RUSSIA'S IRON CLAMP.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 125, 24 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

RUSSIA'S IRON CLAMP.

Wini tin aid of a map and his own observations, mule while traversing the greit Si'(aim iron road, which will tiring St. Petersburg and M .scow iu'u direct c jiuiimn'e.ition, not only with Vladivostok, but also with l'ekin, Mr J. Y. S mpson succeeds in giving; the rcadc s of b'ackwood a very good idea of this stupendous undertiking, which is expected to be completed be'ore the year 1003. Its totil length will be 4,741 mi'es, and itsestim ited tost L35,00u,00u sterling. There arc 02 000 men engaged in its con it ruction, and thsir average earnnigs arc half-acrown a day, wlreh is a high rate for Kuss'a. A j. reat deal of convict labour is employed, as well as that of pditical exiles, citdit months' railway work baingcousnlered eijuiva'ent to one year's imprisonment as regards the tirs r , and one year countuig as two in the cisc of the second. The Russiin (■overnuient is making great efforts to settle population a'ong the line by selling land at a low price ; and about 600,000 have be ;n moved eastward between 189and 1805. Although the work has been propoted, and is lining executed for strat°gic purposes, and ill order to bind the Asiatic and European possessions of Russia together by means of an iron clamp, such a line as this must pxerc se an important; influence upon the food supplies of the world, and upon the price of wheat all over the globe, because production will be greatly stimulated by the facilities it will oiler fir the transport of giaiu from the east to the markets ol the west. At present Siberia has an annual s-urp'iß availibla for export of from- 3-24,000,000 to 432,000.000 pounds, and if this should he nntcrially augmented the prospects of the wheat growers in Western and Southern Russia will he extreni ly gloomy, for prices even at present are (pii'e unremmierative. What his happened in the United States threatens to be repeated in the Russian Empire, where it may case to be profitable to cultivate the old farm lands in competition with the new.