The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-02-15
HAWAII SHOULD Be ANNEXED.
That Is the Belief of William g..
Irwin, Spreckels' Partner.

w
Claus Spreckels in the sugar bust
ness in Hawaii, is at the Windsor
Hotel. When asked last night what
he thought of the news from Hawaii,
and what the probable consequences
of the revolution would be, he said
Much of what l have seen in the
evening newspapers is news to me,
for left Honolulu On December 18th.
When [ came away all was peace
able enough, although there have
been signs of trouble for the last five
years. The Queen is an educated
and cultivated woman, but, like all
members of a dark race, she is in
clined to be visionary, and to prefer
the present apparent good, in hard
cash or otherwise, to following the
principles of sound finance and
craftsmanship. She had a salary of
$4,000 and a handsome palace to
live in which cost over $500, 600; and
if she could have been content to
abide by the Constitution, which
guaranteed prosperity, all would
have gone smoothly. But she has
been inclined to coquette with all
sorts of wild schemes. For instance,
opium is contraband in Hawaii. She
has been offered large sums-S1OO,OOO
or so-for the privilege of dealing in
opium, and she has wanted to make
terms with persons in that trade.
As q matter of fact, opium is SNUG
gled in great quantities, and is al
most as cheap as if its sale were not
forbidden by law. have sometimes
thought that it might be better
public policy to license the trade, so
that the Government might get a
revenue out of it instead of allowing
the smugglers to gobble it all. How
ever, I have not advocated any such
measure.
sThe matter of the lottery is un-
doubtedly what has precipitated this
trouble; or, rather, it is the last
straw which has broken the patient
peoples back. All the Queens ad-
visers have warned her against car
rying her wild schemes against the
Judgment and wishes of members of
her Cabinet. But Cabinets have
succeeded each other very rapidly in
Hawaii of recent years. have been
a member of the Queens Privy
Council and have always tried to
advise her against her visionary
schemes. The fact is, we white peo-
pie had to take firm stand with the
old King, Kalakaua. We drew up a
good Constitution, such as would
tend to protect the general peace of
the islands, and took it to him and
made him sign it. After that he was
pretty we'll satisfied, since he had
enough money to play poker with
and all the champagne he could
drink, but there fingered in his
mind some little resentment. He
was not quite King, as he had
been.
81 am Clans Spreckers partner,
and I suppose our sugar business
constitutes about one third of the
whole output of sugar in the island.
We produce perhaps $4,000 tons out
of the total of 10000 tons. [ have
lived there thirtyfve years, and we
carry on a banking business and a
commission house. Now, such
interests as these naturally have
weight with the ruler, and we
have succeeded in so infnen-
cling the Queens actions as to
keep things going on fairly even
keel, until now Last November we
did not like the way things were
going, and /, with a number OF
others, went to see the Queen. We
told her she must appoint better
Cabinet, and she did SO. 1t appears
that since l have been away from
Honolulu she has turned things over
again and got in some second rat
men, who have evidently advised her
so badly that, to put it very mildly,
she had made fatal mistake. [ am
sorry for the Queen, for she is a
charming woman in many ways and
friend of my family, but clearly
she has gone too far.
Gas to the outcome, only know
this: Ii Hawaii is to have any other
Government than her own it must be
that of the United States | wish we
could have run along as we were. We
were contented. We were practically
an American colony, for Americans
own fully three quarters of the bust
ness done there. Life and property
were we'll protected under our old
Constitution. We had good courts of
law, were all disputes were settled
promptly and justly. We had light
taxes-the property tax was only l
per cent, think, last year. AS to the
English residents, the best of feeling
has always prevailed between them
and the Americans. Their property
interests in Hawaii are considerable,
of course, but not great compared
with those of Americans. Indeed,
think the German property interests
are quite as large as those of the
English.
"Of course, wherever Great Britain
has any commercial interests at all
she is anxious to maintain her own
part in the Government. But / can
not see wherein she has any special
claim upon the islands. She is speci.
ally interested, no doubt, on account
of the relations of the islands with
Canada. There has been talk of a
cable between Canada and the isl
ands and of a line of steamships
which should serve as an outlet fol-
the Canadian railway system. Oul
trade with the United States and
Canada is most comprehensive. We
get almost everything we use from
the outside, even, for instance, such
a thing as the fodder for our cattle
You can see how valuable the islands
are commercially, and also how some