ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



41 



chants with one voice saying that because of the ab- 

 sence of steam communication they can afford to buy 

 in the United States only such articles as can not be 

 obtained elsewhere. 



Education. Ex-President Sarmiento, founder 

 of the public-school system in the Argentine 

 Republic, is an advocate of the higher educa- 

 tion of women in South America, having gained 

 his advanced ideas while Minister to the United 

 States. Through his instrumentality about for- 

 ty American young ladies, graduates of Vassar, 

 Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, and other institutions, 

 have been employed under ten-year contracts 

 by the Argentine Government for the normal 

 schools and female seminaries, and have given 

 general satisfaction. These teachers receive 

 salaries varying from $100 to $160 a month. 

 Interference on the part of the Papal Nuncio 

 was resented by the Minister of Education ; 

 the Papal Nuncio received his passport, with 

 a polite but firm invitation to leave the coun- 

 try, and now the Holy See is not represented 

 at the capital. The amount expended by the 

 Government for education is $10.20 per pupil 

 annually. In the United States it averages 

 $3.70 ; in Germany, $6 ; and in England, $9.10. 



The leading university of the country, at 

 Buenos Ay res, has 48 professors and 720 stu- 

 dents in law, medicine, science, and the classics. 

 The University of Cordoba has 18 professors 

 and about 200 students. There are also 14 

 national colleges preparatory schools for the 

 universities with 70 masters and 1,480 pupils. 

 A school for mining and one for agriculture 

 employ 10 professors and have 76 pupils. The 

 normal schools have 3,763 students. 



There are altogether 30 colleges and normal 

 schools for the higher education of men and 

 women, with 430 teachers and 6,710 students, 

 in a total population of fewer than 4,000,000. 



Homestead Law. In March the law was re- 

 vised, which had already been passed under 

 the Sarmiento administration, but had never 

 been taken advantage of, granting 1,500 acres 

 of land to all bona fide naturalized settlers, 

 provided they build thereon a house or other 

 buildings worth together $250, bring under 

 cultivation 24 acres, and plant 200 trees within 

 five years after settlement, when a title will 

 be given in perpetuity to the settler. 



Immigration. Except the United States, no 

 country attracts immigrants in such numbers 

 as the Argentine Republic. In 1881 there ar- 

 rived 47,489 ; in 1882, 59,843 ; in 1883, 73,210 ; 

 and in 1884, 99,119. In 1883 and 1884, taken 

 together, there arrived 117,802 Italians, 19,192 

 Spaniards, 5,024 Germans, 4,914 Swiss, 4,148 

 British subjects, 4,118 Austrians, 109 Argen- 

 tines, 975 Belgians, and 524 Portuguese. 



Colonization. About thirty years ago the re- 

 public began a system of forming settlements 

 or colonies of different nationalities, and ever 

 since it has encouraged this mode of filling up 

 its vacant territory. Sometimes these colonies 

 have been founded by an individual having a 

 large concession of land from the Government 



for that purpose. Italy, Switzerland, France, 

 Germany, Russia, Denmark, England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland, and even the United States, have 

 furnished immigrants for these colonies; but 

 the largest element in them all, and of the for- 

 eign population of the whole republic, is Ital- 

 ian. It is estimated that nearly one fifth of the 

 entire population is of that race. 



International Exhibition. An International Ex- 

 hibition of agricultural products and machinery 

 is to open at Buenos Ayres on April 25, 1886. 

 There are to be five groups, divided into 44 

 departments and 421 sections. The manager 

 and president of the exhibition will be Mr. E. 

 Sundlab, and the secretary Mr. J. Lacroze. 

 The Congress has appropriated $80,000 for 

 it. The province of Santa F6 alone imported 

 from abroad last year $1,161,824 worth of ag- 

 ricultural machinery, and the provinces of 

 Buenos Ayres, Entre Rios, and Tucuman import 

 agricultural and sugar machinery on a propor- 

 tionate scale. 



Exploring Expeditions. In June an expedition, 

 composed of a complete staff of engineers and 

 telegraph officers, set out for the Gran Chaco, 

 on board of three steamers and several sailing- 

 craft, ascending Paraguay river to the 21st de- 

 gree of south latitude, there to found the city 

 of Pacheco and build a road to the Bolivian 

 city of Sucre. The commander of the expedi- 

 tion is the engineer-in-chief, Don Miguel Arana. 

 The purpose is to establish a highway, and 

 eventually build a railroad that will give Bo- 

 livia an outlet for trade to the Atlantic, since, 

 by taking Cobija, Chili shut out Bolivia from 

 the Pacific. 



Another expedition by order of the Govern- 

 ment was to be undertaken by the French ex- 

 plorer, M. Thouar, in November, 1885, in the 

 region traversed by the head-waters of the Pil- 

 comayo river, hitherto unexplored. In August 

 M. Thouar made a preliminary trip to the rap- 

 ids from Formosa, in Argentine territory. 



Patagonia. Since 1881 the claim of the Ar- 

 gentine Republic to that part of Patagonia east 

 of the Andes has been conceded by all nations. 

 Most of the regions explored by the expeditions 

 sent out within the past two years were utterly 

 unknown until the present time. They have 

 never been approached from the Pacific, and 

 the inhospitable Atlantic seaboard gave no ink- 

 ling of the better land within ; while the wide 

 plains on the north, from which the hostile In- 

 dian tribes have just been driven, made Pata- 

 gonia almost inaccessible from that direction. 

 The Argentine expeditions have penetrated 

 nearly half-way to Tierra del Fuego, and they 

 intend to push on to the Strait of Magellan 

 and to come into effective possession of a re- 

 gion from which the republic expects, through 

 colonization, to derive great benefits. Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Hyades, who has lately returned 

 from Tierra del Fuego, whither he was dis- 

 patched on a mission by the French Govern- 

 ment, the Fuegans are the lowest human beings 

 in the scale of existence. Their language con- 



