packed away loose until sent into Buenos Ayres. Each estancia has an acre or two of lucerne, which can be cut fire or six times a year. It ought to suit this soil. HORSES. They have rather a peculiar but very effective way in managing their horses. I dare say we had 150 broken-in horses at the Loma divided into tropillas, thab is small troops, of'B or 10 horses. Horses, and nob inures., are always ridden. Each tropilla has runni|ig with it one mare, which acts as a Centre of'gravity for the horses. The mare is taught to stand when called upon, so jthat in travelling when it is necessary to change your horse or horses—you catch and hobble the mare, when the horses run" round her as if enclosed in a small yard. Ib is needless to say that a severe punishment awaits the mare if ’she tries to clear io.ub.;, bhe lasso or bolas would soon, stop her gailOprnVvbich would be succeeded by such a thrashing that: she would never try it a second time. It does ,npb matter how many other tropillas or mobs Of horses may be running about, each mare wilHbring out her following close at her heels without’any trouble. We had on the estancia tropillas* for general riding, for journeys, working cattle or carting, and each native would have his own tropilla COUNTRY STORES, There are what are called “ esquinas ’ or stores, on the borders of those estancias, where one can get the necessaries and luxuries of the country. They also answer the purpose of hotels to travellers. Very good wine and spirits are sold at them. Cana is a kind of white rum which is much: approved of by the English ; when good,' it is often preferred to the best whisky. Old Don Anselmo, our favourite storekeeper, used to keep splendid Cana, at about Is 6d the Dottle. Don Anselmo was a native of Old Castile, and had amassed some £12,000 in the Argentine. He was a fine jovial old fellow, and always offered yon a glass of something when you went to buy at the store. He liked the English. By the by, the working man of any nationality who is most preferred, even by the English themselves, is the native from the Spanish Basque provinces. They are of good physique, good tempered, good workers, sober and strong.

MANAGEMENT OF AIN ESTANCIA. The complement of men on an estancia is composed ol—first, the mayordomo or manager, several capataces, and a number of peons or workmon, including the .mounted natives. A mayordomo may get from £2OO up to £I,OOO a year, with an interest in the stock, which sometimes is a large amount. The capatay (foreman or overseer) may receive about 25 nacionales or paper dollars a month ; the nacional, when I was out there, was worth only 2s 9d. I believe gold since then is much higher. As long as ' you remain: in the country, for ordinary purposes the value of the paper dollar does not make much difference ; it is in buying gold in leaving the country that the loss occurs. The mayordomos are recruited from the ranks of the capataces. Below the 1 capataces are the “ rouse abouts,” gardeners and the mounted cattlemen. The cadet from home has to go through all the stages from grouse about ” up to capatay, and after being from 8 to 10 years in the country, and has become a thorough Spanish, linguist, and has a knowledge of how business is worked, with an unbroken

record of sobriety and obedience, he may then hope, if he has gopd influence, to be-

come some day a mayordomo. A mayordomo has great powers; he is like a captain on board a ship. CAPITAL NECESSARY TO START. The capital required for a start in the estancia business is variously stated by different individuals at from £3,000 up to £20,000. I dare say £3,000

would givo a man a start on an outside estancia, but he would have nothing to spare, and he would require to have a knowledge of the customs and language : or be able to trust another who had. The life would be one of deprivation from all the comforts of civilisation, as well as running risks both in person and property from tho Indians, who are always on the look to elude the cordon of military outposts and pounce upon some unfortunate’s cattle or person. The Argentine Republic is not what it used to be ; land is very high in price and the inducements fora working man to make a home in the country are many. Wages are low (about £2 a month on estancias for a working man), the hours long, and the living is simply meat with yerba and salt. Clerks do pretty well in Buenos Ayres. I know one .who made three changes when I was there, and each time nearly doubled his “ screw but, as 1 said before, living in the city is dear. Engineers, engine drivers,, and skilled mechanics used to do very well, but that line is rather overdone now. Doctors, I think, have to pass some kind of examination in the language, etc., before practising ; their fees are very high. I think that a good jockey or horse trainer with testimonials of some sort, would do as well at the present timein Buenos Ayres at any other trade. It is a country that requires capital. But with a few thousand pounds I would sooner go into Paraguay. The women, I believe, far outnumber the men there. Nearly all the males were killed during their last war for independence ; they bravely kept at bay the Brazilians, Monte Videans, and Argentinos, who tried to get a slice of their country. Would not thab be a glorious country for bachelors —cheap land and lots of pretty women to choose a wife from ?