The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-05-30

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furnish Us with greater mail facilities By more
frequent communicates than the steamers. They
can supply al the demands Of trade here, and
viii be = cheek upon tie steamer in regulating
the prizes Of freight and passage. To prove that
they arrive with sufficient regularity IL answer
the wants Of e-mmerce, let Us examine the sta
tistic. Daring the year lS65, there were 6i
arrivals of sailing vessels from San Francisco.
OF these - were packets and So were transient
vessels. The packets arrived with grea; regular
ity. not les than two, often three. in every month,
except August, and during that month four tran
siens vessels arrived The general average was
ten days time between the arrival Of the several
packets This at first blush would APPEAR amply
sufficient for all the purposes Of our limited com
meree- During the year 1867, up 70 the time
the Hai0 commenced running, the packets ar
rived with equal regularity
The arrivals from the Ist day of September.
1867. % the l4th Of Nav, lS6S, were as follows.
VIZ Packets IS. or an average Of % per annuul.
a. against - in 1856: the Idaho during that
time made seven trips. Three packets arrived in
September, and two per month for November,
January. March and April, and one Per month
for the remainder
Now If the subsidy l. granted, IT Is proposed to
put on en- additional steamer. that will make
eight additional trips per annum. Would this
be an equivalent 70 The 20 trips per annum OF the
packets? Instead Of merely two packets per
month, W. would have the niggardly eight trips
Of a steamer in - months, and for that deficiency
IN our business we are asked to pay the sun Of
So. 900 Ter annum. What increased business
would warrant this driving the packets from the
trade?
\ practical, therefore q common sense question.
here presents itself. To what amount would the
business of the Islands have 70 be increased, or
augmented by the additional steamer. TO warrant
this Government in paving a subsidy of So. 900
Ter annum? That sum amounts 10 = tax of a
fraction les than 80 cents per head for every in
habitant Of the Islands-of all our population.
At the rate of ! per cent, to justify this expendi-
ture, 1t should increase our commercial business
: 2,5O0,O00 per annum. Such an increase Will
not be seen by the present generation, unless pro-
dueed by some extraordinary revolution in the
laws Of trade.
The reasoning produced before the ommitt
l. fallaciOus a. il regards the interest and insur-
anee saved TO our commerce by the additional
steamer and eight trips per year. The maximum
amount calculated j. SIS 900 per annum. This
includes both steamers-the one already secured
and the one proposed under the subsidy. The
amount should be calculated on the additional
steamer alone, and ten-eighteenths should be de-
Quoted. This would leave a margin Of SlO,O 600
lost IL freight on the article of sugar alone, 10 be
Offset against the supposed or speculative amount
saved.
Ii Is urged that the price of goods to the con-
sumner would be cheapened here and in San Fran
cisco, by the rapidity of communication. This Is
sheer folly-nOt even good nOnsense-unless ii is
shown that there i also a reduction of freights.
IL could only be done on the principle of the
Yankee boys, whose mother stripped them naked,
put them in q closet, and they made IS off of
each other in swapping clothes.
In commerce the natural tendency OF capital is
TO draw trade, and the centre Of capital neces-
sarily creates commercial Dependencies. If we
are bound TO San Francisco by a line of steamers
without competition. are We not at once created
a commercial dependency? Especially Is this the
case where cur sugar planters have the cnttle-fsh
arms Of the sugar rehners around them.
Our proximity to San Francisco secures Us that
market over all other competitors, even by sail
vessels and l know of no particular necessity Of
exporting oftener than twice a month, which op-
portunity Is almost invariably offered By the
packets, and more frequently by transient vessels.
An examination of the statistics of sugar-prUduc-
ing countries will exhibit the fact that much the
largest proportion is shipped in sailing vessels.
We can save the money proposed 70 be given
az a subsidy 10 improve our roads and harbors.
Let the one steamer now secured for zen years,
and the supplemental line Of packets and transient
vessels, in their healthful competition, carry on
our commerce, and if in the course Of time our
resources and trade will warrant it. an additional
steamer will be placed on the line without a sub
sidy. This dollhouse operation Of forcing trade
commerce into a particular channel has al
ways operated badly, and for the benefit OF the
at the expense Of the many. 1t will prove
deleteriOus 10 the prosperity Of these Islands, and
make our port one of the mere ramifeations of
the commerce Of San Francisco, without indie
pendence, without nationality. We want free
trade and sailors rights.
Twenty-Five thousand dollars expended in max
Ing a good road over the Pail, would result in a
and lasting benefit 10 these people. 1t
would not be fritlered away in ehimerical steam
speculations, but would endure for the good of
the country, until some grand CONFUSION Of IA '
rent the Island asunder. $4,000 expended
IN opening roads ami making q harbOr in Hama
kua, the Eden of Hawaii, would tend more TO :
the products of the Islands than half a
dozen steamers. Ii would invite and lay open 10
cultivation the fairest and best cane. cotton, cof-
Zee and fruit lands in the Kingdom, which are Z
row closed, shut out and neglected by their in
accessibility for the want Of roads and harbors.
can accomplish this without e%ntailing a debt
IN posterity, which l hold We have no right to z
10. We viii thus open the way for products that
will invite steamers without a subsidy. In Ha-
vail and Maui, some of the finest sugar lands in