Santa Maria

Santa Maria (DA BOCCA DO MONTE), an inland town of Brazil, in Rio Grande do Sul, 162 m. by rail W. of Margem do Taquary, the railway terminus for Porto Alegre (1908), about 80 m. by water N.W. of that city. Pop. (1900) 13,628. Santa Maria, which lies 382 ft. above the sea, is the commercial centre of a rich district on the slopes of short mountain ranges, one of which, the Serra do Pinhal, forms the water parting between the eastern and western river systems of the state. There are prosperous colonies in its vicinity, including one founded by the Jewish Colonisation Association under the provisions of the Hirsch Fund. The industries of this region include the cultivation of wheat, Indian corn, rice, mandioca, beans, grapes (for wine), nuts, olives and tobacco, and stock-raising. The town derives its chief importance, however, from its becoming the junction of the Porto Alegre to Uruguayana, and the Santa Maria to Passo Fundo railways. In 1905 the national and state governments leased to the "Compagnie Auxiliaire de Chemin de Fer au Bresil" the Rio Grande to Bage, the Porto Alegre' to Uruguayana, the Santa Maria to Passo Fundo, and the Porto Alegre to Nova Hamburgo railways, with their branches and connexions, and it was decided to establish the general administration offices for the whole system at Santa Maria. The shops and offices of the Porto Alegre to Uruguayana line had been removed to that place in 1902.