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The above included 23 foundries, 36 steam saw mills, 23 flour mills, 98 distilleries, 89 steam printing offices, 35 tanyards, 31 boot factories, 84 coach factories, and 8 steam laundries.

Since 1887, the number of factories has increased considerably. The census of 1887 showed as follows, in regards to professions:

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All other trades increased in like ratio.

The port of Buenos Aires, better known by the Madero docks, extends for nearly 3 miles along the city front. The works were begun in March, 1887, on plans of Sir John Hawkshaw, the contractors being Messrs. Walker & Co. The concession is in the name of Eduardo Madero & Co., the price fixed by Congress

being. £4,000,000, but the outlay will probably exceed £5,000,000. The works were carried out without interruption during four years, until in May, 1891, the Government was compelled to prosecute them on a reduced scale, at an outlay of £40,000 a month. They were originally dívided into nine sections, viz:

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The prime minister's report to Congress gives the total outlay as follows:

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Deducting £120,000 spent in the first quarter of 1892, the works would still require, on Mr. Drabble's estimate, a further sum of £1,480,000, which would bring up the total cost to £5,250,000. Each dock has a shed which cost £60,000, and in the aggregate, these sheds have 14 acres of accommodations; each has four floors, with three hydraulic cranes, capable of lifting 30 cwt. each. There are on the quays forty-six traveling cranes of equal power (30 cwt.), besides two that can lift 5 tons each, and a fixed crane of 30 tons power.

The works include 12 miles of railway and 130,000 square meters, or 33 acres of paving. It is proposed to dredge the south

channel to a depth of 23 feet, but to abandon the north channel for the present, as well as Dock 4. In the excavation of these docks seven steam navvies were employed, which excavated 150,000,000 cubic feet of stuff. Each dock has about 80,000 tons of granite for quay wall. The sea wall is 3 miles long, or 5,000 yards, of which 2,600 were built of cement and granite and 2,400 of pitch pine, the whole length being backed by a "tosca" bank 50 feet wide. The pumping apparatus includes a centrifugal pump that delivers 10,000 gallons of water per minute. The hydraulic machinery is supplied by Armstrong & Co., Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Besides the foregoing, there are the Boca port works, 2 miles south of the city, which were begun in 1876. The dredging and cost have been as follows:

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Allowing for the varying value of the dollar in the last fifteen years, the outlay was about £1,200,000 sterling. So far, only 9 miles of the deep-water channel giving access to the port of Buenos Aires have been dredged. Present depth of water, 17 feet. There are 3 miles more to be dredged, and the minister proposes a uniform depth of 21 feet (it is found that the river deposits 1,000,000 tons of stuff yearly in the channel, the annual cost of dredging which is estimated at $600,000 currency, or £33,000 sterling), besides widening the first kilometer and the Riachuelo and prolonging the south pier. This will involve a further outlay of $4,000,000, or £250,000 sterling, bringing up the total cost to £1,450,000, which, being added to £5,250,000 for the Madero

docks, will make a total expenditure of £6,700,000 for the port of Buenos Aires. This compares with other cities thus:

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The outlay, as compared with length of quay wall, is per yard in Buenos Aires, against £550 in Antwerp, £240 in Marseilles, and 208 in Trieste, but it must be observed that in Buenos Aires, it has been necessary to build a sea wall 3 miles in length to protect the above works.

The figures given, when treating of the waterworks, drainage, and port of Buenos Aires, have been taken from the last edition of Messrs. M. G. and E. T. Mulhall's Hand Book of the River Plate.

Chapter VI.

EDUCATION, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION.

The educational facilities of the Argentine Republic are excellent, great attention having been paid to this most important subject. There is at present one school for every thousand inhabitants of the country. The United States system of public schools was adopted in the Argentine Republic during the administration of Gen. Sarmiento (1868–1874), and during the administration of Gen. Roca, in 1884, a law was passed making education free and obligatory for all boys and girls between the ages of six and fourteen years. By the same law, a national board of education was created, and the following sums were permanently appropriated for its sustenance: Twenty per cent of the sale of all national lands; 50 per cent of the interest of all judicial deposits in the capital of the Republic; 40 per cent of the real estate tax of the capital, national territories, and colonies; 15 per cent of the municipal revenue of the capital; the interest produced by the permanent school fund; the right of enrollment at the rate of $1 annually for each pupil; the total of all fines imposed by any competent authority in the capital and territories; the value of all property falling to the public treasury for lack of heirs; 5 per cent of all successions to collateral inheritances, excepting in the case of brothers; 10 per cent of all inheritances left to strangers, and 10 per cent of all religious donations. In addition to these sums, the national and provincial governments appropriated, in 1889, for the benefit of education, $8,456,104. In that year, the number

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