The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-08-29
OUR SAN FRANCISCO LETTER.
Per 5. ). Arabic San Francisco,
August FL, 1888.
tFrom our Special Correspondence


the Occidental and Oriental line, makes
her first trip from San Francisco to China
and Japan by way of Honolulu, and thus
affords an extra opportunity for mail
communication.
The English mails for the S. S. Ala
| media arrived at New York on Sunday,
August 18th, and left there for San Fran
| cisco on the same day. Unless accidents
or delays occur across the continent, the
| Alameda should leave here at 2 or 3
p. m. on Saturday, August 25th.
The four great ocean steamers, the
Bourgoyne, Ems, Umbria, and City of
| New York, all sailed from New York on
the afternoon of August 18th, within a
couple of hours of each other. The cap
tains, owners and agents all deny that
! there is to be any race, yet each steamer
| will try to reach its destination first, and
there is considerable money cup" on the
| result.
The new steamer City of New York
was built on the Clyde. Her length
| over all is $50 feet, breadth 63 feet
| inches, depth moulded AZ feet, tonnage
| 10000. She is built of 10000 separate
| pieces of steel weighing 1000 tons. Each
square inch of steel is guaranteed to
stand a strain of 80 tons, and it would
| require a strain of 10000 tons to tear the
ship apart. She has two bottoms, one
several feet inside the other, and both
equally strong. Her fifteen bnlkheads
are all on the upper deck. There are
| two boiler rooms and two engines divided
| by compartments that run lOngitudin
| ally, so that she must be stove in on both
| sides before being disabled There are
| 81 auxiliary engines. She has three
| tunnels and three masts, and can carry
| 1000 passengers.
A most disastrous collision has just
| occurred on the Atlantic, off Sable Is
| land, between the steamers Geiser and
| Thingvalla, both of the ThingvaIla line,
| at a. IN. on August 14th. The Geiser
sank in five minutes and III persons
were drowned. The Geiser had IS pas
| sengers of whom Y were drowned or
killed, and only II OF her crew were
| saved, Captain Moller being among the
number. The Thingvalla was SO injured
that she put into Halifax after transfer
| ring her own and the saved people from
| the Geiser to the Hamburg American
steamer Wieland. An official enquiry
| will be held at Copenhagen, but it APP
pears that the disaster was caused solely
by gross carelessneSs on the part of the
| officers of the Geiser. The loss on the
vessel is placed at $3.50 900, and on cargo
at $120,000
The Postmaster-General at Washing
ton has decided to offer the Colonies,
towards the support OF the Australian
mail service, the whole of the sea and
inland hostages collected from that route.
This amounts to $4,000 per annum,
while the United States has heretofore
paid but 500, 900, making profit of the
remaining 100000. This offer will pro-
badly be accepted and the service con-
tinued for another year, which will give
time to complete further negotiations.
The Alameda will sail with every cabin
engaged and three persons in many OF
the StaterOOmS.
Sugar News.
In refined sugars there was a decline
at San Francisco of e cent on August
18th, and Il cent on August Goth, max
ing granulated rs cents. There has
been no change in raw sugar until to-
day, telegram from New York an
nouncing an advance there of 3-16 cent,
making SO deg. G. 6 ZIG cents with the
market very firm.
The sugar bounties conference has add
journed till August 9th to permit final
reference to the powers interested.
France and Belgium decline to sign the
convention unless it is also signed by the
United States, which will not be done.
Senator Plumb having objected to the
proposed reduction of so per cent. in the
duty on sugar, it is believed that the
Senate tariff bill will recommend re-
duction of 1919 per cent. The Demo
Gratis recommend a reduction Of % per
cent. so that there is a likelihood of an
agreement being reached on this point,
if on no other.
1t is stated that the wages of the lab
Orers of the Lebanon, Penn, Manufac-
turing Co. have been raised from five to
fifteen per cent. owing to the handsome
order for machinery, received by the
Company from Claus Spreckels for his
Philadelphia refinery.
Up to July 31st the imports of sugar at |
San Francisco for the current year
amounted to 22O, 507 ,851 pounds. Since |
then three cargoes of Manila sugar, 8,175 |
tons, have arrived, besides more Ha-
waiian. This is the largest quantity ever
received here in similar period. The |
demand has been unusually large, keep |
ing both rehneries busy night and day. |
The latest estimates of the coming crop |
of beet and cane sugar show that it will |
be equal to that of two years ago, which |
was the largest ever recorded. There is, |
therefore, probability of a decline in |
prices early next year. The London |
beet market has advanced considerably, |
SO that New York refners are now I'M
able to obtain supplies from that quarter. |
49, San Francisco Items.
Mind-reader Bishop was discovered, at |
five O'Clock in the morning, lying on the |
sidewalk near the Palace Hotel. He was
unconscious and suffering from a severe
wound in the head. He had been to the
Cremorne Variety Show early in the
evening, and there lent one of the act
resses the cane presented him by Kala-
kaua, which she used during one of her
songs and dances. He last remembers
being near Morton street about a. IN.
but does not remember going near the
Palace. The Kalakaua cane was found
with the gold head broken off