The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-11-13


yet another source of industry which
should have careful attention, and
which has only been experimental up
on in small way, this is tea.
About year ago The Star published
a series of articles upon the subject
written by a practical tea planter, but
it was seed sown on stony ground. We
shall have to wait for the introduction
of the tea industry till the agricultural
department takes it up. When the ex-
pertinent station is properly under way,
and there are scientific agriculturalists
looking after the station and doing their
utmost to diversity our industries we
may look forward to considerable
things from tea.
There are millions of pounds of tea
imported into the United States annual
ly. The product comes chiefly from
China, but India supplies great deal,
the United States standing third in the
| list of the customers of that country.
There is no valid reason why Hawaii
| should not have a share of this trade
to her utmost capacity We know that
tea will grow here. The experiment in
Kona proved that. Indeed the Japan
variety grew better than it did in Japan
There was no difficulty about the
growth the difficulty lay in the curing.
This requires great care and men of ex=
! perience to supervise. But such can
| be obtained here, as they have been in
Assam and other parts of India.
1t will be all up with the tea industry
and in fact any industry if we get
Bryans' free silver policy working, but
of that there is fortunately no chance.
The tea trade in India was menaced by
the silver standard. j. e. O'Conor, the
most able statistician in India thus ex-
plains the situation.
I'm the seven years since the closure
of the minis, the exports of tea have in
creased by as much as 80 per cent; and,
although prices have not been able to
maintain all along what owners of tea
estates would regard as a satisfactory
level, in the face of the constantly in
creasing quantities shipped from India
! and Ceylon to what is after all limit
ed market, yet the industry has happily
not been overtaken by the ruin and de-
ISOLATION which were so freely pro-
phesied to be the consequence of plac-
ing the Indian currency system on a
sound basis. Nor, happily, are there
any indications that the industry is not
likely to be even more solidly pro j.
porous in the future than in the past.
What "a vicious currency system dill
in Brazil for coffee, the unsound cur
rency system of India was doing to tea.
The temporary stimulus given by de.
preciated paper or deprec .ated silver led
to rapid extensions of cultivation: the
increasing supply led to fall in prices;
the fall in prices led 20 II further de-
mand for depreciation in the currency.
in order that the speculative planter
might find from the taxpayers the pro.
fit which he could no longer find from
customers in an oversupplled market
I'm Brazil this vicious circle is sull
! being travelled, and the issue can only
! be either the ruin of the planters who
are aghast at any suggestion for cur
rency reform, or a complete and hope
/ less insolvency of the country. In IN
dia, this road has been closed. ana the
capitalist will now place his money in
/ tea with exclusive reference to the con-
| ditions of cultivation and consumption
and without an eye to a depreciating
currency. II is by no means .improb-
able that the near future may see \
gradual restoration of the price level
already initiated during the past wear.
to level which will satisfy the pro
/ ducers and not restrict CONSUMPTION.
This throws a light upon the coffee
industry of Brazil which is a new one.
but which is no doubt true one. In
/ fact one has only to look around the
/ countries which hold a deprecated
standard to see into what a homeless
muddle they got into both in their com
mercial relations and in their agricul-
tural enterprises.
If Bryan is elected we shall have four
years depression If he is not elected
we shall have four years prosperity and
the DIVERSIFIED industries of Hawaii will
be undertaken and pushed forward, put
ing it on solid basis for the future.