Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-07-03

inglon. You have japanese and Chill
ese for servants, but you cannot get
along without number OF them.
Everything you eat with the exception
OF vegetables and meat, is imported,
and almost everything you wear comes
from the United States. AT the legation
today got the Honolulu prices OF the
more common articles. Hams cost
from 10 to 80 cents pound; bacon
rom 10 to 30 cents, and cheese, rom 20
to as cents pound. Flour costs 81 so
hundred weight, and e,gs from rs to
so ce is n dozen. On the other hand,
fresh meat is quite cheap. You can get
good porterhouse steak for from to IS
cents pound, corn beef will COST you
7 cents a pound, potatoes ? cents a
pound, and ice about l cent a pound.
You can hire cook ior from IS to SO
week, and nurse will cost you from 50
to sI2 month The steamship rates Ia
gong 10 the island are not high. The
round trip costs SI25, and you nave sew
eral good lines by which to make the
trip. The Oceanic Line sails twice a
month from San Franc SEQ. the Pacific
Mail and the o. and O. Steamships Stop
there on their way 10 Japan, and there is
a Canadian line which will take you
HUH NlCtOllh " IlouOluiu oJeC d ihohAh.
NO PLACE FOR POOR MEN.
The eight largest of the Sandwich Is
lands. which form the best part OF the
country. are less in size than Massachu-
seus. They have population OF about
GO, 600, OF which over 5000 are either
Wholly or partly natives, or Chinese or
Japanese. All Of these work more or
less, and hence the islands are no place
for poor men, common lsborers or
clerks. There are more bookkeepers
and copyists in Honolulu today than can
find employment, The Chinese, oil
whom there are 5000, and Jap inese,
"a 900, have not ouly ruined the white
labor market, but they have to a large
extent swallowed up the small business
es The natives, 5000, also compete
in the labor market. As common work.
men Chinese aud Japanese get from
SI2 so to SIS month and board them
selves. The Portuguese and Hawaiians
receive as nigh as SIS Tor tue same work.
White teamsters get about $50 month
and board. Book-keepers on the plan
tations receive from 500 to sI75 a
month, aud overseers about the same.
Almost all the mechanical trades are
supplied by The Chinese and japanese,
! The Japanese do great deal OF carpen-
ter work, 'eceiving therefor from s2 so
TO IS day. There are Japanese shoe
makers and tailofs, aud there are Chin
csc plumbers and carpenters. In the re-
tail stores the Chinese and Japanese
compete together for the business, and
am Told that the Japanese are now CIV
ing the Chinese a very hard race, for the
reason that the Chinese import their
goods direct from England and America,
and the Japanese get only samples, and
then send these samples on to Japan TO
be copied there for the Hawaiian trade.
The Japanese of Honolulu arenot nearly
SO reliable business men as The Chinese.
/ They take many risks, and frequently
go into bankruptcy. There are, | am
told, about 400 laps in Honolulu, and
more than three times that many Chin
csc. japanese women, as well as men,
have been imported in large numbers TO
work on the plan atoms. Such impor-
tations are on the contract labor system.
the contract usually being made ior
three years,
BIG MONEY IN SUGAR.
The big money tina, has been made in
Hawaii in the past has been from su gar,
and it is in sugar find that the big mon
ey is beng made today. Ii ttFes an
enormous amount OF capital, however.
to run plantation, and OF the sixty diff
ferent plantations IN the island there is
not one that is capitalized at less than
1900, 600. and the money invested in
most of them runs mo the millions.
Speckels has no longer monopoly OF
the sugar business. He began to sell
out his plantations some t me ago. and
then all of sudden stopped selling.
He now controls only one plantation in
the islands and has a small amount OF
stock in several others. He opposing
annexation, and one reason OF his OPP
position. it is claimed, is that he will lose
the refining OF the Hawaiian sugar II
the islands become part If the United
States The sales Of his plantations
have had something to do 18th his family
quarrels in which he has been lighting
his sons.
The sugar plantations are owned al
most altogether by Americans. They
are capitalized at about s35, 900, ooo.
Some o. them have paid quite large
dividends, the average for the past year
having been about IL per cent. am
told that some plantations have made
double this. The fluctuations, however,
in tue prices of sugar have been 80 great
that the business IS quite precarlous. 1t
Is managed on strict business principles.
every means which Unlimited money can
furnish be ng used to reduce The cost.
Take, for instance, the Eva p mt t on,
which made IS 600 ions oil sugar st
year and is now paying big dividends
This plantation has capital OF mlllion
dollars and about 100 stackholdeis. 1t
made no money for years and was speud-
ing vast amouns right along. The plan
tation is eighteen lies from Honolulu,
and it comprises ooo acres. Every loot
Of its cane has 10 be watered Throughout
The year by altesian wells. It uses
enormous pumping machin; ry, which is
| imported from America. It's trst pumps
cane from New York. and II has Just
now put IN others made by Frazer and
Chalmers Of Chicago AZ a cost OF about
$4,000. In another plantation near the
EVA they are putting in machinery built
| by the Worthington Pump Company OF
New York, and am told that tbs pau
| ,ation alone will. spend something like
| 10000 on its extensions this year.
| lsarn that thee is little undeveloped
sugar lard left in the Islands. Such
new planta ions as are made will have TO
be irrigated by means OF artesian wells,
and the cost is so great that It will re
quire a very large capital. The last