The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-03-22

| IL IS QoFOulIy nOpeQ bIiC Ills Majesty
may prove to be worthy that high posi-
| ton.
Our sugar interests are of course the
great interests of these islands. Time
was-but many years ago-when the
| whale fishery was looked upon as es-
sentially the supporting basis of our
| trade The great feet of vessels from
New Bedford, Nantucket, and along
shore, that made their semi-annual
visits here to recruit, give their men a
liberty of few days on shore, left large
sums of money that circulated among
| the people and benefited all classes, the
King, the merchant, the planter, to the
humblest native who sold his stock of
home production.
This has all passed. and is most for
gotten by those now on the scene.
The fertile land and the equable tenn
perature, climate, neither too hot nor
too cold, with but few sudden changes,
were eminently favorable conditions to
the cultivation of sugar cane. The seed
cane which had been early introduced
here was of very superior quality, and
this has had the effect to cause the recog-
milton of Hawaiian sugar as of the very
best produced.
The favorable treaty made between
the United States government and our
own has of course given great stimulus
to the planting of cane and the produc
ing of sugar. We often see the assertion
in your papers that the treaty has been a
very one sided affair; that your Govern
ment has been defrauded by the taking
off of the dnty to the enrichment of
German-American and few capitalists,
and was a detriment rather than a bene-
fit.
To us residing here, and seeing and
knowing all the working of the treaty.
we can honestly say it is of as much
benefit to the United states as to Hawaii.
No one-man power controls the larger
part of our plantations, OF one product,
and three. quarters of all that is realized
from our crops goes, directly or indi-
rectly, into the hands of Americans
while indirectly, surely the advantages
to the United States are with all it's
costs, in the small amount of revenue
that may be figured as lost to your
country.
You may be interested to learn that
Boston gentleman, William Hopper, was
the first person to attempt the cultiva-
ton of sugar cane on an extensive scale
for the purpose of making sugar for
market at that time, somewhere about
1885. / think he began a plantation at
Koloa, on the island of Kauai.
He had almost insurmountable OBJ
stacles to overcome, not the least OF
which was the lack of any cattle (oxen)
to draw the plough. Mr.. Hooper was
obliged to hire strong team of natives,
and with such labor to break up the first
fields. Now, with the most approved
machinery, the last years crop exceeded
100000 tons of sugar.
It is a matter of no minor concern to
our planter what the result of your tariff
discussion is to be. Free sugar would be
a severe blow to our great planting inter
ests, in which investments Americans
are most largely interested.
The prominence now being given to
the cultivation of beet sugar in Europe,
and, as we learn. prospectively in Cali
fornia, is also closely watched here.
With the most delightful climate in the
world for producing tropical and even
temperate zone productions, in a country
where living is delight, in a commun-
ity noted for it's intelligence and
business ability, we do not fear but that
Hawaii has yet a bright future before
her, as an independent nation, but most
closely allied by strong ties, socially and
commercially, to the United States.
A very favorable 'sign of the times"
with us is the report of the Postal Saw
ings Bank, just made public. The larg-
est number of depositors is, as was to be
expected, from the Hawaiians. Though
the average per capita IS not large, yet
it shows very encouraging beginning,
and especially so under the discouraging
political disturbances of the past six
months-much is hoped for the future.
If any of your readers want reliable
paper, giving an accurate account of our
islands, people, objects of interest, let
them write J. j. Williams for copy of
'The Paradise of the Pacific and then
come and see for themselves that the
half has not been told. Yours truly,
Honolulu.
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