The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1873-07-16

not advisable that the incorrect should. by being
uncontradicted, or unopPUsed, get possession Of
the pabIic misd. We, at least, are cot disposed
to 60 back to the good old tines" when 3" as
many laborers as were required could be obtained
for rial a day" "when merchants and settlers
were few, aud foreign commodities were high"
which seem to Mr.. Rhodes SO desirable.
Let US proceed to his proposition, next 10 i'm
portapce if not in order. Parties TO be benefit
ted are: First-the City or so persons engaged
in the sugar business, who are TO have remission
of duties in the custom houses Of the United
States. Second-the owners OF real estate here,
who are to make fabulous sums on the increase
in its value" The third party to be benefited
being the United States. Mr.. Rhodes remarks
on the benefit 70 accrue TO that ambitious Repub-
lic we propose to consider in another issue; for,
as we have SAID before, having once got the oppor
tunity TO meet the adversaries of the proposed
measure in the open field, we do not intend, by
any means to abandon the field TO them. But
our fellow citizens. both Of native and foreign
birth, will Judge whether the assertion is true,
that, of those here the fifty planters and the
real estate holders will be the only persons deriv
ing benefit from the projected arrangement. And
first, we have been told, on what we regard as
very good authority, that if the negotiators of
the former treaty had had the authority to accede
TO the eession Of Pearl River. or Hilo Bay, there
would have been little or DO difficulty 10 making
the treaty.
The language of Mr.. Rhodes which we have
quoted above, certainly contrasts most remarka-
bly, with the petition of over four hundred Of our
citizens, each one of whom is equally competent
to Judge as Mr.. Rhodes, and all of them together
much more SC. Their petition reads as follows:
We believe that the prosperity of the nation, is
at the present time Identical with that of the sugar
planters. The sugar plantations, 10 our humble
opinion, pay one half or more, of all the wages
paid in the country TO their field abOreTs. lunss,
coopers, blacksmiihs, engineers, sugar boilers,
managers, &c, besides furnishing work which Keeps
our iron works keg aud barrel factories, blacksmith
and wheelwright shops In notion and furnishes the
freight both To and from Honolulu, and gives EN-
ployment 10 a large humber OF men in Honolulu,
in handling said freight They put into circulation
the money which enables the country tradesman 10
keep his shop open by giving him a market for his
goods, which otherwise be would not have. They
are q benefit 10 every district In which they are
started, BY making q market for labor, offering re-
munerative wages TO every man inclined to work,
aud gradually dssipating such evils as are caused
by an idle life"
1t is bold undertaking on the part Of any
speaker, in the face of petition SO numerously
signed, by gentlemen of different pursuits on
the islands. TO say that the matter is of interest
to fifty planters only, and to owners of real estate
Can we place the matter in any way more clearly
than it is placed by the extract above quoted Is
it not true that every man employed on board
coaster, every stevedore, every man employed in
trucking sugar, every mechanic. every tradesman,
machiue-shop barrel factories, rice cultivator,
taro planter. and, indeed, every branch of trade
is interested in the prosperity of the planters +?
And if these propositions are true-we may ask
again, why Mr. Rhodes saw fit to make the
charge that only the Fifty" etc, were to be
benefited, when it would be but simple justice
for him to assert, what one Of his intelligence
must know, that every person in the community
is and must be interested in the prosperity Of
the main industry.
Shall we again, Our Hawaiian fellow citizens,
return 10 the good olu umes, Wnen your iaoOr
was =" rial day ;" merchants and settlers were
few and foreign commodities we're high aud
when, we may add, communication with Maui
was once week, to Hawaii once a month, not to
speak Of a passage to and from Kauai by the
John Young and other like clippers of antique
model. Hurrah for 4" the good old times" with |
only shirt and marc and rial day" and the
rial paid in cotton cloth at fifty cents a gard;
for you know. Hawaiians, that foreign commodi-
lies we're high, and if you INDUCED in the pur-
chase of soap it was twenty-five cents per pound
thus taking two days TO earn pound of soap.
Next week we shall advert to The dignity we |
shall have arrived at. when we shall he a stand |
ing menace to the world" and how the world will |
be much afraid aud other items contained in the |
honorable geDtemap's speech.