The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-12-31
TREASURY RULING BRINGS OUT
A NEW BUSINESS.
Local Firm Has Ten Tons Of old Horse
shoes Alone and 300 Tons OF Other
Iron

The old iron business il new busi-
ness i'm Honolulu since the famous In
sular decisions completed the work of
annexation and a treasury department
ruling declared that II was not neCes-
sary for United States ports to examine
goods from Hawaii to see II they were
goods imported into Hawaii, on which
American duties had not been paid.
When Hawaii was a foreign country,
old iron was absolutely worthless.
There was no concern here that could
use it at any price 1t was worth $l2 or
more a ton at San Francisco, but the
American tariff was high enough to eat
up the entire value, with freight added
and so old iron in the islands went to
waste.
After annexation the firm Of German
and Patten took hold of the business
and began sending old iron to San
Francisco. The first shipment went
months ago, when the steamer Helene
went to San Francisco for repairs. IL
was held up by the San Francisco GUS
tom house and duty was assessed. The
amount assessed, over 5000, was paid
under protest, and will now be refunded
1t is expected
German and Patten have over 300
tons of old iron on hand now, awaiting
shipment to the coast. 1t Is made up
of plantation machinery, railroad
tracks, car wheels, etc. shipped from
plantations from all over the Islands,
and most of it rests in a big heap on
Alakea street between King and Hotel.
There are ten tons of old horse shoes
in the pile. horse shoe does not
weigh half a pound so that the pile re-
pt esents over 10000 horse shoes, enough
mascots to more than supply every
house in Honolulu with one, but in
stead of being made into horse shoes
above the door they are to be ship
tn Ia .
Oakland, and there melted up, so that
the citizens of Hawaii are losing a lot
of chances to acquire mascots.
The old iron business is not highly
profitable, even under present COndl-
tions say the men who have taken it
up, but il pays some returns. The
freight from other islands to Honolulu
is SO ton and it is 81 a ton from Homo
lulu to San Francisco. AS 81 ton has
to be paid in some cases for the iron
here, this does not leave much margin.
Much of the iron has to be broken up,
and it is not very easy to break. There
are big car wheels long railroad tracks,
and many heavy pieces of machinery.
Old brass and copper is also handled
now, but in much smaller quantities.
Brass and copper are worth much more
than iron and are much scarcer Ger
man and Patten have about two tons
! of 1t on hand now.
Patten spends most of his time in
| travelling about the islands, picking up
the iron at the various plantations and
breaking it up for shipment. When
seen yesterday he was at work with a
sledge hammer, trying to break a car
! wheel. 1t had a steel band, and half
an hours work left it almost intact,
| Good tempered steel is worthless and
| iron increases in value as IL is easier
melted. for the buyers on the coast
want the stuff broken up and tempered
| steel is not worth the trouble Ii requires
The business will not last indefinitely
on it's present scale, as there will not be
much old iron left in a few months.
/ What is being gathered together now
| is largely the accumulation of years
when iron was of no value here on ac-
/ count of the American tariff Then the
| plantations could do nothing with it,
and now it is an accommodation to
! some of them to take it away.
In the rubbish which the Board of
| Health has dumped in te ocean off
! Honolulu were many tons of old iron
! that might have been sold, but the iron
rests now among the sea weed on the
ocean bed. 1t was supposed to be
| plague-infected anyhow, and the board
would probably never have allowed it
to be shipped
The ruling as to iron holds good as tc
old bottles They may now be shipped
without fear of duty at the other end
one shipment was made before the
treasury departments recent ruling
and it was held up for duty Many OF
the bottles had held beer of English and
German manufacture, or wine from
France, and the bottles had been made
in those countries and were therefory
| regarded as dutiable.
AS far as bottles suitable for beer are
concerned, however, they are now
bought up by the Honolulu brewery
| The cOmDany uses emDtied imDOrte &c
bottles for it's beer and thus saves th'
expense of bottle-making or importing
new bottles.