The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-10-06
Customers Will Save
Amount of Duties.
Japanese Goods Will be Higher.
So VIII English Made
Cloths.

Annexation does not mean higher
prices for dress goods" said a promi-
nent dry-goods merchant yesterday,
so men who have been holding OF on
the subject. fearing that the expense
Of dressing the female members OF
their families will be increased may
rest easy.
For years America has been pro-
ducing as fine quality of silk as can be
found in France, except in the surah
variety. They have not quite overcome
the difficulty which blocks the road to
success in that particular grade, but
they will in time. Nearly all the dress
silks sold in Honolulu and all the rib
bons are made in the United States,
SO that with the advent of annexation
will come reduction Of 26 per cent
in these goods. A majority OF the laces
sold here, / think, are made in Amer
lea. True, Valenciennes is, of course,
made in Europe e-most of it in Brus-
sells. The progress made in these man
ufactures by people in the United
States is, to say the least, remarkable.
twenty-five years ago the silk indus
try in America was in embryo, and
was begun by some ladies, who culti-
waited the silkworm as fad. believe
it was in 1876 that the first samples of
silk were shown. Now enough of the
fabric is woven there to supply the
ladies in the States with the materials
for their best gowns.
"Of course, European goods will ad-
vance in price, according to the Ding
ley tariff, and think hosiery will come
in for the hardest rub. These goods are
made in Germany, and the Honolulu
consumer now pays duty, whether
they are imported by the dealer direct
or purchased from jobber in the
United States. And that reminds me!
Some of the goods worn in Honolulu
suffer double duty. Few Of the retail
dealers here carry sufficient stock or
order in quantities large enough to
warrant their having an agent in Eu-
rope or buying direct from the Euro
pean manufacturer. What is the re-
suit? Why, those who buy foreign
made goods from the large dealer in
New York or San Francisco buys plus
the American duty and then pays the
Hawaiian duty on arrival. Buying di-
rect means the saving of one duty, but
it means, also, that he must anticipate
his orders far enough ahead to have
the goods shipped direct from Liver
pool or Southampton, via the Horn.
With the competition of the present
day merchants cannot pay the trans
Atlantic and overland freights and
compete with rival who happened to
order his goods direct.
''It may surprise some of the ladies
to know that so much of the silk they
are wearing is purely American, but II
should not prevent their wearing
dresses of that material when they are
assured that it is Just as good as thai
made in France l doubt if half the
'made-in-London' cloth which goes into
| mems suits in the United States was
ever outside the boundaries of that ter
ritOry before it was made up. There
are grades of cloth, to be sure, thai
cannot be produced anywhere so wei
as in the West of England mean tn,
finer qualities of smooth-surface good!
but rough goods, corkscrews and di
| agonals are made equally as good il
| the United States as in England, ane
when annexation comes along, men il
Honolulu may dress at less expens,
than they do now, unless they get clotl
imported from England
Clothing Of English material ant
| made to order by some tailors nov
costs very little more than the sam,
would cost in London, if made by th'
| average tailor. OF course, you coult
not get it from Poole's establishment
or, indeed, any West End tailor fo
anything like the money, but ther'