PRODUCTIVE ARGENTINA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12405, 29 December 1909, Page 2

PRODUCTIVE ARGENTINA.

A special correspondent of " The Times," writing from Buenos Ayres on the efforts of the American Meat Trust to obtain control of the Argentine supplies, describes the remarkable productivity of the country and its influence upon the world's markets. He says:—

The Argentine Republic last year occupied, and may in the future occupy, the first, while the United States may have to be content with the second, place in the exportation of foodstaffis. The change is partly due to the shortage of meat in America, and party to the fact that, with their increasing population, tho United States will have less and less surplus provisions with which to supply the world. Last year the Argentine Republic sent England! three times more maize than the United States did, something like l^- million owt. more wheat, and considerably over time the amount of refrigerated and frozen cattle. The shipments of meat aie considerably havier for the first nine months cf 1909, so the proportion ship ped by the Argentine Republic is not likely to be less for the present year. The financial and commercial imporfc-

f'lice of tho Argentine Republic to Great Piritain is equally great. To the British capitalist it has long been a profitable field for investment. There cannot l-o less than £250,000,000 of British capital invested in the national, provincial, and municipal bonds of the Argentine- Republic and in its railways, tramways, and miscellaneous industrial enterprises and undertakings. To this should be added a further amount, and one more difficult to estimate, comprising British investments in land. Many estancias are owned and not a few managed by British subjects or their representatives. Probably 300 millions sterling are the figures that would more nearly represent the British capital in. vested in the Argentine Republic. Great as this stake is, and surprising as the figures may appear to those unacquainted with the agricultural, commercial, and, of late years, industrial progress of the Argentine Republic, the growing importance of the republic as a foodexporting country is of still greater moment. Aside from wheat, maize, and cattle, the Argentine Republic -sent us last year nearly as much frozen mutton as New Zealand, and two and a half times more than Australia did. The following figures have just been preof Commerce and industry of the Depared by the director of the Division l-'artment of Agriculture of the Argentine Government:— j

Total Expts. to Great Britain Exported to from all Gt. Britain. Countries. Value. Value. £ £ Wheat 13,112,215 38,295,940 Maize 5,660,599 10,338,061 Frozen beef . 6,102,926 10,303,380 Frozen muttcn 2,512,656 8,148,457 Total ...27,388,396 67,140,838

Nearly 41 per cent, of these vitally<important foodstuffs were, therefore, supplied by the Argentine.. of wheat 34.2 per cent.; of maize 54.5 per cent.; of frozen mutton 30.8 per cent.; and of refrigerated and frozen beef, 60 per cent. Yet a large share of the meat business in the Argentine, if it has not already passed, may soon pass into the hands of the American Beef Trust. Tho United Kingdom, according to these Argentine official returns, purchased last year refrigerated and frozen beef r.s follows:.. Cwt. Value. £ £ Argentine Rep. 3,500,307 6,102,926 United States . 1,432j:42 3,268,584 New Zealand — 347,822 541,600 Other countries . 351,668 395,270 Total 5,631,989 10,303,380