The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-06-21
LOAN.

The suggestion recently made IN these columns.
that our Government undertake the negotiation
Of q loan abroad, has attracted considerable nt-
tentioD. The concrete fact which forcibly ad-
dresses itself to our understandings on this sub
ject is this-that while we are paying from nine
to twelve per cent. for money required to carry
on our agricultural operations, we can, by 4
proper effort Of the Government, procure all we
need for this object and for carrying out much
needed internal improvements, at from three to
six per cent.
The theory Of Government with 4 country
situated like this, must be quite different from
that which obtains elsewhere. In populous COM
munities, where the industries that support the
body polite are established on settled bases, the
axiom justly prevails that that country is best
governed which ia governed the least. This
theory, while it applies perfectly to such a coun-
try as Great Britain, and with but little less GER
tsinty to the United States, cannot, for very OBJ
vious reasons, be suited to Hawaii. In almost
every particular in which the principle of passive
non-interference with private enterprise in de-
Veloping national resources is a rule with those
governments, the converse ought to obtain here,
ONhSA VAC sHS - - ~E@AA bCA~AAg
instead of a positive good. We claim therefore,
that it is the province Of the Government ia
every possible way to actively forward the de-
velopment of the agricultural enterprises OF the
country, by using its power and the means at its
disposal for the introduction of capital and popu-
lation-tbe two great needs of the country-and
both of which we are persuaded are obtainable.
\ proper appreciation of the situation, with
sound and far-seeing economy, should prompt
our Government to take speedy measures for the
negotiation Of q loan abroad at this ~juncture.
Not a petty borrowing Of a few hundred thou
sands, but a respectable loan of several millions,
with which we can pay off ut once all our nine
aud twelve per cent. indebtedness, and go on
with new and larger enterprises, u-nencumbered
with a compOunding load of interest.
Il may be suggested that such a project will
be opposed by the moneyed men OF the country,
as interfering with their interests. We do not
accede to this view, for that capitalist must be
short-sighted indeed who does not perceive that a
much longer continuance OF our present system
of high interest, means a most thorough killing
of the goose that lays the golden egg.
The Government having by an adequate loan
brought hither the capital, should then proceed
to lend the same to the agrieulturists, in sufficient
amounts to pay of all their present indebted
ness, and to enable them to enlarge operations,
where practicable, charging for such advances
merely the interest which che Government itself
IS responsible for, and taking security on the
estates. We would not however go 60 far as has
been done IN Mauritius, where the Government
acts as the fsctor of the planter, taking his crop
- ET0 ord ..H z,l1rp- - e. ~ka Ea-.s-- L,-.-
But we contend that some such system of Gov
eminent aid as here suggested must be extended
TO our sgriculturists, if they are to succeed. If,
the Government shall decline to step
to their aid, and that speedily, the ruin
GUS result is easily foreseen and already over
shadows US. Our productive industries must fall,
and in that case the Government itself, with
to support it, cannot long subsist. 1t
will be but the performance of 4 farce without
IN audience.
But besides the grateful task of placing our
present agricultural interests on a prosperous
BASIS, which it would be the province of the
Government to perform with the means thus at
IS disposal, there are public improvements to be
made which would double our present producing
apacity. Many thousands of acres of the finest
ane lands in the group are now lying idle, that
be made to produce heavy crops of sugar
y irrigation, while neighbOring streams, ample
Or the purpose, are now running wastefully into
be sea. As for instance, the broad plains be-
ween Kahului and Makawao on Maui, Waimea
II Kauai, and various other localities, that may
uggest themselves to our readers. Every dollar
nd out by Government in measures that will
ring those lands into cultivation, will return
,urfold into the Treasury. {
The deepening of the entrance to the harbor s
{ Honolulu, is q work that is imperatIvely 6
eeded. and its necessity is every year becoming !
lore apparent, as undoubtedly every year the !
epth of water grows less by the deposit of mud ]
ON the river. This, the one secure harbor Of {
le North Pacific, should be made accessible 10 7
,s largest ship that Hoas,-fOr the Great East q
n may yet come this way to lay the cable to 7
spsn,-snd the China steamers must eventually f
axe this their port of call setwecn San Fran d
SEQ and San Diego and the coasts of Asia. As
E 90 on AZ present, when shall we he able to c