The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-03-08
Continued from LIST poge.)

lug 6NpCuSSS Ou SdCu NOu VI SuSdls
More cane would be produced per
acre and the cane would doubtless |
yield higher percentage of sucrose.
The planters labor would he more |
profltably and intelligcutly directed !
because his interests would he bound !
up in a twu.fold degree in the results
OF his industry. He would have con-
stantly before HIM the advantage of
a larger annual income, and of an
ownership in the soil. Where plan
tations own leases of Crown lands, it
is altogether probable that legislation
could be had that would give tenants
under this system quit-caim deed
t. the land occupied 10y them up TO
certain number of acres. This
might be an outright grant, rs in
early days, in view of long residence
on the land, or il might be at price
equal to the amount Of the rental for
the ten years of occupancy. The
former, in view OF the desirability Of
encouraging small farmers, might
prove the wiser plan.
In favor OF the system, thus brief
" outlined, it may be claimed that it
Is simpler, and more permanently
advantageous to the sugar interests,
| and more desirable for the country
ut large. 1t is simpler. Everything
is dependent on the industry of the
planter. His own inter ests are so
bound up in the results of his labor
AS to prove constant spur. The
acquisition of home for himself and
family, and the certain provision
possible for old age, will be a per-
manent incentive. The plantation
company will be so interested finan-
cially in the fruits Of his labor as to
leave the laborer undisturbed, so
long as he advantageously serves his
own interests.
This scheme is more permanently
advantageous to the sugar interests
inasmuch as it does away with the
unsatisfactory elements in the planta-
ton system. The management of
labor is reduced to minimum. The
friction now existing will largely dis
appear. The financial loss on ac-
count of frequent changes Of labor
ers, and on account of unintelligent
labor, or of labor not directly inter-
ested in its product, will no longer
occur. The manager or cane in
spector, whose function would be
mainly advisory, being relieved from
the harassing details that now con-
sumo so much vitality and lead to so
many complications, could give more
attention to scientific farming and
create prestige for himself among
the planters that would advance eX-
periments looking to the financial
betterment of all concerned.
This leasehold system of cane
growing is more desirable for the
country at large inasmuch as it would
offer attractions to the elements in
our population which it is most de-
sirable to retain among US. The
family is the unit of genuine indus
trial welfare, for it provides the ee-
ments of permanence and of recup
Grafton and of vital self-interest. The
low-class labor that contentedly ex.
lists in plantation barracks and never
makes homes, would be stranded,
and that too, greatly to the financial
advantage of our plantation interests,
if proper inducements should be Of
fered, and proper protection be guar
anteed, to the laborers who want to
make homes for themselves on land
that they have reasonable chance
to acquire and hold in their own right.
That the leasehold system will
prove attractive to the most intelli-
gent labor in our population there can
be but little doubt. Men with Euro
pean blood in their veins have always
and everywhere been willing to toll
hard and long to win homes and pro-
vision for old age. The labor that is
done by farmers in America and Eu-
rope is more exacting, and calls for
greater privations, and yields slighter
returns, and is performed under more
Instantaneous climatic conditions
than is the Gaze with cane-growers in
this country. Then Too the semi-tropi-
cal conditions existing here take out of
the problem the necessity of provid-
ing for winter season, with its addi-
tional expense and discomfort and
lack Of income. Then again the ac-
tual returns in hard money would
prove an lnducement for the settle
ment on the sugar lands of desira-
bic class of tenants.
At from So to $3.50 per ton of
cane, it is possible for man to earn
5000 per annum on five acres of cane
land. Using figures kindly furnished
from several plantations, l find that
on an average one man, by the pres
ent method, cultivates about one
acre and half of cane land per an
mum. With the additional incentive
which the leasehold system holds out,
it is not too much to expect that one
man, with such aid as his family
might render, would be able to prop.
erly cultivate five acres per annum.
1t is not too much to expect, again,
that the land will yield six tons of
sugar per acre for the crop requiring
eighteen months growth, or tour
tons of sugar per annum. 1t is esti-