The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-06-20
100000 for Intcr-IsIand steam

The Legislature passed a bill on Tuesday to en-
courage inter-island steam navigation, appropri-
ating for the purpose the sum of thirty thousand
dollars for the next two years.
The bill provides for the termination of the
charter or monopoly granted to the present CON-
pany, in six months from its passage, after which
the service will be open to competition, and the
present company, or any other that can carry out
the provisions of the law, will be entitled to the
subsidy.
Ii provides for one steamer to run to and
around Hawaii, with power sufficient TO make
each trip in one ,reek. For this service ten thou
sand dollars n year will be paid from the public
treasury. \ smart steamer, like the Gussi. Tel
far, which runs up and down the California
coast, or like many of the coasting steamers that
leave Baltimore and New York daily, can easily
accomplish this service in six days. as the total
length of the route is not over six hundred miles.
Her route should be TO Lahaina, then along the
shore TO Makee's, then to Kailua, Kealakekua,
and along the coast to Kan, then stopping at Ke-
auhou, Hilo, Kohala and Kawaihae, returning
via Maui, and perhaps touching at Molokai.
\ steamer that can make readily eight knots
an hour under q stiff head wind can perform this
service. and rs the subsidy is amply sufficient to
provide her coal, if procured expressly and ut
lowest cost, there is no reason why the enterprise
may not pay well.
The bill also provides for q steamer TO run to
Kauai, touching at every port. and making the
circuit of that island once E week. for which ser
vice five thousand dollars n year will be paid from
the public treasury. As the hiLGuea can easily
do this. II is not unlikely she will occupy this
route. In addition to the Kauai service, she
could make the circuit of Oahu once a fortnight,
and visit Niihau occasionally.
The time has come when these islands should
be provided with good steam service, performed
and promptly. There are times when
communication seems TO be suspended between
Honolulu and Hawaii; when the residents of Hi
10, for instance, are a month without n word from
the metropolis; and frequently other sections of
the group fare in the same way.
Our agricultural and commercial interests can
never prosper with irregular communication. and
the more frequent and reliable it Is. the more
rapid will he the general prosperity. Frequent
Communication furnishes regular mails. increases
travel and ~cxpciitcs business generally, 50 that 4
farmer or trader can do double the business that
be can where he loses weeks in long journeys OF
in waiting for goods or advices from his agents.
Every interest in the group is more or les de-
pendant on speedy inter-island communication,
md viii share in the general prosperity which it
brings. Nor will the schooner coasting trade suf-
Ter in any degree. Whatever increases the gen
,ral business will increase their business. and
they will always be a necessity for the carrying
tnde.
The same remarks apply TO the steam service
these islands and California. The short
ming of time and space in travel and trade do
more than everything else to build DIP agricultur-
Il and commercial prosperity on a sure basis.
This foreign and inter-island steam service, if con-
inued for ten years, will make Of Honolulu a
metropolis. compared with which it is now moth
lie. it once be known that we have frequent
nd regular intcr-i>lani and foreign steam ser
ice, both capital and immigrants viii flow in to
ecuPy and improve cur now waste lands, and
make them bloom ike the garien of Eden.