The Hawaiian gazette., 1888-08-07
MINORITY REPORT OF THE COMMIT
TEE ON COMMERCE.

they are unable 10 agree with q majority OF
the Committee concerning this bill.
The majority are OF the opinion. first,
that the Government should not subsidize
one concern to so large an amount; and
second, that more benefit will be derived
by giving bounty on exported coffee.
They also say that coffee raising is past the
experimental stage, and will pay without
substituting company.
Their reasoning. it seems to ME, is illogi-
cal. If coffee will pay, then the expert
mental station will cost the Government
nothing, for the amount of the subsidy will
be repaid to the Government by the COM
pany.
The amount proposed to be paid by the
bill is not subsidy or bounty, but simp-
ly loan by the Government, with good
security to back it. II an export bounty is
paid, such payments will not come back to
the Treasury. So that, looking at the
question simply from the point OF view OF
the expense to the Treasury, the method
proposed by the bill is much the most pre-
ferable.
The minority of your Committee is, how
ever, very strongly OF the opinion that the
question of expense is not the most impor-
tant one. If by the payment OF $4,000 or
a much larger sum in export bounties, the
cultivation of coffee could be brought to a
high standard, and within few years its
proftableness could be so demonstrated
that capital would invest therein, then the
of your Committee would willing
ly join in the majority report and say,
Give an export bounty which shall not be
paid back, and the money would be well
invested. But if an export bounty is paid,
the minority of your Committee is of the
opinion that at the end of five or six years
from now the Treasury would be minus a
large sum paid in Dounties, and that the
cultivation of coffee would perhaps be
slightly increased in quantity, but con-
Quoted in the same slipshod, Hnsciennfic
that it now is, with capital still
the industry with suspicion and
doubt.
The majority say that it is an assured
fact that coffee will grow here. The ma
jority are undoubtedly correct in this
statement They would also have been
correct if they had stated that indigo is a
common weed in every part of the Islands; |
that castor oil trees grow in every district, |
with luxuriance unsurpassed in other |
that tobacco and cotton and a |
dozen other products will grow, and have |
been raised here, equal to that of any other /
country in the world. But when the ma
ority have said that, where are they? |
They are where Moses was when the light |
vent out-in the dark.
The question to be solved is not whether
coffee will grow; every member of the
House knows now that it will, and grow
veil. But the question is "Can coffee
cultivation be made commercially profit
Ible?"
This is precisely the point concerning
~, l. H. Is,
hat coffee will grow, and that a kanaka
Who lives in Kona on fish and sweet pota-
oes can go out into the bush once year
md climb coffee tree and sell the beans
Ifter sucking thr pulp off. does not prove
his; nor will paying him cents pound
more than he. nOWgets in the shape of
county on the coffee so produced prove it.
What is needed Is a demonstration to men
With capital to invest, that they can safely
invest it in coffee, with the assurance of a
air return. Ii that fact is demonstrated,
here will be no lack OF capital to embark
n the business and no need of any export
county
The problem for US to solve, then, is:
IAN this demonstration best be made by
means OF the method proposed by the bill,
II by any export bounty system2 Com
non sense, reason and logic point III this
ERECTION, and the minority of your Com
littee on Commerce unhesitatingly pro-
ounces in favor of the method proposed
y the bill
In the tlrst place, an offer Of bounty
Till not induce capital to invest, because
here can be no return until the fourth
ear after planting, and as the bounty
tfered by one Legislature may not be re-
ewed by succeeding one, a person who
mbarks in coffee culture on the basis of
ounty must pin his faith to the Whim Of
ne Legislature of 1890 and 1892. This is
OF the kind of collateral that capitalists, !
Irge or small, like to invest in. The re-
Ilt would be that the haphazard Guilt
ators who now have coffee trees in bear
lg would, without adding anything to the
risting knowledge on the subject OF coffee
be drawing a liberal sum from
lie Treasury, and four or five years from
ow, when the possible cultivator who had
cen induced to embark in the business by
lie offer of bounty, should be ready to
lther his crop, the Legislature would
,me to the conclusion that the country
ad paid about bounty enough, and fail to
ote bounty for the next period.
If the cultivation of coffee, then, turn
1t to be success, the investor will suffer
} loss. If it does not, he will have lost
pital through the false hope held out by
is Legislature.
With this not improbable result, the
inority of your Committee does not
ink that the offer of an export bounty l
Ould have the effect, to any appreciable
tent, of inducing capital to invest in
flee culture. =
Again, the object of the bill seems to
I'VE been lost sight of BIZ the majority of
e Committee. If we follow their advice,
e result will be like the Irishman's
ose, which was run over by railroad (
CINE. 1t covered a good deal more !
ound than 1t did before but it was spread :
It so thin that it did nobody any good
This is precisely the result which we will
We on our hands If we give an export
unity instead of following the method
opposed by the bill We will succeed in
ending large sum of money. but it will
spread out so thin that the hole in the ! c
easury will be the only appreciate re- )
It,
This project is not intended for the pur- u
Sc of putting money into the pockets of M
humber of citizens, as the majority of d
2 Committee appear to imagine when h
ey talk about dividing the subsidy Oh
1und among large number Of people. U
It seems to me that the explanation of "
: view taken by the majority is, that y
sY have mistaken this for a charitable ff
leme for dividing up sum of money
long the industrious poor of the several G
tricts. -
# the majority wish to father such a
leme, we'll and good; but we should not
DIV them to strangle project which z,
l, in very few years, give US what We -
now lacking, and what we must have =,