The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-11-24

! At Waiakea all the cane is put in cars
by leaders, and there is a saving of
fifty men per day. while ten laborers
are saved by the unloaders. The cost,
put on sleds was nine cents per ton,
and for handling 11.12 cents. At Wal
alua a different loader has been in use.
Mr.. Kennedy thought that the planta-
tions here are slow in making changes,
when labor is plenty, but once let labor
be scarce, as 1t is getting to be. 1t will
be necessary to get labor saving ma
chinery. At Waiakea the wire rope
and trolley system invented by Mr..
Horner is in use. Some people say that
fiuming is cheapest, but Mr.. Kennedy
said he didn't believe this to be true.
/ Mr.. Kennedy suggested also that there
must be some inventive genius in the
/ islands, who could remedy conditions,
/ and that some attention should be
I paid to this feature, instead of using
everything for laboratory work. 1t
cost $3.50 per ton of sugar to get cane
' to the mill after being cut, but nothing
is done to reduce the expense, while all
goes to scientific work after getting the
! sugar into the mill. Mr.. Kennedy sug-
| gested that money be spent by the As
ISOLATION to stimulate the work of in
/
ner, Crozier and Wilson had been given
| that more work is necessary outside
the boiling house, than inside, and
thought that the managers should meet
the inventors at least half way. In
conclusion some figures were given as
to cost of transporting the cane. on
Kauai where portable railway is used
! in five plantations, the cost averages
41.6 cents per ton of cane. On Oahu
four places using portable railway, the
cost is Al cents. on Maui three plan
tations using railway and fiume
spend but 3l1 cents per ton of cane.
At Kohala by wagon and fume the
cost is "a cents, in Hamakua fluming
and gravitation cost 45.5 cents and at
Hilo the cost is AZ cents.
GENERAL DISCUSSION.
Mr.. Thurston suggested that Mr..
Kennedy had touched one of the most
important points in the questions be-
fore the planters, and that something
should be done to improve the methods
of loading cane out of the fields and
transportation to the mills. He said
that experiments had been made with
the Gregg cane loader which did not
show a saving over the old method.
RENToN's OPINION.
Mr.. G. F. Renton said that in his
opinion loading cane by machinery was
only a question of time. The cost of
loading on the f1imsy machine already
tried had been several cents higher
than by hand. Eva plantation had
been debating a trial of the Wilson
cane loader. A proposition had also
been made by Gregg for the sale of the
three machines, but he would have to
! take chances on their success, and pre-
ferred first to try the Wilson machine
Wilson had figured that he could load
cane cheaper than by hand.
M'SToCKER'S VIEWS.
f. B. McStocker, manager of Olaa,
| said Kennedy had touched the prime
point in the sugar industry. Olaa had
| found the cost of transporting by
| portable track to be seventy-five per
cent higher than by flume. He thought
some method of assembling the cane
ives the first essential.
MANAGER LOW TALKS.
Manager Low, of Honolulu planta-
ton, doubted the accuracy of the sta
| tistics given. The Oahu plantations
all had the same system of bookkeep-
ing and he doubted whether cane could
be handled any cheaper than is done
here, except by fluming. Mr. Low said
he saw no reason why the association
shouldn't spend money to help such an
invention, as everyone wanted to get
along with less labor. He had seen
all machines working, and didn't see
where labor had been minimiZed, I'M
less by special superintendence. He
said it was not only question of cut
ting the price of handling cane below
that of labor, but of doing away with
labor He favored the association
spending money to get a machine
which would do the work.
WILL MAKE TESTS.
In this connection Mr.. Low stated
that representative of the Osborne
corn cutter had been in the city en-
route to Australia and on his return
expected to spend four months in the
cane fields her., in an attempt to
adapt the corn cutter to cane fields
The objection Mr.. Low found in wide
burrows, this man had thought was
an advantage.
NlLSoN NANS loAbEh'
Manager Goodale detailed some of
the experiments which had been made
at Waialua plantation with the Wilson
cane loader. This was the invention
of a man named Webster and the OBJ
lection to machines in the difficulty
of moving over the high ridges on an
irrigated plantation. had been done
| away with by Wilson. The inventor
J also believed that the weight of the
| machine could be made less than eight
| tons, which also would help. The first
two months of the tests had been very
disheartening and no dependence could
be placed on the machine, but the mill
| was closed down for a month. and al
| terations made in the machine and it
had worked successfully for the re-
mainder of the season. The highest
average loaded in one day was 1854
tons. japanese did just as well in
operating the machine as did the in
| ventor, and Mr.. Goodale believed that
the presence of the machine was a
prant nhiarf laSSpn FOR tho To