The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-09-13
Reciprocity

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right, though he may present nothing new.
/ am in that situation, and feel impelled to cray
a place in your columns at the present junctur
where the true policy is 50 apparent and Opposition
seems 50 bigoted and suicidal.
Without rchearsing the statistics OF cur huancia
condition, which have been frequently and clearl
laid before the public, I win assume as granted
That the expenses Of our government are neces
sarily large.
That We ara encountered with a comparative
large debt.
That the native population is being rapidly deci
mated.
That We can expect but small revenues in fu,ur,
from the whaling feet-and lastly
That the greater portion of the capital Of the king.
dom is invested in the production of sugar,
In the latter interest, which was began in the
primitive manner, many experiments have been tried
and fortunes lost, until our planters may now be said
to have arrived at nearly perfection in the manufact-
ure OF the most profitable sugars. The plantations
afford employment TO at least two-thirds of the work
ing population they have struggled against many
obstacles Of climate. and others. Owing to various
causes, the demand for labor has been so much in
excess of the supply that wages have risen from Sc
per month in 1850 to $40 and over in 1878, while
the machinery necessary for plantations costs fifty
per cent. more than the same would have cost twenty
years ago. They (the planters) have submitted to
existing p~rejudices and poured on their roads or
otherwise let run TO waste, that portion of their pro-
duct from which, by distillation, the planters in the
West Indies, Manila and elsewhere pay the entire
expenses of the plantation. Our plantations conse-
quently having to contend in foreign markets at a
great disadvantage are-with but few exceptions, in
embarrassed observation-disclosures with heavy
debts, bearing an exorbitant rate of interest, and
from the present outlook have but disheartening
prospects, unless relieved by the measure under dis
eussion or q similar one. Have they not a right to
expect all the protection and aid that legislation or
diplomacy can afford? They ask it. but it will bene-
mt all. Why can the government or people hesitate
or higgle about q policy-a PROJECT which will give
life to every portion of the islands and infuse new
vlgor into our now stagnant markets. 1t will be in-
quired-how will Reciprocity repeople these islands
with the remuneration for past losses and relief
from present encumbrance which will follow the con-
summation of this project, our planters must not
suppose that they will have a monopoly of the field.
Capitalists will be attracted hither-new plantations
will arise and smoke-stacks will be as numerous as
steeples along our shores. The thousands of acres
available for cane culture will no longer lie idle. But
1t may be asked-where will these plantations yet to
have their being get laborers? They will be enabled
to import them, or in other words, to hold out such
inducements and take such active measures in the
encouragement of immigration that they will be SUP
piled. They will do what neither our planters nor
the government are in a position to do-they will
and can afford to spend money freely to that end.
The diminution of the Hawaiian race will be arrested
They are OU 1aniunofa1 b,, oil 4to ,;f..l -
everywhere else, have followed the contact Of the
Europeans with abOrigines, and but partially pro-
vided lowing to their limited means) with the pro-
tections of civilization. The increased demand for
labor will inevitably raise the price of wages. The
iaoorers' IN every capacity, will have more money,
better food, habitations. and in fact. the comforts
of life.
In my mind, and ! am not alone in the opinion.
the great prevalence of leprosy is in part due to the
fact that so large a portion of the natives live on a
non-nitrogenous diet. They eat too little beef! They
are too poorly clad and too poorly housed. They
have not the endurance of the Hawaiians of one
hundred years ago. These evils would be corrected.
to a great extent, could the natives afford it. Now.
we know that it is their first ambition to have their
families well-clad, then they aspire to a wooden
house, and so on obtaining one thing after the other
as fast as their means will permit. But still, among
the ranting demagOgues who are endeavoring to make
capital out of their opposition to everything that
from other than their own barren brains
some assert That none but the planters will be
by this measure Can a man of ordinary
Intelligence look in his own glass (not his whiskey)
and make that statement without blushing at the
lie! Where does the planters money go Where
the money come from that pays Mr.. Spouter or
MIR. Glib, or from whence come the dimes and quar-
that swell the contributions at the church collec-
ions? Does it come from blighted coffee and a few
acres of rice? No but from sugar, much abused
sugar.
There are pseudo-patriotic frauds who 20 about
Ind endeavor strenuously to prejudice the minds Of
he natives and others against the proposed cession,
to the pride, the amor patriq, of some,
n n spread eagle . style as to parting with their
and touching the fear Of others by
that it is but the first step towards an
to the United States. have myself heard
he most senseless and groundless objections raised
Imong the natives in speaking on the subject. They,
+ themselves, can know but little of the benefits
7hich would accrue to the kingdom from the simple
of a well appointed naval station at
Pearl River, or ut any other suitable place, aside
reciprocity. Should that alone be the condition
nd object of the cession, it would prove advanta-
,eous, and at once remunerative to the islands. In
egard to ultimate annexation-the proposed cession
you'd postpone the question into a future so remote
hat it is not worth present consideration, or much
alarm.
The people of the United States have shown by not
~ccepting the Island of San Domingo, that very
reat inducements must exist before they will take
nder their protection any foreign territory. What
can these islands offer after the establish
lent of the naval station here or elsewhere in the
'acifc? San Domingo is much nearer the United
tates coast, and from her resources a far more de-
irable acquisition than these widely separated lava
hounds.
Indeed it is doubtful whether the United States
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