The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-13

citation and called upon Francis Mills
Swanzy, one of the trustees, to take
] the floor. This was done and Mr..
| Swanzy read the former memorial:
Statement concerning the Hawaiian Labor
Supply, presented to the Honorable
! Members of the Commission of the
| United States Senate, on behalf of the
Hawaiian Sugar Planters, Association,
September 18th, 1902
| The Hawaiian Sugar Planters Associa-
ton is made up of the sugar planting
corporations and sugar plantation owners
i of the Territory, and its object is TO
make improvements in the manufacture
1 of sugar and to attend to all matters
relating to the interest of the sugar in
dustry in these islands. A board of nine
, trustees attends to the business of the
Association, and it is by this board that
the following representations are made:
The number of plantations on the isl
ands is ffty-two, of which number forty
/, six are fitted out with their own inde-
pendent factories.
/ The total amount of capital invested in
these plantations is about $50 900, 600, and
J the amount of taxes paid annually by
, these plantations to the Territorial Gov
y Is ABOUT SOJU,UUU
| The number of persons at present en-
ployed in cane cu,.ivation and manufac-
| ture is about $500.
/ Last seasons sugar crop was OBS
tons and the number of tons which have
been shipped this season so far is about
500 600.
! Our sugar is shipped either by direct
! steamer or sailing vessel to New York,
by steamer or sanng vessel to San Fran
tpiS pH hX tho Southern Pacific
Railroad Co. to New York, or it is ship
! ped to San Francisco for use in the Cali
! fornia refineries
J The carrying of the sugar to New York
! by long sea is largely conducted by the
American-Hawaiian S. s. Co. This COM
psny, which is the pioneer company Of
American built cargo boats, owes its
origin to the sugar industry of these ISL
| ands. The company's fleet consists of
seven steamers of an aggregate tonnage
of $1,000 tons
| There is engaged in the carriage of
our sugar to California a large fleet of
American steamers and sailing vessels.
| These few statistics serve to show the
magnitude of the sugar business, the
success or failure of which depends to SC
large an extent on a sufficient supply of
labor For field labor in Hawaii a large
proportion of Japanese and Chinese are
an absolute necessity. in so far as no
other class of labor is procurable to any
great extent.
/ Other cane sugar-growing countries
either possess an Indigenous laboring
population for cultivation, or have within
easy reach people who are readily OBJ
tainable for tropical field work and
whose physique and constitution enable
them to undertake such field work with
out fear of injury to their health
/, The native population of the Hawaiian
| Islands is very limited, and the tendency
of the laboring class is not towards field
work They make good mechanics, and
a large portion are engaged in variety
of trades, but agricultural labor appears
to be distasteful to them, and the num-
ber employed on sugar estates is so small
as to be hardly worth mentioning. TINS
being so, it has in past years been neces-
sary to promote immigration OF nelo
Iaborers to the Islands. and many couh-
tries have been drawn from. There mas
/ in the past been emigration from Ger
many, Norway and Sweden, Azores Ma
deira Portugal. Galicia, China and Japan
besides which British, Americans, 1tailahs
and Negroes from the United Statesl
have come in small numbers.
So far as the Europeans and the Amerl-
cans are concerned, they have, with one
exception, been found untitled for tropi-
cal field work; they could not perform 1t,
The one exception noted is that of the
Portuguese from Madeira and the Azores,
who for a few years after their arrlVal
showed themselves willing and capable
to perform good field work. The lmproV-
ed condition of their. own countries no
longer necessitating emigration, these
people now show no disposition to come
! to these Islands. OF the Portuguese who
originally came to Hawaii as assisted
emigrants those who did not go to the
mainland have so prospered that now
they do not engage><to any large extent
in field labor. and their children. by the
aid of the excellent Hawaiian free school
system, have fitted themselves for more
congenial occupation than agricultural
labor affords.
The. impossibility of securing a suffi-
cfent supply of Hawaiian or other laoor-
ers able to endure the work in cane fields
forced the planters of these Islands into
a reliance on China and Japan Cor tie
necessary supply. The Chinese have al
ways proved themselves to be a law
abiding, docile and Industrious people, but
the United States exclusion laws shut ont
this nationality from Hawaii as soon as
annexation became an accomplished fact,
and our sole dependence Is now placed
on Japan for such intermittent supply of
labor as is attracted hither hy the GER
tainty of improved conditions.
Since annexation the difficulty c. secur-
ing an adequate supply of field labor for
sugar plantations has<been en- 1rmous.
Chinese are absolutely prohibited. and
but few Japanese come. while st the
same time numbers of Chinese and jap
anese leave the islands monthly.
To show just what the caadit'CnS are
in this respect it may be stated that from
August 1st, 1901. to June Sd, 1902. 5352
japanese men arrived in the country and
2,SS0 left the country making the total