The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-03-11
ASK A REDUCTION
Japanese Merchants Say Tariff On
Sake Is Too High.
DUTY A HARDSHIP ON LABORERS
Petition to Senate-Postal Bureau
Appropriations-H
Business.
SENATE.
Nineteenth Day, March 10.

Nineteenth Day, March 10.
Senator Brown presented petition
signed by several responsible Japanese
of the city, asking that the import duty
on sake be reduced. This plea is on
behalf of their countrymen who are la
the advanced rate, are almost prohibit
ed to indulge in their national drink
Under the former duty the average
laborer consumed one pint of sake per
day. The price of sake was 6S cents
per gallon so that each laborer's liquor
cost him S1a cents each day or $255 a
month. The present duty of $100 per
gallon brings the cost of the daily pint
of sake up to "a cents, and the cost
per month up to 1920. The merchants
say that the average wages of planta-
they simply cannot afford to indulge
in sake as literally as has been their
custom in Japan.
According to the merchants this con-
sumption is not excessive drinking;
actual intemperance among them does
not exist and the drink is almost a
necessity, therefore the deprivation
| works a hardship. The merchants say
further that the almost prohibitive
tariff cause a loss of $4,000 per an
mum to the Government. The petition
was referred to the Committee on Com
| merce, Agriculture and Manufactures
| for thorough investigation.
| A communication was received from
| the House announcing the passage of
and transmitting House bill / relating
to suspension of sentence. The bill
| later passed the first reading
A report was presented by Senator
| Lyman from the Public Lands Com
| mittee relating to certain items in ap-
preparation bill for unpaid accounts.
Senator Rice reported the Senate Bill
| to extend certain streets ready for
third reading, and the Senate bill eX-
empting certain property from taxa
tion, printed and ready for distribu-
ton.
Six small items in the unpaid ac-
counts bill were passed and on mo-
ton of Senator Brown, two new ones
were inserted. They were the claim
of the Woodlawn Dairy for 1866 for
the killing of tuberculous cattle and
the claim of the Honolulu Dairy for
1880 for the same reason. The two
items on motion of Senator Water
house were referred to a special COM
mittee, the appointment of which, the
President announced, would be made
later.
hQ
these two claims to open up discus
sion on the matter and to determine
whether or not the Government was
liable for the value of the cattle thus
destroyed by order of the Board of
Health. He was not prepared to say
whether or not he favored the plan.
In some states of the Union the owners
of cattle were remunerated for their
loss, in others they were not. There
were adverse claims in Honolulu. The
dairies held that some of the cattle
killed were free from tuberculosis
while the authorities stated that they
were diseased. If the Government did
kill cattle not afflicted they should GER
| tainly pay for them. If they were
diseased it was another question and
| it should be settled.
| Senator Waterhouse believed it a
subject of such Importance that it
should be thoroughly investigated.
| The special committee on Postal Bu-
reau, through Senator McCandless as
chairman, recommended the passage
Of the salary items in the bill. The
Bureau is on a paying basis and there
has been an enormous increase in all
branches of the service of from so to
100 per cent The salaries OF the Sec
retary, the Superintendent Of the Post
al Savings Bank and the Superintend-
ent of the Postal Money Order Depart
ment were all raised to $4,000 for the
period. The item of S33, 720, salaries
of 20 clerks, was passed. The list in
cluded four additional clerks, rendered
absolutely necessary, the committee re-
ported, because Of the increase in for
eign mails and the fact that there were
often foreign steamers arriving and
Island steamers leaving on the same
day and the present force could not
get up the work
The item of $40,0 for pay of post
masters includes the expense Of a new
system which the Postmaster-Gene
proposes to inaugurate of appointing
! the purser or freight clerk on each of
the larger Island steamers a mail clerk,