The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-08-01

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 counties, and that the
cultivation of coffee would perhaps be
slightly increased in quantity, but con
Quoted in the same sllpShod, unSclentlnc
manner that it now is, with capital still
regarding the industry with suspicion aho
The majority say that it is an assured
fact that coffee will grow here. Ihe ma
jorty are undoubtedly correct IN THIS
statement. They would also have peen
correct if they had stated that indigo Is q
common weed in every part OF the 1s!anos;
that castor oil trees grow IN every district
with u luXuriance unsurpassed III OlneF
countries; that tobacco and cotton ana q
dozen other products Will grow, ana nave
been raised here, equal TO that OF any other
| country in the world. But when the ma
ioritv have said that, where are they
They are where Moses was when the light
went 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
well. But the question is " Can coffee
cultivation be made commercially proht-
able2"
This is precisely the point concerning
which we are now in the dark. The fact
that coffee will grow, and that a kanaka
who lives in KOna on fish and sweet pota-
toes can go out into the bush once a year
and climb a coffee tree and sell the beans
after sucking thT pulp off, does not prove
this; nor will paying him cents pound
more than he, nOWgetS in the shape OF
bounty on the coffee SO produced prove 1t.
What Is needed Is demonstration to men
with capital to invest, that they can safely
invest it in coffee, with the assurance of
fair return. II that fact Is demonstrated,
there will be no lack of capital to embark
in the business and no need OF any export
bounty.
The problem for us to solve, then, is:
Can this demonstration best be made by
means of the method proposed by the bill,
or by any export bounty system? Com
mon sense, reason and logic point IN this
| direction, and the minority OF your Com
mlttee on Commerce unheSitatlngiy pro-
nOunces in favor of the method proposed
| by the bill.
In the trst place, an offer of a bounty
will not induce capital to invest, because
there can be no return until the fourth
year after planting, and as the bounty
| offered by one Legislature may not be re-
| newed by succeeding one, person who
embarkS in coffee culture on the basis of
! bounty must pin his faith to the whim of
| the Legislature of 1890 and 1892. This is
! not the kind of collateral that capitalists,
| large or small, like to invest IN. The re-
suit would be that the haphazard Guilt
vatOrs who now have coffee trees in bear
| ing would, without adding anything to the
existing knowledge on the subject OF coffee
cultivation, be drawing a liberal sum from
| the Treasury, and four or five years from
now, when the possible cultivatOr who had
been induced to embark in the business by
| the offer of a bounty, should be ready to
gather his crop, the Legislature would
come to the conclusion that the country
had paid about bounty enough, and fail to
vote bounty for the next period.
Ii the cultivation OF coffee, then, turn
out to be a success, the investor will suffer
no loss. If it does not, he will have lost
capital through the false hope held out by
| this Legislature.
With this not improbable result, the
minority of your Committee does not
| think that the offer of an export bounty
would have the effect, to any appreciable
| extent, of inducing capital to invest in
coffee culture.
Again, the object of the bill seems to
have been lost sight of by the majority Of
| the Committee. If we follow their advice,
| the result will be like the 1riShman'S
goose, which was run over by railroad
engine. 1t covered a good deal more
Lround than it did before, but it was spread
! out so thin that it did nobody any good.
This is precisely the result which we will
have on our hands If we give an export
county instead of following the method
proposed by the bill. We will succeed in
spending large sum of money, but it will
b3spread out so thin that the hole in the
Treasury will be the only appreciate re-
suit.
This project is not intended for the pur-
pose of putting money into the pockets OF
a number of citizens, the majority of
the Committee appear to imagine when
they talk about dividing the subsidy
around among large number OF people.
1t seems to me that the explanation of
the view taken BY the majority is, that
they have mistaken this Tor charitable
scheme for dividing up sum OF money
among the industrious poor OF the several
districts.
Ii the majority wish to father such a
scheme, we'll and good; but'we should not
allow them to strangle a project which
will, in very few years, give Us what we
are now lacking, and what we must have
before coffee cultivation will be seriously
entered upon, which is, definite, reliable
information concerning the expenses, the
methods and the profits of coffee culture.
By adopting the method proposed by the
bill. we will concentrate our efforts and
our capital. If there is a loss, the knOwl-
edge that the Government Will bear fair
proportion of the loss will induce capital
lists to invest their money, which otherwise
they will not be willing to do
We will at the end of five years know
definitely whether or not the best and most
approved methods of cultivation and treat
ment will make coffee culture profitable or
not, a thing which we do not now know;
and by demonstration, and full printed
statement, we will know precisely what
those n6EnOUS anu NudI the tx pSIlS0S are.
Different experiments will have been tried,
and we will know what methods to avoid
and what to adopt.
If, instead of the methods proposed by
the bill, we give bounties, even though the
bOunties are continued for five or six wears
we shall at the end of that time, so far as
valuable knowledge is concerned, be just
where we are now, with perhaps a slight
increase in the yield of coffee. The same
methods will be used because the Guilt
vatorS know no other. have no money to
buy proper machinery, and cannot con-
vince capitalists to lend them any because
the results are uncertain.
The coffee industry will gradually work
itself into success in long course of years,
instead of being placed within a few years,
where believe it naturally belongs, as one
of the chief items of export from this
country.
In the interest OF the country, and
strictly in accord with the principle of the
greatest good to the greatest number, |
u Il.