The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-04-01
WE HESITATE.

l -
1t is now several years since we re-
ceived the Reciprocity Treaty, which
created such an enormous amount of
discussion IN it's first days, as to the
great benefits the Hawaiians were to re-
ceive from it, and the prosperity of the
country at large; and now people OF
other countries have taken up the subject
and are discussing it. We were one of
those who thought the treaty would be a
benefit to the Hawaiian people, and that
it would enrich the country in several
ways. Perhaps it is thing that would
properly conducted with justice to all
men.
But such is not the evidence of to-day !;
a different picture altogether is seen
through the workings of the treaty from
that which was said would come. It is
ten years since the reciprocity treaty be-
tween this country and the United States
came in force, and each one of us can
count those who have been benefited,
and not like that which was said, that
the whole people will be benefited.
How many real Hawaiians have met
with the benefits OF the treaty? Only
one, the rest have become bankrupt and
have lost and been made poor, the
greater portion of them are now will
out anything. How many of the white
skins have been benefited? A large
number of them. The sugar planters
are to-day counting their wealth by the
thousands. The bankers are counting
theirs by the millions. The missionaries
are rolling in money. The haole mer-
chants are making towns in foreign lands
in which to recreate and spend that
great benefit that was said the Hawaiians
were to receive.
AS for the Hawaiians, We have seen
everyone of them who have venture IN
the business of cane planting to come
out loosers, not because their labor did
not produce anything, but throug h the
cunningness. of the white man and of
those who furnished the money. The
high rate of interest is one of the reasons
why the Hawaiians are deceived through
the money-greedy missionaries and the
banks of Bishop and of Spreckels. These
blood sucking worms have ruined and
killed the Hawaiians. Another cause is
the reliance and trust of the Hawaiians
on the foreigners, believing these haoles
whose souls are captured by money were
honest and fair. If Kona of Kau; Kama
kala of Kohala and others were to tell,
they could speak and show the cause OF
their being poor and the death Of some
of them; they will say that it was through
! mistaken hopes caused by false encour-
agements of the Reciprocity Treaty. All
| the natives in Kau who went into cane
| planting, who owned large tracts of lands
and were we'll to do, are made poor, and
| some of them died through exertions to
save themselves from poverty, and
caused through the supposed benefits
they were to derive from the Treaty.
There is Kakipi, one of the well to do
men living like Prince at Kohala !;
there is Kamakala, Captain Kaai and
several others; they were excited with
great expectations in cane planting by
the Treaty, but they have been reduced
to nothing through this Treaty, which
was given to save the dried up bones of
Hawaii. Where is Kipi of Hilo and the
owner of the plantation of Paauhau? Of
those who have died while the other
still remain to be sucked quietly by the
cunning snakes and those of the avarici-
Gus mind.
What benefit has the King received
for his labors in seeking and getting the
| treaty? The first is, he has been treated
with cunningness, lying, treachery, and
made tool of for the planters and the
merchant missionaries and specializing
bankers.
From the first up to the present day
since the treaty has been in force, the
people have been steadily going down
into poverty, while the situation OF the
missionaries, the merchants and the
bankers has been on the ascendant. The
situation of the Hawaiian to day shows
poverty with all that he has in the pos
session of missionaries others have
j everything, we have nothing. This is
the cause Of our hesitation.