The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-03-22
THE PACIFIC
Commercial 3OOrrtisrr.
MARCH %.
THE

\ commercial and business revulsion such as
il evidently approaching this island community,
ordinarily results from 4 combination Of circum-
stances, over which individuals can hardly be
said 10 have any control. It's cause, seems no
doubt to many Of us n matter of minor concern.
The man whose wagon is overturned in the gut
ter, is in no humor to discuss the philosophy of
accidents. You cannot make him acknowledge
that "wbatever is, is right" or to understand
with the poet, that partial evil" can be uni
versal good Good or bad fortune has a Won
derful effect upon the spirits, as seen in the oft
quoted instance Of the melancholy fellow who on
account Of poverty went to hang himself, but
finding by chance a bag of gold, flung away the
rope and went merrily home; but he that hid
the gold, when he missed it, hanged himself with
the rope which the other man had left. In our
threatened adversely it will be well for us to re-
member the example and philosophy of David
Z" While the child was yet alive, L tasted and
wept; but being now dead, why should l fast?
Can | bring him back again."
Now from the tone of the foregoing it may be
deemed that we have abandoned hope of attain
ing the panacea for our ills, the Reciprocity Treaty.
Not quite so; although it must be confessed that
with our divided counscls and the want of enter
prise on the part of the Ministry, the prospects
for it's ultimate ccomplisbmentar are quite sbadowy.
We have yet to discern the indications of earnest
intelligent will to make the necessary vigorous
effort. without which success cannot be achieved.
And therefore il is better that we at once proceed
to look the situation squarely in the face.
And what is the situation? \ temporary de-
preston of the principal market for our principal
article of production, puts us all into a tremor,
and we forebode financial ruin and disaster. Our
agricultural interests must surely be based on an
unstable foundation, when the first reverse expo
rienced gives reason for such approximations. And
an examination into the history and system of our
principal agricultural operations will show that
this view is generally correct. In what country
wou9it be reasonably expected that n farmer
would get rich or even hold his head above water,
who began by borrowing at a high rate of interest
the money with which he planted and gathered
his crop; who paid freight to the port Of ship
ment; commissions and charges to an agent
there; freight again to market; and finally, COM
missions and charges to the seller of his produce?
And yet this is precisely what the majority of our
sugar planters have been doing all along, and it has
becomes 20 thoroughly the system with us, that there
r. E o~ 50 NN
better, so far as the planters are concerned. The
history Of sugar planting in these Islands com
prehends the story of numerous failures-of es-
tates upon which great sums of money have been
expended, and then the proprietor compelled to
sell for n 1.-THE of the cost to some new man, who
builds adyantageously perhaps for a while upon
the ruins of the first. Moneyed men assert that
plantations are extra-hazardou absorbers of cap
ital, and hence the continued high rate of interest.
Under such circumstances, no one will wonder
that Reciprocity. or almost anything else that will
bring the needed relief, is earnestly desired. Nor
will 1t be strange that men who have struggled
and toiled for years under such disadvantages and
should be peculiarly sensitive when the
system Of labor upon which they are compelled to
depend is attacked, and as they claim, misrepre-
scented.
But while this By no means fattering statement
applies to our agricultural operations as a general
rule, there are, we are glad to know, some agree
able exceptions. And these are notably in the
cases OF small planters and farmers. Such are to
be found here and there throughout the country,
who. beginning with moderate means and modest
expectations, have subsisted without borrowing,
and thus escaped the c~orroding influence of inter
est that attaches to larger operations. These, by
close personal application. thorough tillage and
economical management, have, in a number of in
stances that might be cited, been slowly but
surely laying the foundations for fortunes. To
them, the low price of Island produce ia San
merely signifies a diminution or a cessa-
of profits for a time. which can be borne pa
tiently and hopefully, and with no anticipation Of
q ruinOus result.
The case however is vastly different with the
owner of an estate (~perhaps an absentee, - who
pays q good round salary TO a manager) who sees
a huge interest account accommodating monthly.
With him, the depression signifies a threatened
of everything-the labor of years and the
hopes Of a lifetime.
Thus much Of our agricultural industries,
have evidently been carried on under a
system that, judged by the immutable laws Of
cause and effect, must end in loss and Disaster
rs in too many cases it has already done-un-
saved from the impending revulsion by the
extraordinary measure. of q treaty of Reciprocity
with the United States.
Agriculture is tho mother Of commerce and