The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-11-23
Mr.. Davies 4 gain.


Mr.. EDITOR: In commenting on
the political portion OF Mr. Thurs
toms recent letter, / purposely
avoided all reference to the personal
tiles in which he did not think it
beneath his dignity to indulge his
taste. So far as those personalities
concern myself have no remarks to
make, but so far as they involve IN
directly other men / have no right to
let them pass unrebuked.
1t is not for me to say how much
Mr. Thurston believes OF what he has
written, but / will, with your per
mission, give you a little modern
history, as a comment on his state
ment that partially got from I'M
derneath before the crash in sugar
came" etc. May l say first that L
never had so much at risk in sugar
plantations as | had when the So
called "crash" came, that [ hold it
all to-day, and that my firm has never
sought to make profits out of any
plantations they did not first help to
build.
But there is one plantation we have
had to close, and this is its history:
Between the two gulches of Lau-
pahoehoe and Maulua there is large
tract of land chiefly owned by the
Government, and which has consti-
tuted the chief part of the Laupa
hoehoe Sugar Plantation. One Of
these leases, on which many of our
buildings stood, expired year or
two ago, and we were notified
that it could not be renewed,
as the Government required
the land for homesteads. At the be
ginning of last year L saw the then
Minister of the Interior, and urged
him not to insist on such a policy as
that of breaking up the plantations
to make into hOmesteads. L offered
to exchange fine sugar lands on the
other side of Maulua gulch for the
lard in question; / offered to trans
port and grind any cane the home
steaders might grow on that other
land 1 argued that whilst L was
prepared to contend with the Nc
Kinley tariff blow, [ could not con
tend with such a homestead policy
as he advanced; and | maintained
that no homesteads could compen-
safe for the stoppage of the fifteen
thousand dollars per month which
the plantation was spending, and
the cessation of which meant ruin to
the district The Minister was OBJ
durate he offered to renew that
single lease at eight times its former
rental, and refused any other terms
Of renewal As plowing-time drew
near towards the end of 1891, 1 wrote
out from England, recommending
that one more appeal should be made
to the Minister, aud if he still re-
NAMED firm work should be stopped.
Uhis course was followed, and one of
largest plantations on Hawaii
had to be abandoned, in com
pliance with Mr.. Thurston's Home
stead Act. [ have just visited the
district and seen the desolation. In
a few months the last plant cane will
be taken off, and then the fields will
90 ont of cultivation. Every mechanic
has been discharged ; every labor
contract has been cancelled, nearly
cry store in the neighborhood has
zen closed, and not one single home
stead has been granted. The mill is
one of the best equipped on the isl
auds. and it will now remain on Its
twenty-five acre lot monument OF
failure. That is the one instance in
which I have partially got from
under"
have never been alone in the adj
ministration of my business or plan
tations. If have deserved i'll of the
community, so have my colleagues
and they are, as much as L am, ira
duced by the slurs to which l have
referred. I have been the means o
introducing many men into thu
country, and there is no better bant
of citizens in the land than they.
have been associated with many sue
cessful mechanics, and scarcely witt
one unsuccessful one, and, If l to-
have succeeded, it has not been owe
their shoulders, but holding thel
hands.
This is no appeal to MIR. Thurstor
whose ideas of the use of languag
are not mine; but it is an act c
simple Justice to the men he traduce:
for they would. never have been az
sociated in any course of business c
agriculture or manufacture that wa
not worthy of them. | am, sir, you
obediens servant,
THEo. II. DAVIES.
Honolulu, Nov. q, 1892.