The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-06-24

the s~pecious pretence Of encouraging certain man
~ufactures at home, by excluding the like manu-
features of foreign production thus eniistlng
the sympathies of the middle producing classes
and allying them with the governing classes 70
impose the burden upon the masses, who are IN
heard and-theory to the contrary notwithstand-
ing-are unrepresented in the halls OF Legislature
land who are often so blind as not to know their
own interest and strength.
The free cities of Germany are our best exam
pies to copy in this respect. They arc in the po-
sition that we would like to be that is. they are
resting places for merchandise in frons'fu, which
is on its passage from the producer to the con-
sumner. Can the Chief Justice or the Prime Min
lister point us to the statute by which either OF
these cities has hampered its trade. by placing i'm
posts on goods, imported for sale? Iher mar
kets are as free as it is possible TO make them I;
they invite every one to them. So the English
nation, acting upon the suggestion furnished by
these cities. have constituted as free ports the
Colonies of Hongkong and Singapore. so that,
admitting that we are a commercialn nation, which
is not true in itself, we find that we are not fol-
lowing the example of other strictly commercial
nations,'-since in England, the United States
and France it is the manufacturing and producing
classes which have for a long time succeeded in
imposing this restriction upon commerce; which
classes have been aided by the governing class,
that they might induce the production of every
article necessary to civilized life within their own
borders, and thus render the nation less fearful OF
foreign wars, because more independent of for
eign production.
Now. this nation is neither England nor the
United States. 1t is therefore as absurd to COM
pare ourselves with them as it was for thefrog in
the fable to compare itself with the OK, and if we
insist upon the rivalry, we shall share the fate OF
the frog, whilst those countries will be Just as
unconscious of the accident that has betallen us
as YVES the OK who kept on quietly grazing in his
pasture. Our people are just emerging from bar
barism, and need every inducement to overcome
their natural Incidence. Wants must be created
in them to induce them to labor. And instead
of raising the price of those articles which they
desire, which effect must follow an increase OF
duty, government should do all in its power to
cheaper t~hem--aye, even cheaper whatarec called
50 luxuries," to induce the native population to
make efforts TO acquire. You talk of taxing s'iux-
uries." Why, gentlemen, to the native popula-
ton all things are lu1uries. except poi and fish
even clothes and a glass window. And when he
has got enough poi and fish, his greatest incllna-
ton is to enjoy the hurry of a nap. Is this to be
overcome by adding to the price of such articles
as he NAV covet SO as to discourage him from
making any effort to obtain them? Or does the
Minister venture to say that the consumer would
in reality give no higher price, but that the tax
is imposed solely on the seller? In that case, If
true, he aims to make a few merchants bear the
uhok burden of gore, anaent! But if the impost
has the effect, as we have supposed above, to de-
crease consumption among the n tive population,
what becomes of the anticipated increase of $780,
900 in the revenue under the operation of the
Tariff Bill?
The extent to which the consumption of inn
ported goods among the natives would decline, if
they were required to pay five or ten per cent.
higher prices for the articles than they now pay,
though very uncertain, would doubtless be con-
siderable. Not less serious, however. would be
the falling off in the consumption of imported
goods now taken by the whalemen. These ships,
as we all know, annually purchaseimported goods
to a large amount. Tho extent of their purchases
it is impossible to determine In abiding to this
s,h;ee. -rLa- -a-;~--:-- -r~ -v.m~.vo Of the
Islands in our paper of February II, we find the
following remarks, made without any referenc
to the tariff, but merely to show that whale ships
took away a large amount Of imported goods on
which FIVE per cent. duty had been paid.
.The question is often asked. How are the heavy balances
agains; the islands paid OF! Here we are shown to have sl,Soo-
Il 70 be found in the amount Of supplies and GOODS iurn,shea :
the whaling feet. No one believes that they supply all their
Of the business OF each wha Ter recruiting here TO be obtained, it
would be found that leach vessel OF the feet takes up in domes-
fr rr1r~-. mi mort 1roK1E nm winch duty been ntG-
annually not less than $1,000. and in former years Csay from 1850
senSe9 ; heS d nms andi these these dran ran are sent abroad 70 pay for
imports. But this, OF course, does not and cannot appear in the
Collectors tables"
Now, if the duty is raised to double or treble
its present rate on whalemen's supplies, will it
not follow that a large part of the foreign goods
taken by $50 American ships on which duty is
now paid, viii after a time be shipped out to
them by their owners, and evade the duty, by
lying in bond, 10 be taken by them as they come
into port? This alone would cause a very sensi-
BILE loss in our revenue, amounting probably to
not less than S25 900. We are more confirmed
in this opinion from the fact that, even with the
present low rate of FIVE per cent, owners of yes
sells are r~esorting to this new plan of supplying
their ships and evading the duty.
Again. ought We not to profit by the expert
ence of older nations? Their experience is, that
all their strength and power, compared with
whom our nation is the smallest of pigmies, has
been insufficient to repress smuggling, where
duties are high enough to induce it. Does any
one suppose that less liquor will be Struggled
under a SO duty than is now done under SIS?
Except in the immediate neighborhood of Homo
lulu and Lahaina, the smuggling of liquor is diff
fcult, since the sale of it to natives is prohibited
and the foreign population in the outer islands is
SO sparce as not to make it an object there to any
great extent. But it is not so with other, partic.
ularly with silk goods, whose identity cannot sc
readily be detected. And who will say that Ii
per cent. is not sufficient inducement to cause an
effort to land now and thea an invoice of silks
in an unguarded place? If this assumption b.
correct, then it follows that a large force must bt