The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-02-20

aumlJUeu 10 ne enlightened ana Wise,
go still further, and while avoiding
obstructive interference, encourage
and assist private enterprise in
matters calculated to promote the
public good, by direct pecuniary aid
in the form of bounties, bonuses, or
subsidies. Thus the first great rail
road connecting the eastern and
western seaboards of North America,
q public convenience, was FASTENED
by liberal grants of land lying along
its course; the German Government
encourages the production of beet
sugar, which gives employment and
the means of livelihood to many of
its people, by large bounties; and
subsidies are often granted to steam
ships, for the fostering and develop
ment of commerce, where the trade
itself is not sufficient in the begin
ming to sustain the service.
This helpful disposition of gov
ernment is sometimes taken advan-
tage of by INSCRIPTIONS persons
and corporations, to secure coun-
tenance and support to questionable
ventures or undertakings designed
only to enrich the promoters, and
thus public funds become diverted
from useful objects and wasted on
illegitimate purposes.
1t can scarcely be disputed that
in new countries, with undeveloped
resources, limited populations, and
scarcity of ready capital, govern
ment may properly assist private
enterprise in establishing industries
which in old countries, possessing
unemployed capital seeking invest
ment, may be properly left solely to
private enterprise and private funds.
In tapering the foregoing general
tiles towards local application, it
may be remarked that the Govern
ment of the Hawaiian Islands has
usually evinced ready willingness
to foster and assist private enter
prises tending to advance the coun-
try and add to its material pros
perity. Foreign and Inter-Island
steamboat subsidies, the subsidy to
the Mahukona railroad, and the ap-
preparation for the encouragement
of ramie culture and manufacture,
among many others, are instances.
Indeed, the national money appro-
priating body has at times shown
too strong a disposition to shovel
cash out of the public treasury to
satisfy the request of any and every
applicant, whether deserving or not,
so that if that state had kept on we
might now have been asking the
Legislature to pay our office rent
and defray the expense of publish
ing the BULLETIN.
While not expecting, under the
changed condition of political affairs,
that public money will be voted for
useless objects or given in >aid of
undertakings that are not likely to
benefit the country, we have no
doubt our government will always
be willing to accord assistance to
any intelligent enterprise which aims
at the establishment of permanent
industry, or is calculated to enhance
the general prosperity, but which
may languish and fail without special
help at the beginning. And as a
venture of this particular nature, to
which the Government, in our opin-
ion, should afford every encourage
ment within reasonable bounds, is
the projected coffee culture scheme
briefly outlined in our last issue.
The undertaking will be to large
extent an experiment, but if prose-
cuted according to the proposed
plan, will demonstrate whether coffee
culture on these islands, when con-
Quoted in accordance with the most
approved methods, can be made a
profitable industry. If success is
achieved, coffee plantations will
spring up all over the country, and
we shall thus be relieved from oul
almost exclusive dependence on
sugar. These reasons seem to us
sufficient to warrant government aid
nay, more, to invite it, in some
shape or other-perhaps in the form
of bounty.