Evening star., 1897-03-25
A GOOD BARGAIN
Hawaii's Finances Commend the Idea
Of Annexation.
HER DEBT Is NOT 4 LARGE ONE
The Islands Would Yield 100000
Net Income.
PITYING GU EEN L L
DEBT Is NOT A LARGE ONE
QUEEN LII
special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.


HONOLULU, March i. 1897
A valuable report from the Hawaiian
minister of finance has lately appeared for
the year ending December 81, 1896. ] viii
give a few of the principal facts stated
therein:
The receipts of revenue for the year 1896
were 81. .975.S21 .SS while expenditures were
81, ,0O4, 1902. This was total increase in
receipts over 1895 of $235, ,256.69. and Of ex-
penditures a decrease of s104,923.27. The
year 1895 was an expensive one, owing to
the cost of suppressing the insurrection OF
January, and OF stamping out the cholera
in September Both those incidents also
damaged business and diminished public
income. Last year. or the other hand,
was exceptionally prosperous. owing to
good crops Of sugar a2d better prices.
The above figures are entire.y independent
of those expenditures for public works
" hich were palG from a special loan fund,
ard amounted to $lS5.944.46.
The chief sources of increase of revenue
were the following: Customs QS95), So4I,-
1904; uS96) SCOT. S9o.S2; increase, SlU9,-
T46.7S. Taxes $3.50, s532. 691 81; QS.6) $1VG,
541.7o; increase, s113.S49.1S. City water
works QS9o. SAB. .996S5; QS96) $50 DID 40; III
ere ase S16,22J60
The increase Of customs receipts was due
amounted to S7,164, ,56l 40, rs per cent of
which came from the United States. The
Increase of taxes resulted in part from a
considerable increase of property, nut more
from careful assessment and especially a
mere equitable valuation of large sugar
corporations. which had hitherto evaded
just assessments. Much Improvement still
remains to be made In this matter
The increased income from the Honolulu
water works is due to th, growth of the
city, and to better supply of water
pumping works having been erected to
utilize the immense artesian supply.
Total exports from Hawaii in 1896 were
$,5, 30 Ii, of which sugar amounted to
4,352, 12.S3; rice to $l95, 16, and ba-
nanas to S125,OS9.3O OF all exports, 1854
per cent went to our nearest neighbor, the
United States
table is given of foreign vessels enter
ing and clearing at island ports: In 1896
there were 1856 such vessels OF 477y97 tons
Of these. 81 per cent were American. No
other port foreign to America has any cor
siderable percentage Of American vessels
1 think that only two other foreign ports
on the globe see as many American ships
as Honolulu does
The postal bureau Of Hawaii shows for
1886 revenue of 81, 1884, which is an
Increase of S16, 10 over 1885. The ex-
penses have been $62,43541. Total letters
and prints received We're 6l2J79 Money
orders issued were 32SU9, amounting to
SJ.D Des'-22, most of them being domestic
orders.
Ii We Took Hnwairs Debt,
page OF much Importance Is devoted by
the minister to the subject of the assump-
tiOn by the United States of the national
debt of Hawaii. in the event of annexation.
showing how the former country would get
vastly the best of the bargain Such as
sumption of our debt would be necessary
because half of our public revenue would
then pass over to the United States name
~, That from customs and that from the
pc st office: Our debt is little over $1,000
VO. on which we are paying about per
cent, or, in 1896 s236, 1850
Inc United States would pay not over ,
per cent interest, or $12D.OU. In return
they would enjoy the present surplus in
come from:
Customs .........................s4 .s414 ,342 A
s429,935 81
Deduct s120, 600 interest on our debt. and
the United States would thus gain $4,000
year by the transaction, while our local
finances might become seriously embar-
rsssed by the loss of revenue But your
tariff being so much higher than ours, the
receipts from Hawaiian customs would
greatly exceed the present ones. 1t is evil
dent that Hawaii would at once prove a
very paying possession to America. You
are being offered a very wealthy and pros
porous little partner to enter the great
quence to you, 1t Is country already thor
oughly Americanized by nearly eighty years
OF very active American missionary and
commercial work.
This report is brief and compact of only
thirty pages, giving prominent facts In
most accessible form. 1t is especially in
tended as an available document for our
annexation campaign. as en1bodying some of
the most useful information upon Hawaiian
matters. Senators and representatives in
Congress will doubtless receive copies there
of.
1t appears that little appropriat ton of
100000 had some prospect OF being made
by Congress to open the bar at Pearl Har-
bor Senator Frye who proposed 1t. is one
OF Hawaifs S best friends and has his ewes
more opened to Pacific needs than most of
his colleagues. But even he seems to need
more light on the subject For the good
senator's benefit, and to help him push
Pearl Harbor matters rather faster / will
mention that the owners of property In that
vicinity have grown tired after thirteen
years waiting for the United States to
open the harbor and make their property
valuable. They have begun to perceive the
worth Of the old maxim, "If you want
anything done. do 1t yourself" There are
several hundred thousand dollars worth
OF lands adjacent to the locks of Pearl Har-
Dor and between them, whose value will be
immensely enhanced whenever such a noble
seaport is opened in their midst. An i'm
portant movement is rapidly taking shane
NJ
stock company and open the bar them
selves, as well as to make other needed i'm
provements. 1t is only strange that they
have not moved sooner-due perhaps to
tropical sluggishness.
There have lately been some heavy cor
porations launched into most successful
operation in that section, which no doubt
have serN ed to open the eyes Of the gen
tlemen alluded to. There Is the Oahu Rail-
way and Land Company. the first eighteen
miles Of whose track mostly skirts the
shores of the great harbor. They have a
capital Of $2,OOO.O0O. Then there is the
Eva plantation. at the northwest angle
of the harbor. with capital of 81, 600 600.
which paid 100000 In dividends last year
And now the Oahu plantation is organized
and has begun operations, with a capital
of 81 800. 600. This concern occupies the
whole north side Of the harbor. and is
preparing to drive scores of millions of
gallons of artesian water daily up to a
height of 200 to 500 feet to irrigate 1O.OO0
acres of cane fields. Such large ana pros
porous combinations very naturally have
suggested the practicability of much
smaller one to hasten the prospective prof
its for which the hopeful land owners have
been these thirteen years awaiting the ac-
tion OF Uncle Sam. who needs better spec
tacles to see these islands at all,
Hawaiian Enterprise.
They are now getting wide awake and
mean business. II your government can be
n SXrA