The Argentine National Government has during the past few years built and has under construction several lines intended to develop districts which as yet do not offer sufficient temptation to private Companies.
No fresh construction has been begun in either country since the outbreak of the War, the Government and various Companies confining themselves only to such construction work as is absolutely necessary for the completion of extensions already commenced.
Railway construction in these countries does not usually offer any great difficulties. The triumphs of River Plate railway engineering were the line of the Buenos Aires Pacific Railway up and through the Andes and some parts of the lines of the Entre Rios Railway Company in parts of that Province in which for long it seemed impossible to discover a route amid the marshy or spongy soil. Another such triumph will probably occur when the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway penetrates the Andes, as it no doubt will do one day, much further south than the Buenos Aires Pacific line.
PORTS
The River Plate Republics are very accessible to foreign Commerce; possessing Atlantic Coasts, the River Plate and its two great navigable tributaries, the Uruguay and the Paraná.
The Port of Buenos Aires ranks seventh among the ports of the world in respect of the value of merchandise which enters and leaves it, and second in America, that is to say, coming immediately after New York. The next most important Argentine ports are those of Rosario, Bahia Blanca and La Plata; after which come Santa Fé, San Nicholás, Campana and Zárate, and many others on the Paraná and Rio Gallegos, Puerto Madryn, San Antonio and others on the South Atlantic. A new Port is in course of construction at Mar-del-Plata.
Montevideo only ranks in point of cargo values just before Bahia Blanca; that is to say, with some £15,000,000 as against the £115,500,000 trade of the Port of Buenos Aires.[22] Uruguay is, however, preparing in this regard for her further development by large new port works which have been under construction for some years past. On the Uruguay she has Fray Bentos, Paysandú (both largely concerned with meat extract and preserved meats export), Salto and Santa Rosa; and on the River Plate, besides Montevideo, Colonia and Maldonado; besides several relatively unimportant ports having as yet but scanty or no effective accommodation for vessels. This could also have been said of many of Argentina’s minor ports not so very long ago. Port accommodation in Uruguay will follow the increase and demands of her export produce and the requirements of her consequently enhanced prosperity.