The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-03-30
T II e
TUESDAY
March Both.
JUTE MANUFACTURES.

The ramie industry Will some day
probably supersede the cultivation and
manufacture of jute, meantime great
deal has been accomplished with the
latter fiber, and it bids fair to bold iA1-9
own in the world otIptl---1'fry Tor many
,,oars como. In the manufacture of
grain bags and wool packs alone the de-
mand for jute is enormous. For exam
pie, last harvest on the Pacific Coast
called for twenty-eight million grain
eAbags, and far greater number will be
needed for this seasons crop unless some
untoward event happens to destroy the
grain before maturity. Three ships were
loading at Calcutta for San Francisco,
which would bring 100000 bags. Cal
cutta is the great jute center of India.
Dundee, in Scotland, is also an import
ant jute manufacturing place, and Scotch
bags and wool packs compete with the
East Indian article on the Pacific Coast
and Australia, despite the great dispar-
ity in wages paid by the Scotch manu-
features over their Calcutta rivals
California might supply its own wants
but it does not. An attempt was made
to induce California farmers to raise jute
as crop, but nothing satisfactory came
of it. 1t was a novelty, and moreover it
required great deal more skill in man
ipulating jute than wheat, wherefore
wheat was stuck to as crop, and mill
ions of dollars were yearly spent by the
wheat growers for imported jute bags, in
which their wheat was put up for export.
This may be regarded as an evidence
of unthrift, and to some extent it
is so; but there are several potent
reasons why California farmers should
stick by an established crop in
stead of embarking upon new and
essentially speculative one. Neverthe-
less, it would pay them to raise jute and
sell it to local manufacturers who would
manipulate it from the field to the loom,
and in time no doubt it will be so taken
in hand. There are two jute factories in
California, one at East Oakland, which
is conducted on a large scale by com
pany employing Chinese labor; the other
is in the State Prison at San Quentin,
this being the only manufacturing indus
try, strange to say, upon which prison
labor could be employed directly without
coming into contact with free white
labor, which the New Constitution of
California prohibited. Although the
prison jute factory recently showed
loss under gross official acknowledgement,
it kept the price of grain bags down and |
put an end to CORNERS in bags" Wls5Scfh I
had been annually formed to ciRch wheat |
growers by a -Sa1ifornia-stre |
brokers. Under proper management the
State Treasyiy' should be money in !
/pockeet belGyear through the output OF
the San GSSeFsssin jute factory.
Coming . *he requirements of these !
Islands for 1856, our sugar producers will
use nearly two million bags, averaging
say one hundred pounds each, to ship
their crop. This involves an expendi- |
eture of $3.50, 900 for sugar bags alone, and |
suggests the thought that capital might |
be very judiciously invested in their
manufacture. 1t would be necessary to |
Import both the raw material and ma
chinery for the manufacture of jute, but |
with the guarantee of paying local mar
ket and abundance of labor the specula-
ton appears to us to promise about as
well as anything else lying open on the
Islands. We are surprised that local
capital has not been induced to look in
this direction before. a factory for weav-
ling jute and making it into sugar bags
would give employment to a considerable
number of hands, and contribute greatly
to the prosperity of the country.
In these remarks we have not lost sight
of the fact that ramie machine has been
made here which is claimed to turn out
a merchantable article, and that as a crop
ramie is far more prolific than jute. We
hope some day to see ramie export.
In the meantime we have in jute an es-
tablished article in commerce and manu-
facture; we have large and steadily in
creasing demand for it in our staple in
dustry; and we further have the facility