The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-09-13
LABOR AND POPULATION.

These subjects are in this country so intimately
connected with each other that the discussion of
one involves the consideration of the other. And
so, the wise statesman, while endeavoring to
assist the agricultural interests of the country By
the introduction of laborers, looks to the future
= view to he b1iIdi1r m Of the nation-the re-
peopling of our once populous but now deserted
valleys and plains. On the other hand, men who
have invested their capital in plantations and who
are anxious to realize quickly, very naturally
lose sight of any considerations for the future of
the nation in the presence of the, to them, press
ing exigencies Of the situation. They must have
labor now-bone and sinew-'' main strength
and stupidity as a correspondent naively re-
marks in to-day's paper. They may not willing
" acknowledge it, but their actions say-''a after
US the deIuge.'' For them, the Chinaman makes
on the whole the most satisfactory field hand.
After he has served his term of one or two years
and contributed to swell the yield of sugar, 1t
matters not to his late employer whether he be-
comes an itinerant peddler Of cakes, a carpenter
or shoemaker, or a shop-keeper dealing in dry
goods and surrepIitious gin. He is simply turned
loose upon the country to prey upon the Hawaii
an people and in every particular to get the best
Of them. Meantime, his late employer wants an
other field hand to take the place of the one
whose time has expired, and gets another China
man just arrived ; and so the process goes on, I'M
til the inevitable result must be that the major
ity Of our population will be-not Hawaiian or
Caucasian, but Chinese. Do we wish to see
this? We doubt if even our correspondent who,
so frankly states his case. would willingly accept
such a result. Yet those who find fault with US
for opposing the unrestricted immigration Of male
Chinese are giving their influence in favor of a
policy that is plainly going to strangle the Haw-
allan race in its own home, while those in author
iy of it's Olon blood are calmly looking on. Bust
ness-moneym aking-is the supreme object, and
only cool contempt Is bestowed upon the senti-
mentality of saving a race. Business and money
making should indeed demand the attention of
business men but that educated Hawaiian rul-
ers should be serving only to contribute to Mon
golian progress and looking indIfferently on their
own races decline, must pain and surprise every
thoughtful mind. 1t is true that the Hawaiians
generally dislike to work on plantations, and it
certainly cannot be wondered at. So indeed do
white laborers. Such laborers can have no homes
in the true sense of the word, and a nation with
out homes cannot be Q civilized one. On our
eAN NNA6N OA'CA ~ N"O AASA NV III
{" quarters, - and there are perhaps enough wo-
men to keep the men passably content with their
work and their I" quarters" The advance wag-
es system, a vicious relic of whaleship times,
tends to help the Generalization. The simple
minded Hawaiian gets hOpelessly in debt to his
employer, and his position in reality becomes but
little removed from one of slavery.
But we fully appreciate the position of the en-
ployer of labor. and sympathise with him in his
difficulties. The price of field labor, which as we
are reH advised, has fallen considerably Of late,
is yet undoubtedly too high, when taken in con-
nection with the heavy expense attending the
carrying on Of a sugar estate. The cash outlay
per month on a iirst-class plantation is something
surprising to those who have not had occasion to
examine the figures, and it is not to be wondered
at that those who have put their money into the
business should be sensitive as to anything in the
public prints which they may think will initiate
against their interests. We however claim that
the course OF the ADVERTISER in discussing the
Chinese question has been dictated by considera-
tions Of sound policy that we have simply told
the truth in our statements OF the situation, and
that the best and ultimate interests Of all con-
ceTned-the planters as well as everybody else
will be properly conserved by such outspoken
Of truth. As we have repeatedly
said in these columns, we do not 50 much object
to the Chinaman If be comes with his woman,