The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-12-02
The Sandwich Islands Sugar Question

To THE EDIroR OF THE SUN-Sir: In your
issue OF to-day, under the head of Sugar in
terests Excited" is an interview with a sugar
merchant, in which he makes several gross mis-
statements. 1t is a SANDER upon our representa-
tives at Hawaii TO say that large part" or any
part of the sugar imported under the reciprocity
treaty as Sandwich Island sugar comes from
Manila and China by way of Honolulu as the
product of Hawaii, thus evading the duty of 21E
cents per pound, which it would otherwise have
to pay" Every pound of sugar imported under
that treaty can be traced back TO the plantation
and mill where it was grown and made on the
cane fields of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu. and Kauai.
Claus Spreckels is rich and very enterprising,
and, when it comes to a contest with New York
reiners, not over scrupulous in his methods of
dealing with railroads and steamers in the mat
ter Of freighting his sugar.
The astounding assertion is made that pre-
vious to 1876 Sandwich Island sugar was the
dark, natural drained sugar produced by slow,
old-fashioned, and barbarous processes, &c, &c,
and that Clans Spreckels introduced vacuum
pans and centrifugals to make a semi-refined SUI
gar - When the writer went to the Sandwich
Islands, in 1854, centrifugals were in use there,
and previous to 1870 all the plantations were us
ing them as well as other improved machinery,
and at least a dozen first-class plants were in
operation eight years before Claus Spreckels
ever dreamed of investing any money there.
Not a single plantation Of any size whatever but
what had facilities for making this very same
. semi-refined sugar ten years before that
treaty was made. The water made sugar by
these same . slow, old-fashioned draining pro-
cesses " in 1868, which brought at auction in
San Francisco 1879 cents per pound, the very
highest quoted price on the day of sale for raw
sugar, and he happens to be able to verify this
statement by account of sales.
The difficulty. and the main one, in the
planters way, previous to the establishment of
the treaty, was that, on account of the richness
of the cane juice and the excellent methods of
clarifying and evaporating, it was ''just as easy
as falling off a log to make sugar that averaged
13 and IL Dutch standard, and paid 81 to &c.
duty, all of which was not profitable to the
planter; while the reiners in San francisco had
50 much low grades of refinery sugar which they
must of necessity sell, and which they could
afford to sell at prices which would not pay the
planter for his superior raw sugar. So it came
to be the question with the Sandwic Islands
planter how "not to do it, and when he made
sugar of z or 10 Dutch standard it must COM
pete with that from China and Manila, where
labor cost about one-fourth what he must pay.
Another word about the 9 enormous increase
of sugar on the islands, which your informant
says is preposterous. 1t is n plain matter of
fact that by the improved methods of CIVILIZATIONS
now in use a yield of five tons of sugar per acre
is not unusual, and there are several plantations
which accomplish that easily, and have done so
for years. Spreckels can very easily make the
go, 0O0, 900 pounds needed for his refinery on
his own "plantation of &c 900 acres (only a
small part of which, by the way, is of any
earthly use for eultivation). with his mill capable
of turning out 100, 600 pounds of sugar per
diem for 800 working days per annum. No frost
or winter there to interfere with the growth or
ripening of the cane. But there is u limit to
the production of sugar ON the Sandwich Islands
at paying rates, and that arises from the want of
cheap labor. Poorer labor than that which could
be had in abundance in 1854 at So per month
now costs $15, and is not plentiful either. Fuel
is growing scarce and dear, the Chinaman is en-
couraged to come rather than exhorted to go,
and the semi-periodical attacks from various
quarters upon the reciprocity treaty are not
favorable to a much larger growth of the sugar
interests there. The employer is now the slave,
and the man who has labor to sell rules the
planter with a rod of iron. In view of all these
facts, "Sugar Interests Excited is sensational
to the last degree, and it is perhaps foolish to
contradict such statements as have been briefly
referred to. NJ. NJ. COVER.
New Haven, Conn.