A NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2670, 27 November 1909, Page 7

A NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH , AMERICA. A young New Zealander, who has recently taken up his residence at. Iquique, has written to a relative in Christchurch giving his impressions of South America. He arrived in Buenos Ayres oii May 2, when the riots >\vero in progress. Everything was disorderly and lawless, he says, and every day the rioters and police came into conflict and many were shot on both sides. Over 200,000 people were out on strike and it was impossible to obtain a cab or vehicle of any kind. The city was under military control but even then it Avas very dangerous to venture into the streets. After a description of Buenos Ayres,, which, he says is claimed by- its inhabitants to be London, Paris, and Vienna rolled 'into one, he describes an overland trip Avhich he made through the Aiides into Chili. “My first impressions of the city of Valparaiso,he writes, “were not too good, but I grew to like it afterwards, although compared 1 with Buenos Ayres, it is a horrible place, and the inhabitants are a pretty rough and laAvless crowd Avho think nothing of a human life. Even in b'road daylight, it is unsafe to venture into some of the side streets. On my way to Iquique, I saw the country, if it could be called so. To' anyone accustomed 1 to tlie green fields and thick bush of New Zealand, it Avould be difficult to imagine such God-forsaken and barren places, as these, for there is not the slightest sign of a shrub or of vegetation of any description. This is due to the saltpetre. ■ The reports concerning Iquique, I found to be exaggerated, and I prefer the place to- Valparaiso, although it is a rather desolate and lawless toAvn. Rain i 9 practically unknown, perhaps 'there may be only one little shoAver during tAvelve months, so of course, there is not a blade of grass or bush mear the place excepting a feAv shrubs in the squares, Avhich are carefully watered every night.” The Avater supply has to be brought a distance of nearly one hundred miles in pipes, and all the vegtables, milk and practically everything are imported from the north or froni the interior. All the houses in the city are Avooden, and they are mostly of one storey, and as there is scarcely any roofing, and the sky can be seen through the cracks of the ceiling, it seems that if a decent shower of rain ever should come, most of the people Avould be drowned in their homes.