The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-03-29

ing industry, The production of sugar. h just now
in a most precarious condition. The Introduction
Of vast amounts of cheap Manila sugars into Cali
fornia by the great grain feet Of tha; country. aud
the successful Inception of the manufacture there
OF beet sugar, which ia Belgium and France has
almost driven Out Colonial sugars, and the Ger
tainty tha, with the rise Of labor the culture Of
cane will only be hereafter more and more expen-
sive. make the removal Of American tariffs on Ha-
waiian sugar sbe only hope Of our only important
industry. Il i idle 10 refer to the prosperity that
continued after the fall OF the whaling business.
The sugar business took tie place OF that. 1t -
useless 70 say that no natives have yet complained.
The natives have known nothing Of this matter.
1t Is mere frivolity TO say. that the h.laHtd still
makes her trips, aud that the Australian STEAMERS
still come and 60, and that vessels still brng ium-
Der from Oregon. This proves nothing. 1t is
worse than frivolity to assert. that = the hawaiians
had more prosperity before a sugar plantation was
started on the islands that they would prosper
if there was not a plantation left and that many
OF the artidcial wants aud new tastes introduced
and created by foreigners could be remedied by
the observance of strict economy" Yes, let us
seek the style of independence the islands had be-
fore the sugar business was started. when il was
the felicity OF the natives that they could live with
OlL iADOT- luaL IurN COhlu NC cSohOuAtSNA NAlu -
at the expense of buying clothing. of erecting suit-
able houses, OF sustaining schools and churches!
Like the Esquimaux. who. when solicited TO better
himself by sailing TO a warm fruitful CLINE, re-
piled, What more can L want than l now possess:
I have plenty of oil TO drink and "a whales tooth
always to wear in my nose let us be satisfied il
this nation only has. as " independence . specifies.
its taro, bananas. yams, and fish. Surely there
are those who will not be satisfied for the civiliza-
ton, which is the ripe fruit of Christianity, to be
thus exchanged for barbarism. You cannot thus
crowd back the oak into the acorn. II our Gov
ernment by a policy of Indifference to the exigen-
cies Of the times ;hus cramps down the growing
wealth and enterprise of the islands, it viii be it.
self broken. If il does not make almost desperate
efforts for closer relations to the United States,
and make them before the growing beet sugar in
terests on the American coast become a control
ling power against us, we must look for anarchy
and finally annexation.
Since the above was written, the third article by
' Independence - has appeared, in which he exhorts
to imitation of the commercial enterprise of Athens
and Tyre. forgetting that those cities were great only
by being the depots of large productive regions, and
not knowing that it is said Of the country of Athens,
that it might now rise from a population of 80 900 to
5000 o by a judiciOus system of agriculture. He
goes on to speak with levity and almost satisfaction
of the failure of our sugar business, ruinous though
that would be to a large part of our population. and
to propose the visionary alternative of the doubtful
enterprise of competing with Europe and America in
the manufacture of cotton and wooden goods, and Of
raising coffee, oranges, cotton, and other such pro-
auctions, which can only be raised in n few small
localities; not over our extensive cane districts, and
which, little though their culture costs, have not yet
been raised to much profit, and of sending the natives
to the proverbially dogs life of seamen. By his plan
our nation, instead of sending forth vastly increas-
ing productions, would be merely the carrier Of the
productions of other countries, not like a prince
receiving barges freighted with his own cargoes, but
like the obsequious negro waiter with smirks and
mods crying" Let me carryiyour trunk !"
I.rUa