The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-10-21
The CooIie q nesIion.
Communicated.

: from the enactment Of the rice; law up to the i'm
position of ten dollars per head upon the coolies
Z by the NdtddOr for the privilege Of working in this
country eight years at four dollars per month,
a confirmed many in the belief that it never intended
: TO permit any more coolies, than it could decently
4 prevent. to come into the Kingdom and, had it
2 been consistent in its conduct, it never would.
g Henceforth no sane man will ever be able to guess
its policy, unless he is admitted (Which is not
Z probable) to the awful secrets of State. No politi-
: cal mathematician will ever be able to calculate
its eccentric orbit. or where to find the little
3 joker in case a knowledge of its whereabouts is
! necessary TO his political, religious, commercial or
{ agricultural plans.
: The Government is guilty of one good deed,
! barring the stupid, unbusinesslAe execution of it,
Z and for which all will give them due credit and
i thanks but whether it was a blunder, or whether
] it was the pressure brought to bear on them by
) tn e community through your columns, it matters
4 little, and the motives for which / will not attempt
Z to guess. Perhaps q leading San Francisco jour
! nal, of April last, speaking of these Islands in
Z general, and Z. the coolie trade in particular,
] gives the proper solution, perhaps not let the
1 reader Judge:
" Since the introduction of Chinese coolies into
z the Islands, in 1851, the people there have had q
! wholesome dread of repeating the experiment
Z but, after fruitless efforts to obtain South Sea
! Islanders. defeated in part, probably, in conse-
] uuence of the late Peruvian kidnapping scheme
] carried on there.) they have finally concluded to
] try the celestIals again, and there seems to be no
! other course left for them for the present. Scarcely
: 4 plantation on the Islands has sufficient laborers,
! and some not the half required. Not another
/; plantation can be got under way there with sue
J cess. until there is an influx of laborers. The last
; arrival from the Islands brings US the pleasing in
4 t~elligence that the Government has finally made q
nloUe in the matter by charterng the bark II. W.
4 Wood to proceed to China for a cargo OF coolies
for the plantations.
The late bogus Legislature, acting under the
bogus Constitution of August 20, enacted an I'm
migration law also, one creating a Bureau to
overlook 1t. and at the same time imposed n heavy
penalty on imported rice las your readers will re-
member to feed the incoming Cinnamon. After
all these severe labors, the Government rested.
laid low, and with its eagle eye at the hole,
watched the course of events. No one can say
that the Government intended to defeat the pur-
pose of the planters TO import laborers, yet ii APP
pears very much like it At all events. some of the
planters most in need OF labOrers, must have sus-
pected something Of the kind, since they gave or
ders 10 their agents TO procure Chinamen through
Il weli-known commercial house in this city. which
step brought down inStanter the wrath Of Govern
ment upon them. The matter eliminated in an
mbecilelooking Ordinance No. l. prohibiting all
persons from introducing labOrers into the King
dom without n license from the Bureau of Immi-
grafton, under q penalty Of one hundred dollars
for each laborer So introduced. 1t IS plain that
the King is hostile las is his right TO the introduc-
ton of Chinese laborers, otherwise he would have
withheld his signature from the Rice Law. which
evidently was aimed ut the throat of the enter
prise besides, that law had only natives for adyo-
Gates, in q servile Legislature, with the exception
Of one foreigner, who Is unworthy OF mention. 1t
is reported that the ministry has sailed down this
immigration scheme in the manner above limited
at that is, put themselves square in the road in
order to command the position and if they could
not prevent, why, then yield gracefully to circum-
stances, and make as much political capital as pos
sible out of it among the planters This view of
the case will explain the jealousy of the ministry
and the imbecile Ordinance which, by its whine,
plainly indicates that their position is turned, and
their expected honors and political capital are in
jeopardy. We shall believe Chinese laborers have
been introduced into the Islands when the fact is
reported in the Honolulu journals"
The :" Chinese laborers" have arrived. 1t is as
t%onishing, but there is no denying the bewildering
fact-the San Franciscans will have to admit it;
though, after the Constitution swindle, with its
twelve ron nds ofixed ammunition" its hamalo-
ings. its infinite lyings and j~ugglings, its frst-born
brat, the bogus Legislature" with its illegiti-
mates, the q Rice and "Pigiron'' laws-the whole
thing is income eivable to a sane mind, unless it is
to " make as much political capital out of it as
possible among the planters They will succeed,
if there are any planters who prefer perfdy 10
straightforward honesty.
The Government consoles those most interested,
for the bad management of the Bureau of Immi-
grafton, by telling them of the " atrocities they
have escaped inflicting upon Chinadom by the re
fusal of the Board to enter into any arrangements
with the Peruvian firm in Macao, or in permitting
private parties to open up a coolie trade with this
country which would result in such atrocities as
detailed. - in an extract from the Friend Of China.
This is a very high compliment paid to our mer-
chants and planters. Contra. had some Of the
members of the Board of Immigration, and Mr..
Pastor, Peruvian Consul for the Vest Coast of
China, IF there is such a place. only have knO1on
each others antecedents and future purposes.
there might have been - an arrangement; instead
of a dignifed and Christian refusal, whereby the
public could have coolies cheap. and quite as good
a. those already received. The Gazette has get up
4 dummy and then knocked him over with a great
flourish. forgetting that 4 business man would
never dream of entering into arrangements with
Mr.. Pastor, or the Peruvian Consulate, or even
with any Government, to- furnish us with coolies,
but procure them through legitimate channels
the best reputed commercial houses thcre-as the
Board is now obliged to do, and pay commissions
in addition to the costs of 4 Commissioner, not
withstanding its silly b~oastings. a Merchant
asks, very pertinently, in your last number, & How
do the ALberto'S laborers compare with those
brought by the Mdtador? l believe the latter was
private enterprise" True, and arrangements
could have been made with " private enterprise"
so as TO have none other than coolies like those
brought by the -NdtddOr. and at the same time
saved the expense of a costly Commissioner. the
expense of advance and feeding those who die on
the passage. and the expense of publishing an in
finite amount of Court gable on the subject, as
private enterprise" would have to sustain all