PRODUCTS EXHIBITED AT PARIS. 13 Juan was admirable. Mr Holterhof sent candles from the Barracas factory. Mr. Younger sent some sheepskins from his steam «lavadero.» M. Rouqueaud exhibited calf's foot oil, and other articles, from his establishment. Messrs. Huergo and Durand had a fine sample of native silk. The Rural Association contributed cereals grown at Chivilcoy and Mercedes. The files of the Tribuna and Standard represented the press of Buenos Ayres. The prizes were as follows: GOLD MEDAL. Argentine Government, for gold, silver, and copper ores. Mr. Lafone, copper samples. SILVER MEDALS. Bletscher and Co., hides tanned with quebracho. John Hannah, wool. Bethe and Hubler, extractum carnis. BRONZE MEDALS. Roquet Brothers, silver ores. Klappenback, silver ores. The Government, samples of timber. Stegman Brothers, wool. Richard Newton, wool. Wilfrid Latham, wool. Macedonio Gras, Alpaca wool. M. Rouqueaud, calf's foot oil. The Secretary of Committee, soap. Tucuman Provincial Company, medicinal herbs. Thomas Oliden, dried and salted beef. The Government, for «popular customs» (stuffed gauchos, &c.) HONORABLE MENTION. Tucuman Provincial Company, embroidery. Major Rickard, silver ores. Carranza, mineral specimens. General Pacheco, wool and tobacco. H. Solanet, wool. Francis Younger, wool. William Müller, dried beef. Demaria and Ariza, dried beef. Ponget, of Mendoza, white wines. The Basques are highly valued as immigrants: they come from either side of the Pyrinees, and may be classified into French Basques and Spanish Basques, both having almost the same language and national character. They are hardy, honest, and laborious, and are found in every occupation of the middle or humbler classes. After the Italians, they form the largest foreign population. As brick-makers, milkmen, shepherds, saladero peons, &c., they constitute a most useful class, and their good conduct is quite proverbial. Many of them have risen in the social scale, and some large fortunes and valuable enterprises are held by Basques. The Spaniards are with difficulty distinguished from the natives. They come mostly from Andalusia, Catalonia, and Galicia. The Catalans are wine merchants and first-rate business men. The Andalusians are cigar sellers and shop-keepers. The Galicians are street porters, night watchmen, newspaper messengers, and domestic servants: they are sober and honest, but not very enterprising. The Italians are the most numerous class of all, and may be found in every occupation of city life, and also scattered through every part of the vast territory. Finding here a similarity of language and climate to their own, the Italians make the River Plate their favored place of colonization. As masons and builders they are specially useful, and the various splendid piles of building .raised within the last ten years have given them an active business. In the humbler calling of marketgardeners they also supply the city with vegetables and earn a profitable livelihood. The monopoly of the river navigation and coasting crafts is in the hands of Genoese; the crew are generally equal sharers in the venture, and appoint a «patron» or captain to command, and trade on their own account, purchasing cheese, birds, skins, fruit, &c. in the upper markets, to bring to Buenos Ayres or Montevideo. They construct their own ships in the suburb of the Boca, where they have formed a rapidly rising town of about 5,000 inhabitants. In the Upper Provinces the number of foreign settlers is very small; still there are a few scattered here and there, viz. :— In Salta, chiefly Bolivians; who come there for the purposes of trade, and on account of the political convulsions of their own republic: similitude of origin, climate, soil, and productions, as well as the proximity to their own frontiers, accounts for their preference of this province. The Colony of Esquina Grande, situated at the head waters of the Vermejo, is almost exclusively composed of natives of Bolivia. In Mendoza and San Juan, there are not many Europeans, but a considerable number of Chilians, who are engaged principally in the mines. In Cordoba there are about a thousand foreigners, chiefly French, Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, and a few English; their occupation is in the mines, flour mills, lime kilns, and as mechanics and goat-breeders. In Entre Rios and Corrientes there is a large number of foreigners. Many of them are wealthy, and their occupations are so varied, that they are to be found in every branch of industry and trade. In Entre Rios there is a number of English estancieros. The Province of Santa Fé has three thriving colonies, that of Entre Rios two, and that of Buenos Ayres one. The Committee of Immigration have agents in various parts of Europe, viz. : Mr. Beck Bernard, Berne; for Switzerland and Germany. Mr. Lloyd, of Messrs. Wright, Kelso, & Co., Liverpool. Mr. Hadfield, and Messrs. T. M. Mackay & Son, London. The Committee have a Home for Emigrants at No. 8 Calle Corrientes, where they get food and lodging gratis till they find employment. Free immigration is the rule: neither the Government nor the Committee assist in paying passages from Europe. The current of emigration from Europe is rapidly increasing, as we see by the returns, as follows: The relative proportion of the various nationalities in 1867 wasItalians, 38 per cent.; French, 13; Spaniards, 9; English, 6; Swiss, 4; Germans, 3; other nationalities, 27 per cent. The number of vessels and passengers from foreign ports in 1867 is In the report of the Immigration Committee the following scale of wages is given, and the figures are not exaggerated: Farm servants, Monthly, with Board, £3 5s. do., do., £4 to £5 House Servants, do., PROSPERITY OF IMMIGRANTS. 19 The cost of a mechanic's board and lodging does not exceed three shillings a day. Workmen of all kinds find immediate employment, and the new railways will require thousands of navvies. Any number of farm-laborers, married or unmarried, will find plenty of work on the estancias of Buenos Ayres. Domestic servants are much wanted in town, and women are preferred. Nothing can better shew the prosperity of immigrants than the official return of depositors in the State Bank of Buenos Ayres. Of 100 depositors the various nationalities were thus represented: The proportion of moneys so lodged was distributed as follows-out of every 100,000,000 paper dollars deposited, the owners were : It must be borne in mind that besides the depositors in bank there are thousands of industrious Europeans who have invested their savings in land and farming stock. Many of the Irish settlers, as in North America. send home sums of money to their relatives, to support them or pay their passage hither. The Irish housemaids in town have also accounts in the Savings-banks. The Italians, as a rule, practise the greatest economy, to accumulate a fortune of £500 or £1,000; and, this attained, they return to their native land. The French, on the contrary, as soon as they have made some money, start a mill or some such enterprise, and settle for good in the country. |