The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-02-10
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY. 10.

WANT OF space compelled us 70 DE SOMEWHAT
more brief than we desired in the commercial
article of our issue of January q, particularly
in the consideration of the tables and statistics
for the last year, which we then presented as com-
piled from various sources. We desire to say q
few words in support of our position with refer
ence to the custom of procuring an estimate OF
80 domestic produce furnished as supplies" to
ships, and suffering it to appear in the list OF
). outward exports" 1t is urged, in answer, that
our port, being simply a recruiting station, whcre
the 's supplies furnished form an item nearly as
great as the actual cargo export, therefore, no
rule obtaining in any other country could posi-
bly apply to ours and that the a~malgamation OF
stores furnished, and cargo exports under one
head, and footed up in one column is, under the
circumstances, strictly correct. We beg to differ.
In former years, it is true, such a position might
be maintained with more force and reason than
now but the day has gone by when the prepon-
derance of business, mercantile interest, ana
capital of the Hawaiian Islands is employed LOT
the advantage of, or by the influence OF, the for
eign whaling fleet. We are not prepared to deny
that to this fleet the islands are indebted for much
of the wealth, enterprise and civilization to which
they have attained butt The development OF our re-
sources, both agricultural and commercial, has
of late wears been rapid, and the child, which
could scarcely creep but a few years ago,
can now stand alone and protect itself without
the aid of the nurses arm.
We are aware that the expression OF this opin-
ion will be regarded by many in Honolulu as the
rankest commercial heresy. Not a few OF our
neighbors regard the whaling feet as the very
life's blood of the islands, without whose quick
eninr and all-potent influence trade would fly our
shores. agriculture stagnate and die out, our
popuIation retrogade in civilization, and our
national government resolve itself into Its orlginal
elements. Let us see if such a lamentable state
of things would SO surely follow the withdrawal
of the foreign whaling feet-even supposinS such
an event to be possible, which it is not-notwIth-
standing that the San Francisco journalists play
such entieing strains on their harp of a thousand
strings.
IF figures alone would be deemed sufficient
nroof of our position, we have them at hand in
the annual Custom-House statistics just publish
ed by the Collector-Genera 1t will be seen that
the total of domestic supplies furnished to whalers
and to all merchantmen drawn hither for cargoes
of oil, or in any way in the interest of the whal-
ing feet in 1858, amounts to no more than y
per cent. of tie total exports of domestic pro-
ducts.
IL is well for us to scan closely our agricultural
and commercial capabilities, in view of the fact
that the North Pacific whaling fleet will, in all
probability, actually fall off TO a great extent IN
the next two or three years. 1t is conceded that
the business of whaling as now carried on out OF
New Bedford is a losing operation. Not one ship
in three or four comes out even on the voyage. 1t
needs no seer therefore to f~oretell a rapid diminu-
ton of the fleet. The best informed persons in
Honolulu estimate that the fleet of 1859 will be
IS ships less than that of 1858.
1t is further admitted, that one Honolulu
whaler is of more real, solid benefit to Honolulu
than three or four foreign whalers. With these
facts before us, it is hard to avoid the conclusion
from the foreign whaling fleet. after all, but that
our maintenance springs mostly from our own in
ternal resources. We are becoming an exporting
country of some note our sugars received the
highest awards in Paris and California our hides
and wool begin to be quoted in the Eastern mar
ket reports our coffee tickles the palates of con-
noisseurs at the East, and even in Europe Cali
fornia stufs her beds with our pulu, and luxu-
rates on our sweet potatoes and Germany burns
our oil and makes hooped skirts out of our bone.
None of these interests could possibly be affected
by the presence of a foreign whaling feet, while
it's absence might work to their advantage in a
wonderful degree.
We know OF some persons of sound sense and
Judgment who have the temerity to suggest that
the Islands might be permanently benefited by
the gradual withdrawal of the foreign whaling
feet from our shores. They ask. Why is it
that agriculture does not receive the attention
that it merits-thats so many fruitful fields are
suffered to lie fallow, and planting enterprises are
with difficulty set in motion by the sharpest spur
ring and the most urgent persuasion? Why is 1T
that a marine railway is not built in our central
and admirably located harbor of Honolulu Why
is it that steam does not find its way into our in
ter-island service In a word, why is it that in
commercial and agricultural enterprise we are so
far behind the age? Some would answer. because
the government is unstable, and the treasury
bankrupt but the true reason is, that a vast
amountof the capital and influence of our metrop-
oils is set apart and devoted exclusively to the
foreign whaling feet. Money enough to keep
half a dozen steamers padding briskly among our
Islands is boarded up month after month for the
use and behoof of this same feet; and, worse than
all, so much of our business talent and energy are
directed that way, and swallowed up in the vortex
of cares attendant upon the annual incoming of
the feet, that no time is found to listen TO the
most glowing project for developing our island re-
sources, and no money spared to its projectors"
This argument, the reader will observe, is not
our own, and we cannot wholly subscribe to it;
but it is well to study both sides of the question.
But the question is not altogether such a
matter of guess-work or of mere opinion we have
data before us from which to draw our conclu-
sions. The foreign whaling feet has actually
fallen off, year by year, since 1853, at least one
third, in the aggregate-and what have been the
frighful results? Our domestic exports are
x-.lIoI .-l 60 :-.o.Aa l:.:.:.loI L.. o.a-