The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-03-19

we find that wages are to-day a tri1e above
the rate paid previous to treaty times, and
also that as a result of the rise in wages we
have an accession in numbers of that class
from California, to an extent much exceed
ing our requirements. There are now in
| the islands many mechanics and laboring
men who are looking in vain for employ
ment. For those that are employed, the
rise in wages over the rates of former years
is more than counterbalanced by the en-
HANGED cost of living. Such necessaries to
the poor man as-house rent, beef, mutton,
pork, fish, milk and frewood, cost nearly
twice as much now as they did four or five
years ago. For sugar and rice, the two
staple articles of Hawaiian produce (and
| about the only articles of household
/ necessity that we do not import), our peo-
pie pay to-day about a third more per
pound than before the treaty came into
! operation. Groceries from abroad, such as
hams, bacon, canned goods, potatoes and
onions, maintain their former rates. In
articles of dry goods and clothing, certain
lines that came in duty free, are a shade
lower in price than formerly, but the re-
duction is hardly appreciable. All those
which we ave mentioned are matters of
necessity, and directly affect the pockets
of mechanics and laboring men, and have
a tendency to render them Oblivious of the
great benefit to all which it is said by some
has been brought about by the operation of
the treaty.
Then again, if the working man has been
able by industry and economy to acquire a
small property-a homestead of a house
and land, and some personal properties,
such as household furniture, goods and
chattels, it is found that the tax on this
was raised by the Legislature of 1876, from
one half to three-quarters of one per cent.
avowedly for the purpose of supplementing
an anticipated falling off in the revenue con-
sequent on the remission of duties under
the treaty. For the same purpose the
Stamp Act of 1876 was imposed, whereby
every imaginable species of legal document
from A to the end of the alphabet, is re-
CURED to be stamped in order to its validity
at a cost of from 81 to $25 each.
Thus, to the apprehension of the working
man in his own case at least, the treaty has
by no means proved to be the boon " it
was expected to be.
The planter then must surely be the for
tunate man who has been enriched by the
treaty. 1t was in his interest primarily
YIN ihOUo-
trial pursuits generally and of sugar plant
ing in particular-that the Government
and the people of these Islands labored
year after year in spite of repeated failures
to obtain the coveted convention with the
United States. Now, while it is an admit
ted fact, as stated before, that some of the
sugar estates AVE been saved for the time
from bankruptcy by the treaty, land it is
n leo q 70 nf fhof fhn --@o
took advantage of the buoyant market and
great expectation by selling out soon
after the treaty became a law)-it is never
theless true that the cost of plantation
labor is generally more than double now
to what it was in 1875, five or six years ago,
so that the cost of production is largely in
creased. And when we come to add up the
charges-freight to Honolulu; storage and
carriage here; freight to San Francisco;
storage and carriage there; insurance.; COM
missions both in Honolulu and San Fra n
clsco-and the extra three cents (more or
Iess) received by reason of the remission of
duties Will be more than eaten up. Doubt
less II the planter was SO situated that he
could himself bring his crop to the metro
polls and here dispose of it for cash to ship
pers and purchasers from ~abroad-as was
done to some extent in former years-he
would realize a much better net price than
by the present system of disposing of it
through second n third hands at q cumu-
lative expense. But being unable to dis
themselves from the old-time sys-
tenn of business through "middle men,
they fail themselves to reap the long covet-
ed benefits of the treaty.
If then we conclude that neither the
Working men nor the sugar planters are
financially any better off by reason of the
treaty than they were before it's adoption
who,it will be asked, does reap the benefit?
The question is easily answered, and in =
few words: The real benefciaries are the
" middle men," the sugar ~refiners of San
Francisco, and capitalists generally.
" Unto him that hath shall be given"
But the subject grows with the handliso-
and may furnish occasion for a future
HER are nearly 1900 Chinese immi- |
grants in quarantine. Their time of de-
tention has expired, or is about to expire
and all this host of Cinnamon NAV he
turned loose in our already over thronged
chinese quarters in town. But it is to no
hoped that those gentlemen who proposed in
application to Tung King Sins the Pres.
OF the Chinese Merchants Steamship co
to engage about two thousand Chinese
laborers, will be ready to take those
direct from the quarantine to
tnelf plantations to meet their needs of