The Hawaiian gazette., 1896-01-28


thrown into social relations with th
THawaiiaGs at once, do so, but it is no
the rule"
People want to know what are tn
resources of Hawaii. All they hea
about is sugar, and they don't hea
about anything else.
tSugar has been the main lndustr,
because it is business which is wei
understood, and it has been profitable
Besides that there has been ranchius
almost ever since any white people
began to live here; that has been {
profitable business also. Wool grow
ing has been a steady business FOL
fifty or sixty years. but limited in ex-
tent. Rice j. an important product
ranking next 10 sugar.
"There are a good mary small
vegetable gardens. The market is SC
small that these gardens are mainly
in the hands of Chinese. Fruit in
Hawaii is raised by natives. Coffee
has not been seriously cultivated un-
til the last three years, but coffee has
grown wild in Kona, and the natives
have picked it. They may have plant
ed it in some cases to increase their
yield. In 1850 there were large coffee
plantations on the islands, but they
were low down near the sea, and the
blight was so severe that sugar cane
was substituted. Now almost all the
coffee is raised on high ground. 1t is
more healthy at an elevation of from
| 1000 to 5000 feet above the sea About
| 1900 feet is the best elevation"
''If coffee proves to be success will
all the islands be adapted to it?"
"All have a coffee belt, and it will
not interfere with the sugar that
grows at a lower elevation. A great
deal of the. best coffee land Oh all OF
the islands is unused the lower forest
islands. Probably the islands will
export more in coffee than in sugar;
there is nothing TO hinder, as far as
land goes. There is good deal OF
on Rawaii-in fact, on all of the ISL
ands."
"Would uot fee production bring
in another class of peopie?n
eyes. 1t would briug in small
farmers and white people, men who
work for themselves. They would
take'care of their 'own farms. They
would have to hire some labor, espe-
clally at picking time.
Ideas on Coffee Growing.
"How large need a coffee plantation
be? At Riverside, Cal, ten acres are
enough for an orange grove"
"ren acres upward would be enough
to start coffee"
"With an average crop what would
the profit be?"
Systematic cultivation is so recent
that hardly any of the new farms are
in full bearing, but as the promise
of the young trees is great |
do not see why they should lot pro-
duce from ton TO ton and half,
some people say two tons al acre.
That represents great deal of money,
because coffee is a very valuable crop
1t would be 1910 if an acre Produced
but one ton. Coffee sells at the coffee
centers at 26 cents pound, so there
is a large margin for increase of profit.
Probably the coffee growers will not
sell to middlemen, but send their
crops direct to the main market.
Twenty five cents pound would be
$500 All acre, or 5000 for ten acres.
With large yield, of course, the pos
sibilities are greater"
"There are eight islands, are there
not?'
"Eight large islands. The land at
the same elevation is pretty much
alike. Some of the small islands have
no forests because they are too low"
"What do you do with them""
"They are used for rancning The
small islands have no streams, no
running water, and so far ranchers
have not experimental with artesian
wells. There is a lot of fine araole
soil that has never been cultivated"
"How large population could all
these islands sustain?"
ga Million
"And you have at present less than
100,000?"
Yes"
Touching the Organic Law.
"Mr. President, i'll some respects
your constitution seems to me much
better than ours. You have property,
educational aud moral qualifications.
Your voters must b" in some decent
business
"If he is not a property Own-r, be
must be iudu-tiious. In talking 10
Ann Arbor students the other lay
Senator Hill mentioned some char yes
which he thought should be made in
your constitution; the President
should not succeed himself and should
be elected for six years term, and
the President should have the right of
veto of individual items of appropria
ton bills. He seems to have been
reading our constitution"
"WiiI you tell me the history of
your constitution"
"When we found that annexation
was doomed to indefinite delay the
question arose what We should do,
and of course we decided to immedi.
ately organize a permanent form of
government An election for con-
stitutional convention was called,
and Mr. Thurston in Washington and
in Honolulu, unknown to each
other, began to work on a constitu-
ton. / devoted almost my whole time
to it, stayed at home, had the books
| wanted and worked deliberately.
When Mr.. Thurston returned he and
pooled our issues. We read our drafts
over together, make changes and
fused the two, taking such parts from
both as we thought best. Then we
had this draft printed and we called
! together the cabinet and a number of
gentlemen who represented almost
every kind of work in the islands,
about sixteen men in all, including
| on rcaluac NUo uyonf nunr fhia draft