The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-12-18

of all the sugar, it may amount to
500, 900 and upwards.
The American people have been
buzzing around Collector Hager to
knew when the embargo will be re-
moved from the sugar, but he can
give them no consolation, The af-
fair is out of his hands. His bust
ness now is to take care that none
of it gets out of his possession. and
judging from precedent it may be a
year before any decision is arrived
at. Great bodies move slowly, and
the United States Treasury Depart
ment is emphatically great body.
Moreover the Pacific Coast is long
way off and its affairs are usually
attended to with deliberation
which necessarily involves delay.
cit may be year or it may be for
ever" as the song goes; meanwhile
the American refinery cannot handle
the sugar, the declared value of
which, under the IL Dutch stand
ard, is 100000. But even on that
amount the loss in interest and pro-
fit will be very considerable.
Island planters have had some ex-
perience in the slow movement of
the United States Treasury depart
ment in case in which they were
Interested. Some years ago they
shipped a cargo of Island sugar to
New York to open that market.
Havemeyer and Searle, who are now
the head and front of the Sugar Trust
and therefore in way implicated
in the Westmeath affair, caused the
Custom-house authorities to stop
delivery of the Hawaiian sugar on
the charge that it was flaudulently
entered, and should pay duty as re-
fined. This charge was false, but
it took about year to determine
the point and release the sugar,
which had meantime shrunk in
value and missed its market. These
| gentlemen are now interested with
Havemeyer and Searle in the Am
erican Trust refinery, but of course
have had no knowledge of the Trust
method of doubling up profit by de-
frauding the revenue.
Should it turn out that the Col
lector made mistake the Refinery
has no remedy. The trust must
bear the loss. And this does not
seem to be the last of it. One of
their Java ships put into Hongkong
| leaking, and mixture of salt water
does not improve the quality of
sugar however high its grade. 1t
is certain TO wash off the coloring
matter. When the overdue ship
arrives there may be further trouble
unless the American people make an
honest entry. But as this would be
confession of fraud in the West
meath's case it will hardly be done.
The American, as has been al
ready said, is out of raws. The S.
G. Wilder is out from Honolulu
about ten days, and she brings
something like two days supplies.
Apart from this and the Java sugar
the refinery has no prospect for sup
plies ahead. The Coast market
therefore belongs to the California
refinery for the holiday trade at
least, and how much longer one
cannot tell. This advantage has
been given to it by the greed and
dishonesty of the Trust, without
any effort or design ON it's part.
The action of the Collector in
| mining his official seal on the Vest
meath's cargo caused great excite
ment on the street yesterday, as
both the refinery and the trade were
caught short. Public sympathy is
against the Trust. 1t is regarded
as an unlawful combination to cheat
consumers, and when TO this offence
is added charge of defrauding the
revenue popular Indignation waxeth
warm. The morning papers appear
to have missed the news last night,
but the evening papers to-day are
full of it. The foregoing, however,
is the tale as it happened TO fall out,
without any establishment or exag-
Grafton.
1t is probable that an attempt
will be made by the Attorney-Gen-
eral of California to prevent the
American refinery from trading as a
corporation pending decision in the
action to cancel its charter. 1t is
certainly not a corporation of the
State of California in fact, whatever
else it may be. One of the Have
meyers is here in charge. The
Trust could not "trust" TO the
management of the Islands direc-
tory. If they had remained in con-
troll perhaps the Westmeath's sugar
would not have been colored-the
strong presumption is that it would
not.
Argument in the New York case
to cancel the North River Refinery
charter has closed, and counsel has
to the 22d to file briefs. Mr.. Carter,
of counsel for the trust, made a
peculiar argument. He commended
that sugar is not necessary of life,
although everybody used it as an
article of food, and he also argued
that The market could not be COR
nered because the supply was prac-
tically unlimited if capital were en-