S.S. Holmpark

7-9, 9-7, 9-7, 8-10, 9-7, but lost in the 2nd round to R. S. H. Smith (Oratory), 9-1, 9-7, 7-9, 7-9, 6-9.

A. C. Ping, G. P. G. Stephenson and M. S. Douglas were selected to play for Yorkshire Public Schools v. Wales, at Harrogate, on January 7th.

S.S. HOLMPARK.

The " Holmpark " arrived back from Karachi in September and discharged her cargo of wheat at Liverpool. Her next voyage, which began soon after the beginning of term, was from Cardiff to Buenos Aires with a cargo of coal. This voyage—a distance of over 6,000 miles—took twenty-six days. Unfortunately, our mail failed to reach South America in time, and did not reach the ship until she arrived at Durban late in November after a seventeen days' voyage without cargo from Buenos Aires. However, Capt. Rickard, Mr. Martin, Mr. Johnson and our other correspondents sent a most interesting mail from Durban, extracts of which are printed below. The " Holmpark " is now on her way to Manila, again with a cargo of coal, and is expected to arrive soon after Christmas. This is over four weeks' voyage, and is the longest made since we joined the ship.

THE RIVER PLATE.

I see that you ask for a description of Buenos Aires, so I'll try my hand at it. To begin with, the whole country around Buenos Aires is flat, and from the roads it is only possible to see the tall buildings, so it is not interesting in that respect. We pick up the pilot 115 miles from the town, and the roads are 18 miles from the town. The town itself is quite up-to-date, and, as you know, considers itself the Paris of the South. It has many fine buildings and many splendid wide streets. It has excellent shops and many picture houses, but strange to say the most fashionable shops are in one of the narrower streets, the Floriedaprobably a survival from the old days. The docks and harbour works are quite up-to-date.

Regarding the trip up to Rosario, I went there to load in the " Grangepark," and here again it can hardly be called an interesting river, as the shores are flat and it is possible to see for miles over the surrounding country; only in a few places are there slight cliffs along the river bank. About fifty miles above Buenos Aires the river becomes fairly narrow, and the bar above Buenos Aires limits the draft to 26

which ships can load up river. At the various ports on the river the grain is mostly loaded from elevators, and these are mostly placed where there is cliff.

From Capt. Rickard.

Durban, November, 1938.

FARMING IN SWEDEN.

When in Karlshamm, my pal and I managed to borrow a couple of bicycles during a week-end, so we saw a bit of country. The bikes were very heavy to drive owing to the balloon tyres, but such tyres are required, for all the main roads we were on were cobblestones. I think this method of road-building is to prevent the roads being destroyed by frost, which is very heavy during the winter in Sweden. The farms we saw in Sweden seemed to have the usual implements : ploughs, harrows, rollers, etc., much the same as at home. I cannot speak for all Sweden, but around Karlshamm for at least twelve miles the farming is no picnic. The ground is very hilly and rocky. The fields are nearly all covered with rocks and the ground is cultivated around them. The fields are usually about ten acres, and except for about two fields I saw none that had more than half an acre of clear ground. The fields looked like a sea with a large number of islands in it. The rocks were all sizes from about 20 feet high with a corresponding surface, down to one foot by three feet. Rocks smaller than the latter seemed to be removed and built into walls or thrown up into heaps out of the way. You can imagine the twists and turns made necessary by those rocks when ploughing. The farming was general, farmers growing oats, turnips and potatoes, and all farms had a plentiful supply of ducks and hens. Extract from letter from James Johnson, Esq., 2nd Officer, S.S. Holmpark.

November, 1938.

Buenos Aires is the chief port on the River Plate. The latter is a shallow and uninteresting stretch of water which could be vastly improved, and would be if the country was in the hands of some European country or the U.S.A. Argentina is a country of enormous wealth. Incredible as it may seem, I know of one country which has a contract for no less than 50,000 hides a month. That is only a small part of the hide exports, and, of course, the meat which was once entirely surrounded by these hides is also exported. Ships taking five to ten thousand tons of grain each are leaving various ports in a constant stream. 27