The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-03-26
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
Rural Sketches
of the 5alraiian csslands.
Lahaina Revisited.

With three good packets running to Lahaina
all starting the same evening, passengers for
Maui often find it difficult to choose which to
take, each has its recommendations, patrons
and admirers. Steam, however, with us out
weighed, and for certainty and speed must
always take the palm, SO, armed with n pair
OF sadde-bags, and accompanied by troop of
juveniles bent making the most of a two
weeks vacation, jumped on to the deck of
the steam schooner Annie Laurie, Capt. McGre-
gor, and in Il trce steaming out of Homo
lulu harbor, windward-bound. Eight or ten
cabin passengers, for whose accommodation the
vessel could only boast six berths, with a crowd
of deck passengers, thick that. one could
neither sit. walk stand without ireading on
some poor mortalis corns, convinced us that we
must adapt ourselves to circumstance while on
board. and that inter island travel "a 1864 is
hardly better than in 1874. The coz forts and
luxuries enjoyed on our coasting vess4ss has been
recently SO graphically described by Z our own
correspondent in the adventures Sof Phe-
links" that we need not recount siem here
They the everywhere. I:ae Annie
Laurie is only about so tons burthe>., and pro-
baby the smallest ocean steamer aflosls in this OF
any other ocean. Capt McGregor has poor
material with which to afford comfort to his
numerous passengers, and at timess must feel
rather keenly the dscomforts to which they
Especially ladies) are compelled to sSbmIt yet
he ful6lls all that he promises. an'S that is To
make 80 schedule time In smooth yea with Il
light head wind, sne makes easily t.Jr knots
per hour. Leaving Honolulu ut Al p. NJ, she
anchored at Lahaina at s 4. NJ, snext day,
which is nearly up to the KiIauea's t-9age time.
Still the travelling public will rejoice when the
latter is announcer ready to resur,s, ier trips,
which we hear will be about the lst ;G May
There is charm in voyaging around these
'' little green isles OF own,'' which out
weighs the discomforts endured even the most
uncomfortable of the coasters, and which, abroad
especially, are read with peculiar interest and
create i'm the heart Of the tourist long-sought
wish, which in after years is often gratifed by
actual experience. Last summer, during short
stay in San Francisco, while coming over the
numbers of an English monthly, in the we'll
stocked rooms of the Mercantile Library, our
eye caught article headed 8 To Lahaina and
back by steam," which had such familiar look,
that we glanced over it, and found it was copied
from the Honolulu Advertiser of 1861. Calling
for the twelve or fourteen back numbers of the
serial. we found in them less than five
rural sketches copied from our humble out
of-the-way Journal into a metropolitan monthly.
We refer to it simply to show that island
scenery and sketches possess an interest abroad
which repays the publication of them. We
shall therefore transcribe our notes to fill an
outside column or two, even should they possess
no local interest.
Iahaina has too often been described to need
repetition here. Suffice il to say that yOyagers
always glad to step ashore from the small
schoOners, and from the parching sun encoun-
tered the deck, enjoy the cool sea-breeze that
perpetualIy fans the town. To an occasional
visitor, Iahainl grows older. and is putting
her gray hairs her houses wear rustIer, gloom
Ter look her 'dobie walls melting slowly
away fences fare hard. and even that which sur
rounds the :. City Hail. the pride of the second
city of Hawaii, is dilapidated to be dis
grace to the town if not to the government
And yet, for all that, one can see Improvement
even under the dusty robe that she always wears.
The green that covers and surrounds her seems
10 grow more green, with FIELDS extending to the
right and left and up the hill-sideS, wherever
cane will grow. Sugar cane is the salvation of
Lahaina. and 10 its cultivation, large portion
of the soil and of the inhabitants Is now devot-
ed. We have not heard any estimate of the
area under cultivation, but should judge 1t To be
not far from 1000 acres. 1t grows here most
luxurantly, yielding when well cultivated three
and four tons of sugar to the acre. To grind
this growing crop two mills have been erected,
of which we shall notice first
The Pioneer Mill
Of MesSrs. Campbell and Turton, which has
been in operation about Is months The mill,
which is of 36-inch cylinders, made by Mr..
Hughes of this city, is driven by mule power,
and is capable of grinding sufficient to
make average ton of sugar per day.
From small beginnings, with an inc edibly small
capital, the proprietcrs have gone C.l increasing
and improving. till now they have sn establish
ment that turns out fine sugar as any the
Islands. One of the firm being carpenter. the
other mason, they have done az their own
work, even to putting up the build and set
ting the kettles. The perseverance, industry,
and Yankee ingenuity that have controlled this
enterprise from its outset have ere kned it with
success. One fact is worth noticI4;-that they
make the best of sugar without w;t other
fuel ever having been used but drit trash (the
pressed cane after il leaves the milky For this,
LabaIna enjoys peculiar advantages fthe dry and
sunny atmosphere enabling the mif to rely
trash with much certainty. This S. IL will turn
out about 300 tons of sugar this y(s
The I.ahaina Sugar Co. ESilI,
as Its name purports, is Il comISny concern,
organized under the joint stock Z mpany act,
capital about $50, 900. The stockl4s ,ield both
IN Lataina anu Honolulu. Mr.. c. r. Wood is
me local manager. and Messrs. Hos ,:nlaeger and
"caPenborst, OF this city, are the "gents. The