The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-05-14
from the 8. +. Herald, April 1o.I

Mr.. EDITOR Allow me through the columns of your
widely circulated and useful Herald, to say a few
words to those persons in California and elsewhere,
who think of emigrating to these Islands for the pur-
pose of making a permanent home. In this letter I
shall speak only of the agricultural and manufactur-
ing interests of the country. In the first place there
is no land system in these Islands, as there is in the
United States. The stranger coming here to settle,
must find his piece of land as best he can from private
information, and when he finds q piece that suits
him, he employs a surveyor at his own expense to
make the survey and plat the land. This plat,
together with the petition to be the purchaser, is
presented to the Minister of the Interior, and by him
laid before the Privy Councils for their acceptance;
If approved by them, the purchaser makes his pay
ments, a Royal patent issues, and the title is complete.
But in four out of five of the applications thus made
to the Minister of the Interior, some of the following
difficulties occur; the Priyy Council may not be in
session for a month or two after the petition Is hand
ed in, or they may be so engaged with the weighty
matters of State, that they cannot give it attention,
and of course it stands over until the next meeting;
and then they may decide that the offer is too low,
and they will set it up at auction, using the apph-
cants survey to designate the land, and at some
future day he has to stand public competition, and
perhaps the land is bid from him.
But this is not the only chance of obtaining land:
there are large tracts of land in the hands of indiyid-
uals that are for sale, but the holders of them are
generally Europeans, or native Chiefs. The Europe
ans have bought their lands with regard to its rela-
tive value in the old country, and of course hold them
so high they cannot be bought either for agriculture
or grazing purposes. The Chiefs or common natives
are opposed to selling their lands, preferring to lease
or a term of years at such prices as would be
ruinous.r Property In the towns is obtainable with
less trouble, and the title good.
But, Mr.. Purchaser, admit that you are now in
possession of your land--what as to its product and
profit to the owner In the first place it will cost
lust four times the price, (f it is good for anything,)
of good land in the United States; in the next place,
it is doubtful if you will have either timber, stone, or
water, and in nine cases out of ten you will have to do
without one or the other. Now what can you raise
or what win your land produce by a proper. and
ordinary amount Of labor applied to its cultivation?
Wheat, rye, oats, corn, timothy, and clover, are crops
that cannot be raised successfully in this country, for
various reasons. In the first place wheat, the best
that can be raised of all the above mentioned crops,
is subject to the rust and cut or army worm, which
entirely destroys whole crops and renders them un-
certain; and after a careful examination by those who
we're practical farmers In the States, and have raised
wheat upon these Islands, the conclusion is that one
acre of wheat land in the States, will produce two
fold greater than the wheat land on these Islands,
with one half the 1abor-being a difference of four to
one. The other crops that I have mentioned are SO
much out of the question that 1t is useless to dwell
upon them further.
As said above, there is no timber, and of course no
fences, consequently all the stock run at large, and
you are constantly in danger of having your crops
DESTROYED by the animals of your neighbors. Add to
all this the difficulty of shipping all your produce or
stock to Honolulu, the only market on the Islands,
and the drawbacks are so great that those who have
attempted agriculture, though they have paid large
I'LL III t4O ldICo IH1 CuIS1 LII 1ulDIC-
ments, are compelled to abandon it for the above
reasons. There is comparatively speaking no agri-
cultural pursuits on these Islands, and therefore no
employment for men without capital, and the man
that brings his family, or comes himself to these
Islands to begin the world, brings them to a poor
mans home, and an unhealthy climate, to spend their
days in the depths of poverty, toll and sorrow, unless
assisted to get away by his friends. And now let us
look at the poor mechanic who comes to these Islands,
with or without his family, to make it his home for
life. With a family what are his prospects? and who
viii he or they associate with? 1t was not my inten-
ton to have mentioned any of the social conditions OF
life in this letter, and viii only do SO, so far as it is
necessary to show the relation that the mechanic and
his family occupies to general society on these Islands.
First, the King and his Privy Councillors are at the
head, and next are the foreign ministers and their
attendants; then the merchant princes (as they call
themselves,) and the professional gentlemen bring up
the rear.
Now. Mr.. Mechanic, do you wish to bring up your
innocent daughter and virtuous wife to be Sighted
and treated with neglect by this array of royalty and
official dignity, that is as cold and heartless as the
grave? Or do you think that the virtue, intelligence,
and good conduct of yourself and family viii bring
you into notice with these sprigs of royalty? If you
do, I warn you not to lay ''the fiattering JUNCTION to
your SOUL , for you and yours are as far from them
as the East is from the West.
But, say you, this gay and fashionable society is
but ''sounding brass and tinkling cimbal,'' and /
came here to earn my daily bread and better the con-
dition of myself and family in life.
Now let us look upon that side of the picture. If
YOU are q SnOe0laKef, SauuleF, tallOF, printer, CdDlu0L-
maker or carpenter, you will receive three dollars
per day. If a ship-carpenter, caulker, rigger, or
blacksmith, five dollars; and if you carry on any of
the above branches, Except the ship-carpenter and
blacksmith,) you will probably fail in about six
months, or be compelled to discontinue for want of
employment. A journeyman will get the above wages
for one or two years. till the climate begins to act
upon his constitution. Then his system becomes
relaxed, his nerves enervated, and his constitution
broken; consumption sets in, and finally he fills an
untimely grave, leaying a destitute family to mourn
his untimeIy loss, and without the means of getting
away from here-being twenty-five hundred miles
from anywhere.
But if you would choose to do something else than
follow your trade-such as keeping a small auction
room, that you might sell goods on consignment, and
make an honest living for yourself and family, and
proper returns to your customers, you are shut off by
the government exacting a thousand dollars for a
license; and this secures to one or two government
fayoriteS the entire auction business, and the poor
man may seek his living as best he can. 1t is the
same as to hotels, which probably you and your
family are well calculated to conduct; you are met by
n demand for o thousand dollars for a license. OF
course it is beyond your means; and this is thrown
into the hands Of our government fcyorities. Thus
the poor man is cut off from another chance to I'M
prove his condition in this country. There are some
exceptions to the above statements, but they are
'slike angels yisits-few and far between"
These Islands have q warm and genial climate,
and it has been said that here it is perpetual spring;
and if the foliage being covered thick with dust
from May to November, and the trade winds sweeping
through the streets n perfect gale. filling ewes. nose