CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 193, 24 November 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

GROWING NATIONS. At this distance we find it necessary to view the South American republics as mosquito states that don't count much and bite a lot. They count a great deal, and when the Panama canal is an accomplished feat—President Taft mentions 1913 as the date of completion, and the men who have it in hand 1915 the world will have to take notice ot the Latin Americans. Brazil is bigger than the United States, and has as great a chance. The capital of the Argentine has a population one and a quarter times greater than that of all New Zealand, and it is going ahead so fast that nothing but an earthquake will stop it. The harbor works at Monte Video and Valparaiso will end in making those ports among the very finest on earth. Bolivia is excessively fertile, and the people are apparently as vigorous as the soil, for an immense network of railways is spreading north, east, south and west to tap the illimitable wealth ready to hand. We call them "mosquitoes" possibly because none of them possesses a navy as big as Britain's. But all of them now they have vast sums of money in the banks and the populations are increasing wonderfully are going in for Dreadnoughts. Brazil, Chili and Argentine are pledged to friendship, and the aggregation of Dreadnoughts and other fighting machinery will make these Latin American people a stiff proposition should they talk war. Portugal has become a republic, and, is, of course, inalienably connected with Brazil. The interest of blood cements the two republics. The triple entente of three busy powers is according to all three a guarantee of peace between the peoples of a vast area and all violently hot-blooded. The completion of the Panama Canal and the consequent expansion given to the commerce and aims of the "mosquito" republics will give folk the world over occasion for speculation and some thought as to future domination of territory.

INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS. Mr. H. R. Abbott, of Auckland, who returned last week to New Zealand from an extended tour through Canada, Egypt, the Continent, and Great Britain, has supplied Auckland newspapers with some interesting accounts of his trfp. It waa an eye-opener to him to see the development of other countries, whose size and natural resources are in many, cases inferior to this Dominion's, yet are carrying immense populations, and he has returned with renewed faith and confidence in New Zealand, which he is convinced has a great future. Mr. Abbott was much struck with what has been done in the way of reclaiming swamps in England, France, and Italy, and speaks hopefully of what can be accomplished in the big swamps in the Auckland Province. The richest land in Italy was swamp land as late as in Napoleon's time; to-day it is thickly populated with a thriving population; and he prophesies greatly increased wealth and population for the northern province of New Zealand when the swamps are brought into cultivation . He confirms the reports of the big boom in Canada, and speaks of cities springing up like mushrooms and immense areas of prairie being brought under the plough, including a large wheat belt of new country about 900 miles long and 300 miles wide. The climate improves further west, till at Vancouver and Victoria the winters are comparatively mild l . Compared to life in New Zealand, life on the Canadian prairie is a dreary existence. Still, the emigrants on the whole appear to do fairly well, and there is little complaint. As long as they have a good summer, with sufficient rain, the winter does not affect their pockets, as the whole time taken for ploughing, sowing, and harvesting the crop is but six months. Wheat can be placed in London at a freight cost of 8d per bushel from their railway station in the prairie, which, at present prices, leaves them a handsome margin. The Canadian settler, 'however, says Mr. Abbott, runs two big risks as compared with the settlers in New Zealand. Firstly, with all those millions of actes of wheat going in, there is a risk of over-production, and consequent unprofitable prices. He cannot then, like us, produce something else, as the climatic conditions practically confine him to wheat. The other risk is the rainfall, which, although generally sufficient, yet often falls over widespread areas, and causes much loss and disaster to the struggling settler. The New Zealander was much impressed with what Ire saw > n Egypt in the matter of irrigation. The country around the Nile was one continuous stretch of splendid crops, and the landscape was dotted with willow and shade trees. Italy, he said, was a country about the same size as New Zealand, and also contained, like our Country, a number of lakes and much mountain land, and yet carried a population of over 30 millions on natural resources of soil and climate not superior to ours. Italy, unlike England, does not exist on manufactures and invested funds abroad, but, like us, on natural products of the soil. Concluding, Mr. Abbott says-: "While I should be sorry to compare the conditions of life in New Zealand with those of Italy, yet, when one sees what is done there with land of a sort that we regard as useless, it opens one's eyes to the future possibilities of New Zealand.