The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-06-29
COMMITTEE MEETING.
TESTIMONY TAKEN FROM TINsMITHs,
ETC, ON CHINESE QUESTION.

Mr.. Thomas O'Brien: / have
been working at my trade of car
penter here for twelve years. l am
married and have two children. i
generally get from four to four and
a half dollars day when working.
l find that the people here employ
Chinese to do almost all their job
bling now. l have been unemploy-
ed great portion of this year. 1t
was not so formerly. There is
about as much work, but it is being
more and more divided up with the
Chinese.
Mr.. w. Jaret: am native of
this place of Hawaiian extraction,
have learned and worked at my
trade. l am married and have a
family of eleven in all dependent on
me. do not get steady employ
ment now. l am loafng half my
time of late. 1 do not think it is
because there is no work to do. L
know of buildings being put up by
Chinese now; there are some cot
tages in particular on Liliha street,
and several others that / know.
The reason why l say that some
Chinese carpenters work for dol
lar per day, is that they have come
to me and offered to single my
house at that price. My intention
before | heard that this question
was to be brought up here, was to
leave the country, for [ find that l
cannot keep myself and family, and
compete with the Chinese. 1
have not been employed for more
than three months this year, the
Chinese have all the jobbing, repair
ing and such like as they can do.
The Chinese not only do the rough
work, but they do or attempt to do
all kinds of carpenter, cabinet and
kindred work. I don't belong to
the Anti-Asiatic Union. l did not
sign the petition.
Mr.. L. r. Lucas: have been 10
years in the carpenter business.
My father has planning mill. We
carry ON all kinds of woodwork.
We employ, my father did employ
from 125 to 1870 men continually,
until about three years ago. Now
we have one carpenter only steadily
on hand; we keep him just as a
standby, that is in case job should
come in. We can find plenty of
men, too many unfortunately, when
we have anything to do. This state
of affairs is not entirely due to dull
trade or times. Chinese competi-
ton has great deal to do with it,
in former years we kept all the men
on in dull times. l can give the
names believe, of over a hundred
carpenters, who have left town,
forced out of it by the Chinese COM
petition, within the past year or so.
Mouldings that we sell for Z cent
per foot, the Chinese sell for J cent,
and what we charge from 5 to Is
cents for, they sell from to 8 cents,
it is so all through. There are IL
Chinese carpenter shops in town
that know of. / estimate one
hundred Chinese carpenters in this
town. The Chinese have got a saw
mill OF their own, where they get
the bulk of their work done; all
their light work is done there. Very
heavy or fine work they have got
to get done elsewhere. This mill
was started about 2 years ago. We
keep 10 natives employed all the
time in the saw mill. We pay them
from $1.75 per day. The Chinese
are getting control of the carpenter
business. They do large part of
the jobbing and repairs that the
white and native used to do do.
Mr.sBertelman: Out of 10 men
whom l employ 10 are native Ha-
waiians. | pay them from two to
three dollars per dao. On an ave-
rage have only half as many now asI ]
did 3 or A years ago, and charge
Chinese competition with the falling
off of work. There is quite as much
work done in town now as when ]
could keep from twenty to thirty
men going all the time, but the Chi
nese have broken it up. 1 have
never exactly figured against the
Chinese, but when people would
come asking an estimate for a lob,
! / say if Chinese were going to COM
pete / will have nothing to dc
with it, as know that could not
pay for material at their prices.