The Hawaiian gazette., 1869-11-03

kind Of work as to deprive Us of our chance.
He will turn them loose upon us-men
brought here for field hands, therefore
keep them in the fields, or deport them
from our shores.
Has the hard times to the mechanic come
about through the sugar c-'ates? Have
the mechanics got the fsht bull by the
horns, when they seek to cripple the plan
tations through a refusal to allow laborers
to be brought in? Is not the troubling
cause, the uncertain market to which we
must, perforce, send our sugars? a market
that is so unsteady, that no planter knows,
when he begins to plant. what will be the
footing Of his sales, or whether he will not
bring up with tremendous loss when the
last keg has been disposed of? The plant
er has really had more to contend with,
more risks to run and obstacles to encoun-
ter than the laborer on his fields, or the
mechanic or any one else, who directly or
indirectly, has benefited by his sugar
growing.
Let those gathered at the public meet
ings, if any will seek better way, turn
their attention and energies to seeking
out and securing paying and certain mar
ket for our sugars. When this is secured
and sugars pay, every trade, work and
labor on these islands will pay also, and
everybody will have plenty of business,
with satisfactory results therefrom. Let
it be borne in mind, that up to the present
time, the results Of sugar planting have
Injured not to owners of plantations, but
to the laborer, the mechanic, and the pop
ulation at large, of these islands. These
latter have received the greater part of
the money invested in the plantations and
derived from the sales Of sugars, while the
former have yet to receive any profits from
their enterprises.
1t was good times for the mechanic, the
merchant, the laborer, and the people at
large, so long as the plantations were in
progress of formation. The capital that
was lying idle, came from its hiding place
and flowed into the pockets of the laborer,
the mechanic, the sailor, and other classes,
as it changed itself from coin, into build
ings, machinery, implements and cultivated
fields. So flowed, also. the capital brought
from other countries to supplement our
own, in building up these estates; so flow
ed, and has continued to flow, up to this
date, all the proceeds Of the sugars taken
from the land and sold in the market for
account of owners.
1t is a significant fact, stated by
speaker at one of the meetings, and one
worthy of consideration by the working
men of these islands, ere they lift their
hands against our farmers-that since 1860,
six million of dollars has been put into the
pockets of the people of this country,
while not single dollar has as yet lodged
in the pockets of owners of many of our
plantations.
Capital may have reason to be discour-
aged, but workingmen have no occasion to
interpose barriers in the way of fnal sue
cess. So long as plantations were being
started and spending capital for that pur-
pose, skilled labor was abundantly employ
ed, and scarcely man came to our
shores that could not find employment;
but the day came when expense must be
shortened, and be made to fall within the
income-the income uncertain, through a
limited market and uncertain prices Work
except that specially required by an estab-
lished plantation, fell off, and skilled labor
could only hope for employment, to the
same extent as before, through the inaug-
uration of new plantations. The times
have not been favorable to such develop
ment, hence the present stagnation-the
hard times to those, whose employment
must depend upon the success of invested
capital.
The hope of our people, one and all,
lies in the increase of the cultivation of
the soil, in sugar or other products, as may
prove feasible and profitable, and to this
We should direct our intelligence and ener-
gies. The day of such increase, we be-
lieve, is near at hand, but in the meantime,
let us not with suicidal hand, strangle the
agricultural children that we already have,
in the vain hope that any one of US will
better himself, his business, or the coun-
try, by such an insane proceeding.
On Thursday evening, there was another
meeting at Kaumakapili Church, pursu-