The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-04

seerS ABOUT Inc same Almost all the me-
chanical trades are supplied by the Chi
nese and Japanese. The Japanese do a
great deal of carpenter work, receiving
therefor from $3.50 to s. a day. There are
japanese shoemakers and tailors, and there
are Chinese plumbers and carpenters. In
the retail stores the Chinese and japanese
compete together for the business, and I
told that the Japanese are now giving
the Chinese very hard race, for the rea-
son 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 Japan
csc of Honolulu are not nearly so reliable
business men as the Chinese They take
many risks, and frequently go into bank
ruptcy. There are, I am told, about two
thousand Japs in Honolulu, and more than
three times that many Chinese. japanese
women, as we'll as men, have been import
ed in large numbers to work on the planta-
tions. Such importations are on the con-
tract labor system, the contract usually
being made for three years.
BIG MONEY IN SUGAR
The big money that has been made in
Hawaii in the past has been from sugar,
and it is in sugar 1 find that the big money
is being made to-day. 1t takes an enor-
nous amount of capital, however, to run
a plantation, and of the sixty different plan
tations in the islands there is not one that
is capitalized at less than $780, coo, and the
money invested in most of them runs into
the millions. Sprecl1els has no longer a
monopoly Of the sugar business. He began
70 sell out his plantations some time ago,
and then all of a sudden stopped selling.
He now controls only one plantation in the
islands and has a small amount of stock in
several others. He is opposing annexation,
and one reason of his opposition, it is
claimed, is that he will lose the refining
of the Hawaiian sugar if the islands be-
come part of the United States. The
sales of his plantations have had some
thing to do with his family quarrels, in
which he has been lighting his sons
The sugar plantations are owned almost
altogether by Americans. They are capt.
talized at about $50, 100000. Some of them
have paid quite large dividends, the aver
age for the past year having been about
II per cent. l am told that some planta-
tions have made double this. The 1uctua-
tions however, in the prices of sugar have
been so great that the business is quite
precarious. 1t is managed on strict bust
ness principles, every means which unlim-
tied money can furnish being used to re-
duce the cost. Take for instance, the Eva
plantation, which made thirteen thousand
tons of sugar last year and is now paying
big dividends. This plantation has a capt.
tai of a million dollars and about one hun
dred stockholders. 1t made no money for
years, and was spending vast amounts
right along. The plantation is eighteen
| miles from Honolulu, and it comprises three
thousand acres. Every foot of it's cane has
| to be watered throughout the year by arte-
sian wells. 1t uses enormous pumping ma
chinery, which is imported from America.
Its first pumps came from New York, and
! it has just now put in others made by Fra
ger & Chalmers, of Chicago, at cost of
| about $50, 600. In another plantation near
the Eva they are putting in machinery
built by the Worthington Pump Company,
of New York, and am told that this plan
tation alone will spend something like $780,
600 on its extensions this year.
I learn that there is little undeveIoped
sugar land left in the islands, Such new
plantations as are made will have to be
irrigated by means of artesian wells, and
the cost is so great that it will require a
very large capital. The last three planta-
lions which have been established have
| cost respectively, $75O,OO0, $1,000, 900 and 81,
| 100000. There is no room in sugar for the
small capitalist, and all Of the plantations
are now managed by stock companies 1t
takes sixteen months to grow the crop and
only three crops can be made in four years
Fertilizers to the amount of 100000 were
used on the cane there last year. and more
than half of this fertilizing matter was
imported
Much of the remainder of the fertilizer
came from the guano fields of the Sandwich
islands. If the country is annexed Uncle
Sam will add to his population an enormous
colony Of birds. On Layson island, which
is far to the westward, there are thousands
and thousands of sea gulls. They cover the
island, walking as it were, over the beds
Of guano made by themselves and their an
cestors. These birds are so thick that you
have to kick them aside as you walk about
the island. They are exceedingly tame and
by law no shooting is allowed there. There
are several overseers, and they have to
build little paling fences around their cot
tages to keep the birds from crawling upon
the porches and going nto the houses.
The young gulls are said to be good for
eating, and / am told that when the over
seers or labOrers want birds on toast for
breakfast they go out with a club and
knock over a couple and hing them in to
the cook.
FORTUNES IN COFFEE RAISING.
The Hawaiians here at Washington say
that the best chance for The large or small
investor in Hawaii just now is in coffee
lands. There is a larst mount of such
lands in the islands. They : lust above
the sugar belt, at an altitud - from 1000
10 5000 feet above the sea living the
planter the finest clir.al IN the world.
Good lands can be baua, 4 on the market
for S25 an acre, but the government which
IS very anxious to have small investors is
selling its government lands to homestead
ers for from $40 to So an acre. Fifty acres
make good-sized plantation for one man
TO attend to- The work is more like or
charding than farming. The trees have to
be carefully trimmed and taken care Of
They begin to bear about the third year.
and the fourth year produce a good crop
Then the plantation forms an Independent
living for the remainder of a mans life
and a good inheritance for his children
1t takes some labor, however to make such
a plantation. and a man should have at
least $1,000 ahead at the start. l have be-
fore me an estimate of the cost of main
tanning a plantation of seventy-five acres
for seven years. including the purchase of