The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1903-10-18

Honolulu business men are just
awaking TO the fact that some of the
steamship lines are giving them shabby
treatment in return for the outlay of
| money they are making to draw tour
| lists to the islands, which in turn helps
| out the steamships in filling their state
rooms with passengers. The case of the
| o. &, o. Company's liner Coptic, which
arrived on Thursday shortly before 2
p. m., and hurried out four hours lat
er for San Francisco, caused unfavor-
able comment in business circles. The
result of this unnecessary haste-for
was that many business houses failed
to get important mail matter off to the
mainland and will have no opportunity
| to do so until the Aorangi leaves for
Vancouver on October 21, or the Ameri-
ca Maru on Oct. "a.
| The failure of the Coptic to remain
the date scheduled for her departure,
| upset the hotels as we'll as the mer-
| chants. The Coptic's passengers barely
/ had time to find their way up to the
| principal streets, much less to spend
any money, which they are expected to
| do If given time.
| 1t has been an old established rule of
| the steamship companies that all
through steamers remain in port for
| twelve hours of daylight, at least. OF
| late this custom has been disregarded
| to the inconvenience of those who
( make use of the mail facilities, and to
| the loss of the business community
| which figures on certain amount Of
| gain through the tourist traffic.
| 1t is the belief of many business men,
who rely upon tourist business largely,
/ that several of the steamship COM
| panies are making no effort to study
| our conditions or convenience, despite
| the fact that Honolulu is a big feeder
| for the steamships, both in passengers
and freight. Recently the Korea came
in from the west, and the entire Orient
gave only forty passengers, while one
| hundred were scooped up and whisked
| away. The hurrying off of the steamer
made loss in two ways. The quick
departure compelled many hotel guests
to leave for the ship just before dinner
time, which was one loss, and of course
the through passengers did not dine
| ashore, 4as is their custom when oppor-
/ tunity affords.
The Moana last month, filled with
| passengers, was in port but a very
| short time. The Korea was here for a
/ brief stay. The Coptic made almost
L - .fa 70 o1t n
she departed for San Francisco at least
| fourteen hours ahead of her scheduled
time to arrive. All the boats with
American bottoms, land heavy freights
coming and going. The foreign bottom
boats operating between San Francisco
and Orient generally carry an average
! of about 800 tons of freight for Homo
lulu from Oriental ports.
In striking and discriminating con-
trast is the favoritism shown to jap
anese and Chinese ports. At Yokohama
through boat spends about forty
eight hours, at Kobe, twenty-four
hours; at Nagasaki, often twentyfour
hours, and considerable time is given to
Shanghai. The tourists spend money.
and much of it, at all these ports, and
| the longer they are ashore, the more
they spend, and the same would be true
of Honolulu, were it not for an appar-
ent desire ON the part of the steamship
officials to give this place the go-by.
The local government and private
| wharf owners have always extended
the steamship companies privileges,
and the courtesy of the steamship Off
cials in permitting their through boats
to remain in port at least twenty-four
hours would largely compensate them.
When through vessels arrive ahead of
schedule time, they certainly will not
be losing steaming time by laying over
in this port until the scheduled date is
almost spent.
Mr.. Arundel, in charge of the Ocean
Island guano exploitation work, who
came here recently from London to
meet his company's freight steamer
| Isleworth, was completely put out by
the quick departure of the Coptic. He
had arranged to complete some impor-
| tant business deals on Thursday even
ing and wind up his correspondence the
same night and Friday to catch the
mail which he supposed would leave
| Friday morning. He heard during the
| afternoon the vessel was to leave about
p. m. He rushed around and in one
half an hour got some of his corre-
spondence off, but had to forego COM
pleting important communications. Mr.
Arundel said to well known business
man: why do the business men let
this matter go on? This only prevents
the tourist from spending money and
+, it doesn't give them much chance to
/, see the place.
1t is said that Mr.. Schwerin of the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company has
come to the conclusion that ten hours
is about long enough for that COM
pany's boats to stay at Honolulu They
could just as well remain twenty-four,
| is the belief of the business communi-
| ty.
The Hawaii Promotion Committee,
the joint organization conducted by the
] Chamber of Commerce and fhe Nor