The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1862-04-24
Totals $50 le4 ~ s,1o4s a. SEQ loo so sl62 2Is p

IOtals--..-- S%-O,lS IL S}lOf4so o. eOy.+UO % Slo22lS 2
Average imports for lst quarter for four years.. $685. 9I s.
The figures as given by US materially vary
from thuse published in the Polynesian ; for
instance, the free goods for 1862 are stated
wrong. Ali of the totals for 1861, as given
in the POlyneSidn, are t1hOHy incorrect. The
correct figures are given by US above.
Finding that the table published in the Poly
nesiGn, differed materially from the trut.., we in
quired of the Collector-Genera to whom its
compilation Was credited. to learn how it had
been prepared and the cause of the discrepancy,
and found that neither he nor any one IN the
Custom House had prepared it, or is in any way
responsible for it, but that it had been got up, as
is usually the case, by one of the attaches of the
official organ, from statistics placed before him
as they have been placed before us.
We have long since learned to place no conf
dence whatever in any figures that may appear
in the PoIynesian but what sLall be said of 4
journal which thus endeavors to palm of errone-
Gus statistics over the signature of one whose
name can only carry confidence with it? Is this
forgery or not? If it is not, it comes so very
near to it, that it would take more than 4 PhiIa-
delphia lawyer to clear the accused Even had
the statistics been perfectly correct, it would still
have been an improperly to publish them as
prepared by the Collector, :" when such was not
the case. The public have already had enough
evidence of the incapacity of the Polynesian to
speak of anything correctly, but Eere they have
ocular evidence of intended dishonesty if not
the basest forgery. This too, in a journal that
receives aid from the public treasury and is look
ed to as the ministerial organ.
The statistics of imports for the pas. quart er,
thorDb Cb,,ripy tha ,pc-aa.o ,rI;oI, 80. ox..o.oJ
over the preceding year, still exhibit a great de-
cline from the years lS59-6O, and 4 falling off of
nearly $50, 600 even from the acreage for the
past four years. Our new restrictive commercial
policy nearly Frustrated our foreign commerce
in 1861, and though it is natural that there
should be some Improvement during the present
year. il will be a long time before it so reyives as
TO exhibit the prosperity of the preceding five or
six years. As long as it is continued, our COM
MERGE must be restricted to the smallest necessities
Of the people, and the shipping visiting us will
be limited To the fewest number required to
import our goods, Notwithstanding the ludicrous
efforts of our neighbor to swell his port statistics
by including in them all the ships clearing from
San Francisco for China ports.
On the other hand. a free policy imparts viva
city to commerce and trade, confidence among
merchants and traders, and n general prosperity
among all classes which no restrictive system can
ever equal. Even should our revenue from Gus
toms after n lapse of years be again brought up
to the standard of the five years preceding the
change, that would be a very frail argument in
favor of it, inasmuch as, had the old system
been continued, il is reasonable to expect that a
steady increase would have been the result, while
every branch of our national prosperity would
have been benefited by the increased traffic and
of our ports. With nations rs with
it is q fundamental axiom of success,
that the larger the number of customers brought
20 their doors, the larger will be the amount of
business trs ~sacted and consequently of profit
md prosperity. The opposite is the policy now
pursued by our Ministry-small trade and as few
ustomers as possible with heavy taxee on foreign
and email revenues. |