NEW ZEALAND'S RIVAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9004, 14 December 1907, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND'S RIVAL.

THE ARGENTINE. SOME IMPRESSIONS. A New Zealand pastoralist has just returned from a flying visit to Argentina, whither he went to see if it was worth while taking up land, and settling there. He comes back somewhat disillusioned. "Things are not what they have been cracked up to be," he observed X to a Post reporter. "I was impressed * by Mr Kinsella's account of Argentina, but since I have seen the country my views have undergone a change. I had not, perhaps, the same facilities as he had, nor so much time at my disposal, but 1 could not see how the country is going to be a severe competitor with New Zealand. The price of land' is now five times higher than it was six years ago; but there is not an unlimited supply of really first-class land. If this were so why should men go, as they are doing, right away South of the Straits of Magellan, and pay £2,000 per square league for land which will not carry more than 1,200 sheep? The returns from flocks in such circumstances are not nearly so good as those for New Zealand flocks owing to the long distance from freezing works, and to scab—sheep have to be dipped six times a year. Mind you, the land in the Argentine, and particularly in the province of Buenos Ayres, is excellent in quality, being principally alluvial deposit. But it is so rich and flat that without careful management flocks are much sub- * ject to scab and footrot. Sheep-breed-ing seems to be declining in these districts, and wheat-growing is being, undertaken. . . "As a dairying country it is, in my judgment, a dismal failure, and ' the export of butter has fallen from 5,000 tons to 4,000 tons last year. A dairy owner, milking about 200 cows, told me that the decline in the dairying industry was du« to lack of intelligence and general incapacity of workers. I have no doubt that our Taranaki farmers would make a pay-

i ing'proposition of it." ~._., I The auestion was asked if the grain-growing in Argentine would seriously compete with Canada? "No," replied the pastoralist, "I dp not think so. Statistics show that an increase of eleven million acres in grain has been recorded for the past ■ ten years. Canada is peopled by all energetic people largely of AngloSaxon origin, and moreover has more land, and that of a quality eminently suitable for wh'iat raising. With regard to beef Argentina is certainly well placed, but I think their exports have reached the limit, as quite a ', large number of breeding cows are being killed, the high prices and competition among freezing companies tempting raisers to ship anything. There are seven big freezing companies, but they are, 1 understand, paying very small dividends."