The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1871-09-20

Mr.. EDToR-SIR: Can you apprise me what
object the proprietors of the Pacific Commercial
Advertiser seek IN its publication? Some of its
articles, freely acknowledge, serve to keep our
rulers on the alert as TO the wants of the COM
munity; but others are SO reckless of the public
good, and the information conveyed is sometimes
so erroneous, that the paper itself can not be
relied upon in any important matter.
An independent paper that freely and fear
lessy discusses all questions of public interest,
that exposes jugglery, and throws the full light
Of day upon all dark and doubtful transactions, is
treasure, and should be staunchly supported by
the community in which it circulates, but if it
serve merely as medium for spreading false
reports, if it garble every piece Of information
which is not quite to its taste, if it suffer petty
and personal animOsites to usurp the place of
wholesome criticism, if it endeavor to array class
against class or,'vper-ke, to sting the hand that
nourishes 1t, it becomes a nuisance and worse,
and should be at once suppressed.
do not mean to affirm that the p. c. a. has
voluntarily been guilty of all these sins against
society, but the truth must be told that it is
drifting in the direction of those rocks that will
certainly wreck it unless its course be at once
changed. The Hotel question has already been
discussed in the GAZETTE, but may be pardoned
if allude to the articles that have appeared in
the p. c. a. relative to its future. AT the in
ception of the undertaking, it was open to the
p. c. a, perhaps its duty, to discuss the matter
in all its bearings but once fully resolved on
and carried out, it seems to me that common
decency should have withheld those responsible
for the articles above alluded to, from, to the
best of their ability, rendering it abortive These
articles would have been indecent had the p. c.
A. been professedly an opposition paper, and the
building of the Hotel a Government measure
but when it is considered that the Hotel is
strictly private enterprise, and that it has been
built by those, amongst whom are to be found the
most influential supporters of the paper, the
articles appear in much more odious light.
A week or two ago. it was proclaimed in the
columns of the p. C. A. that our sugar panta-
tons were not paying; that they we're failure
in a word, that their owners were ruined by
them, and that we must look out for some other
export to support US. Is this the truth or its
opposite and are such reports likely to benefit
or to injure us? Let us examine this matter as
briefly as possible, and we shall discover that
there is no foundation for the outcry of the p.
c. A. 1t is well known TO every one on these
Islands that when the cultivation of cane was
first undertaken here there was, in many cases,
insufficient capital, nor was skilled labor or su-
perintendence to be obtained. The natives did
not know how to use the tools of civilized agri-
culture, nor were there men to be had competent
to teach them, or to carry on the business with
efficiency and economy. Merchants left their
Offices clerks their desks, seamen their ships. and
mechanics their benches, to undertake the man
agement of our plantations. Can it be wondered
at that, in consequence, money was poured out
like water, and debts were incurred, which, with
the high rate of interest that ruled here, have
weighed heavily on the plantations ever since, or
till within very short time? But how do mat
tiers standnow? Why, our merchants, mechanics
and others who undertook the direction and man
agement of the plantations have gained expe-
rence, our young men have gone into the business
and have become expert sugar boilers, the planta-
tons are efficiently managed in many cases debts
have been paid of, new money made and invested
in improved machinery, in buying new lands. and
planting trees-I might almost say forests
VI hat causes the continual rise in the price of
real estcte all over these Islands if not the sue
cess Of our agricultural enterprises.
What occasion is there. then, for the Adrertisey.
to vail over our waning fOrtuness Should it
not rather have proclaimed the truth, and SO have
invited the introduction of new capital and en-
ierpise3 Certainly, for one plantation that is