The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1875-03-03


As in former years, labor has been difficult to
Obtain and on this account the capacity of each
plantation has been limited to the number of To-
borers procurable. During the past year the
government has entered into contract with
Chinese firms, who have undertaken TO introduce
two hundred free laborers from China as an ex-
pertinent. II this plan is found to work satisiac-
torily, and supply the class of labOrers needed, it
will probably relieve the wants of not only sugar
plantations but all industries in the Kingdom.
So long as our native population shows steady
decrease, thus creating q continual scarcity Of
labor, all immigrants who enter the Kingdom to
settle are very welcome, and viii receive every
encouragement from government to remain per-
manently. In no country can so many attrac-
tions of climate be found to invite settlers from
abroad, nor is SO uniform good health secured
any where as here
The efforts now being made to secure reci-
procity treaty with the United States appear, at
this writing, likely to be crowned with success.
There can be no doubt that the benefits arising
from it would be shared by both countries,
though at the outset Hawaii might be the largest
gamer. A feeling exists among capitalists, plan
ters and others, that the commercial alliance Sc
cured by reciprocity treaty, is necessary to give
stability to our industrial investments, aud draw
capital from abroad to aud and extend them
while it is almost certain that America would
become the suPplier of nearly all our wants.
Commenting on the operation of such treaty,
the report of the San Francisco Chamber of
Commerce, issued in 1867, and presented to Con
gress, closes with the following remarks in favor
of its adoption
"Iu the first place, consumers in the United
States will directly gain portion iu the reduced
price of the exempted articles, probably at least
one-fourth of the Government loss, leaving three
quarters to enure to the benefit Of the people Of
the Sandwich Islands. But that is not loss to
the United States. At least eighttenths of it
will enure to the enrichment of Americans who
are now in, or who will hereafter 60 to the Isl
ands. The increasing wealth Of American units
abroad swells the great American aggregate at
home. When an American grows rich in China,
in Europe, 10 Australia, or in these Islands, his
country grows richer by his wealth. The wealth
of country consists of something more than
local assessors can value and enroll The indi-
vidual power and influence Of its citizens abroad
are national wealth 10 the highest sense. George
PeabOdy's English gains are American and not
English wealth. Indeed. they have made Amer
leans richer, many fold, than if be had quiet
ly accumulated them, as Astor did, 10 New |
York city. So in this case, if the loss of this /
revenue is the gain of American citizens in the /
Islands, it is not lost to the United States, but
transferred from the National Treasury, for spe-
cia service, to the pockets Of its own citizen vol
unteers abroad" aEl-a
Other Agricultural Products
CoFFEE.-The custom-house tables show very
small expectation of this article during the past
year, only 1896 pounds 1t is estimated by
good judges that the crop of coffee raised here
amounted to over 100000 lbs. This would show
an increasing home consumption, say 225,OOO lbs.
But as there is none Of this article imported,
the estimate is probably correct. There is no
finer coffee in the world than that grown in Ko-
pa, Hawaii, when properly cured. Most of the
SOuc0 uOh SotuSaO1 W A1N"oaA SiOhS eAto ~ VIC
woods, very little attention being paid to its sys-
.ematic cultivation. Experience has proved that
when raised in wooded localities, or under the
shade of trees, it escapes the blight, which at
acks it when planted on low and open lands.
When good sites are secured there is no business
more profitable than coffee culture, and there are
IN Hawaii alone probably not less than two hun
ired thousand acres in Kona and Hamakua, ad-
nirably adapted to its cultivation. It would be
wise policy for the large owners Of land on that
sland to gi1s dfree lease for ten or twenty years
% any capitalist who viii establish coffee plan
alton there on the scale the business is pursued
n other countries. The example would lead
,thers-natives as well as foregners-to engage
more largely and more skilfully in the business
nd thus tend to develope al interest which may
me day surpass even that Of sugar.
Travellers who come here from coffee growing |
ountries are greatly surprised at the quality and
xcelence Of our coffee. During 1874, an Eng {
sh gentleman largely interested in Oeylou and {
Is coffee trade, spent some weeks on Hawaii, (