420 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



industries, and promote most of the local enterprises. The Italians have 

 monopolised the fluvial navigation, and are rapidly increasing in numbers, 

 crowding out all rivals and taking a leading part in all departments of national 

 activity. 



A stream of Irish immigration, now nearly rua dry, flowed in some decades 

 ago, and became associated more intimately than the English with the general 

 population, especially in field operations and about the docks and shipyards. 

 The agricultural colonies of Santa Fé were chiefly founded by Swiss, German, 

 and French peasants, while Hussians and Hussified Germans form the majority 

 of the rural settlers in Entre-llios on the banks of the Parana. The Welsh have 

 formed a separate group in the remote region of the Chubut Valley, Even 

 Australia has begun to take part in the movement, and in 1893 several hundreds 

 from this region obtained concessions along the banks of the Hio !Negro. Since 

 1891 thousands of Jews, expelled or refugees from Russia, have found an asylum 

 in the Argentine lands, where they have hitherto kept aloof from the other 

 elements of the pojjulation. Thousands of Chilians swarm into the western 

 provinces, and are rapidly peopling the Cuyo, as the Andean slopes are culled. 

 Bolivians, Paraguayans, and Brazilims also form a considerable section of the 

 northern and eastern settlements. But types indicating a strain of African blood 

 are rare, although in 1778 people of colour formed about one-third of the whole 

 population. 



It would appear from a Parliamentary paper issued in 1894: by the British 

 Foreign Office on Baron Hirsch's recent Jewish Colonisation scheme, that none of 

 these foreigners succeed bettor than the Jewish refufjees from Pussia. At the 

 end of the year 189-3 these already numbered considerably over 6,000, most of 

 them being drawn from the provinces of Southern Russia. The extent of lands 

 bought for them is 63 square leagues, of which about one-third is colonized at 

 an expenditure so far of nearl}^ £440,000. The present condition of the colonies 

 is described as decidedly prosperous. The area under crops is large, wheat alone 

 covering over 17,000 acres. Thoroughlj' practical men have been engaged in 

 carrying out the scheme, with the result that the settlers have now a good harvest 

 before them, and are likely to realise good profits. There is a central committee 

 in St. Petersburg, with branches all over Russia, who select the most deserving 

 Jews recommended to their notice for emigration. 



After a colony has been properly ' organised, local self-government is intro- 

 duced. A council with several members is appointed, of which two or three, 

 according to the size of the settlement, are chosen by election from among the 

 colonists themselves, and one is the resident controller named by the association. 

 This council, which meets daily, regulates the distribution of machines, transport, 

 building, public health, and the difficult question of meat. The duty of the 

 controller is to look after the property of the association, to distribute the food 

 subsidies to each family, to act as its legal representative in all dealings with the 

 local authorities and private persons, and later to collect the debts due b^' the 

 colonists to the association. 



