FARMERS' PARADISE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 278, 27 April 1914, Page 6

FARMERS' PARADISE.

CHEAP LAND AiND LABOII.

A GOOD LOCAL MARKET.

NEW ZEALANDEII lutOM CHILI.

Christcliurch, Saturday

There is at present in the dominion ill- F. J. Stratford, a New Zealandcr, who has Keen for some years in Chile, and has returned to the dominion to try to induce farmers to appreciate, the advantages of the narrow country on the Pacific Coast of South America.

"Chile is a farmers' paradise," said Mr Stratford to a ''Star" reporter to- j day. "Tlic land is good, the climate j is almost indistinguishable from that! of Palmerston North, and land is cheap, j Fine country, as good as any £2O land 1 in New Zealand, can be obtained for j £2 an acre, and the labor is just as in- j expensive. The farm- lianas there practically work for their keep and clothes, and they are happier than they would bo with ten dollars a day. Each farmer has a license to sell liquor and usually runs a store to supply his workmen with goods, so that tile money he pays out as wages he gets back very quickly. Anybody in Chile call get a license to sell liquor, but there is very little drunkenness. The chief liquors are wine aim apple cider and really 1 have seen more drunkenness in New Zealand in one month than 1 have seen in Cnile in two wars anil a half.

Chile is usually regarded as a narrow | strip of land squeezed right on to the sea, hut it is two lmudrod miles wide, and it is well opened up by railroads, In the south the principal industry is eat.tic raising, hut tile country is so good that indolence is tlie great characteristic of the farmer. The cjittle are turned out into the bush country as' soon as they are weaned, and left there i for three years. They live 011 a young I green cane that grows the more freely : the more it is eaten down. Every yearj the cattle are mustered and the young, ones branded, but after three years m i the bush lands the grown beasts ajj •put into fattening paddocks to prepare! for the market. Conditions for cattle ■ raising in tno soutli are so good tli.it the farmers do not trouble to do more than let the cattle grow. Agricultural farming in the south is nardiy known, and dairying is hardly practised at ail. This is what the country needs, if some energetic new Zealanders went over there and started in dairying tncy would do wonderfully well. The local market for butter cannot be met and cheese has to be imported. Butter in the winter rises to 3s a pound, simply because no effort is made to put the dairying industry on a proper tiasis. further north wheat is grown in large quantities, but cannot keep up with the demands of tho I local market, and north of Santiago the | country is devoted to mining. j PREVENTING LABOR TROUBLES.

"Practically Chili is in a very happy way. There has not been a revolution for over twenty-five years, and at present the country is well governed. There is a good wide franchise, but the men with the money buy voters freely and are always in power. This 's an excellent thing, because it means that there are 110 labor troubles. In Chili the working class cannot do anything politically, and their interest is centred in earning five or six shillings and having enough to eat. The people are happy and contented. In most revolutions in South America, -the European nas nothing to fear so long as he is not mixed up 'n

the political game, and in Chili the Britisher is welcomed. The Germans lmve had their reputations spoilt by some sharp practices which the Chilanos remember, and they are not so well liked. NOT AN ARMKD PEOPLIO.

''There is an impression that the Sou ill American republics are places where people swagger about with guns, shooting and robbing one another. That is quite a wrong idea, lou have to get a license to carry arms, and some people do, but 1 have never seen a gun drawn upon a human being. There is about fH0,000,000 of British capital invested in the country, and its influence is fur quietude. Most of the big Businesses are controlled by British money. There are no cattle thieves, and a man is as safe there as he is in Now Zealand. One peculiar thing there is about their cattle industry is in the branding. The brands are often very large, so .that an owner can easily distinguish his cattle, but the laws provide that a man must brand lis own cattle onee, and that when he sells a beast, he must put tile purchaser's brand next to it, followed by a repetition of his own brand. So that when a beast has changed hands fhree or tour times it is a regular picture gallery, and the man with the fewest brands on the beast is the owner. It is a sight in Chili to see fat cattle going to market. Seven or eight drovers take the herd and set it going at full gallop for miles. The •New Zealander womu oe .horrified '-t such a proceeding, hut the character of tne Chilian fanner is illustrated bv that method as wen as by the deep-'rooted ■ belief that the only way to milk a cow is to tie up her legs, and place her call on one side of .her and the milkman on the other There then follows a contest between tho man and t,ie ca,lf for tI, P milk Milking by any other means s considered absurd. So you see that we want farmers with energy and knowledge over there, and I am sure that Aew /ealanders would do well, it's a real paradise for the farmer."