The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-08-09
ANGORA GOATS.

are and VIII be, for the next half a dozen CEN
turies, fitted for nothing beyond the pasturage of
goats. The sides Of Hawaii's great mountains,
covered with slowly decomposing lava, DO not
afford sufficient pasture for sheep or cattle, but
goats thrive on the scrub that grows there, and
increase at a wonderful rate. Heretofore the
business Of raising goats has been followed for
the sake Of the skins only, many thousands Of
these being annually exported. But an oppor-
tunity will be afforded shortly to utilize our
hocks Of goats, that We trust there will be found
the enterprise among US to improve. We allude
to the project Of the importation mere of pure
Angora or Cashmere goats. We received by the
last steamer a letter from Messrs. Thos. Butter
field * Son. of Hollister, Monterey Co. Califor-
MIA, in which they state their intention to pay
these islands 4 visit with a view to the introduc-
ton here Of some of their pure breeds, which are
directly from their native country.
The far famed Angora goat, from whose silky
fleece is manufactured the fine Mohair goods, is
originally a native of the ancient Cappadocia, in
Central Asia Minor. Its coat is invariably a
brilliant, dazzling white, ~lustrous, when secured,
as silk, OF FURNISHED metal. Its coat is Of one
Sort, mainly long silky hair, with an under
growth of pure, white down, or fur. The hair
hangs down in beautiful spiral curls, often sweep
ing the ground, and is ten or twelve inches long,
and the feeces range from four to nine pounds
weight. The curis are regarded as evidence of
superiority Of blood, and fineness of the fleece.
The Messrs. Butterfeld inform US that they have
obtained for six grades of the wool from their
flock, the produce Of three-fourths TO pure bred,
from 40 cents to $l.2O per pound. The pecu-
. II - rI - Il l.
lands on grass, it produces an inferior fleece, but
produces the finest fleece when fed on the noun
tains where there is little or no moisture and
nothing grows but scrub. a Mr.. Connolly, who
resided for some time in the East, thus writes TO
the Asiatic Society of London, in regard to the
Angora goats:
sAfter the goats are a year old they are sheared,
the females yielding about four pounds, and the
males eight or nine pounds. The female fleece is the
best, though they are mixed for the market, except
the tWo-year old female fleece, which is kept together
with the picked hair of other white goats (of which
five pounds may be selected out of a thousand) for
the most luxurious shawls and delicate articles, so
ingeniously wrought that it puzzled the manufac-
turers of Leicester to tell where the workmanship
commenced or where il ended. Some of these stuffs
were so elegantly wrought, so brilliant in their
colors, which this hair takes and retains more
readily than silky that they were worn by the Turk
ish ~grandees, and when exported commanded almost
fabulous prices in the markets of Europe
We are satisfied that the breeding of these
woolbearing goats in various parts of these ISL
ands, will be a practicable business, and may be
made n profitable branch of agricultural labor ;
and that the introduction of this goat into the
islands is of national Importance, and should be
encouraged by Government. The new enterprise
will not conflict with any other industry, sheep
raising, or cotton.
The ANTI-CEssIoN PARTY is very Industrious in
its endeavors to influence the native mind, and
not over scrupulous, when history is referred to,
to give the whole truth. \ great handle is made
Of the case of the aborigines of America, and
the Hawaiians are taught that they have been
made the victims of systematic injustice by the
United States Government. Thus the orator of
the public meeting at Kaumakapili last June
told his hearers, that The scanty few who re-
main of the original inhabitants spend their lives
in roaming through the forests still left to them
or become servants to their conquerors.' The
inference in the native mind, (and which was in
tended) was that the cession of Pearl Harbor to
the United States Government would result in
reducing the Hawaiians to the same condition as
the American Indians. 1t would not have served
the orators purpose, nor does it enter into the
plan of those who are now improving the false
impression then made, to say that those abo-
regimes were, and have continued, with few ex-
ceptions, wild savages, fierce, cruel and untame-
able, between whom and the Hawaiians no COM
parison whatever can be instituted that the
United States Government has never, since its
organization, " conquered " any of their lands,
but has invariably acquired them by purchase
that they have ever been treated by the Govern
ment as its wards, for the care and maintenance
of whom millions of dollars arc annually appro-
priated. This would be the truth, but it does
not suit the purpose of the Opposers of reel
procity to state it to the Hawaiians.