The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-06-11
PACIFIC IMPORT COMPANY. Ltd.
MODEL BLOCK. FORT STREET

| God he had come to Hawaii" In &
| number of instances men had smaller
| sums than those mentioned deposited
| with their employers.
1 Many of the Porto Ricans had re-
| course to DR.. L. c. Alvarez, the Span
| ish vice-consul in Honolulu, as a friend
| ~ adviser during the difficulties and
misunderstanding attending their ar
rival, and have remained in correspon-
dence with him since. He has received
complaints of harsh treatment from but
5 of the 80 plantations, and when some
rumor was circulated through the ISL
ands to the effect that the Washing
ton Government would send trans
port to take the men back to Porto
Rico some of them wrote to protest
against this gross injustice, as they
considered it, of being deprived of their
present opportunities and forced to re
turn to their own country. OF course
many of the men are hOmesick. and
probably a very large majority of them
would welcome an opportunity to re-
turn to Porto Rico. They suffer from
the same nostalgia that affects Euro
pean immigrants to the United States.
OPINIONS OF MANAGERS.
The opinions of managers as to the
efficiency of Porto Rican laborers differ,
but most of those interviewed thought
that sifted men, who had remained
steadily on the plantations, were sat
isfactory. From 40 to 60 per cent of
the laborers originally received were
reported good. A few managers, in
Guiding one or two with the longest pay
rolls in the islands, prefer not to have a
Porto Rican in their employ, while
others retain in their service all who
apply for work. The manager of the
Kohala Sugar Company says in his
report for 1901: ''The Porto Ricans
have turned out we'll and are among
the best laborerS on the plantation,
and are improving greatly
The annual report of Olaa plantation
for the same year contains the follow
ng statement by the manager:
I'VE have on the plantation 237 Porto
Ricans including women and children
Although there is among them a good
deal of poor material, the majority of
them are fair workers and we have lit
tie trouble with them. 1 think the one
prime reason for this is that we have
continuously maintained in our employ
a thoroughly competent interpreter, so
that there has been no misunderstand-
ing between laborers and manager as
to what was wanted on either side
One manager states that the Porto
Ricans in his force constantly improve,
but that they have to be taught to
eat sufficient and wholesome food. AL
most the same opinion was recently ex-
pressed by a large employer of native
labor in Cuba. The manager at Wal
alua thought the Porto Ricans remain
ing in his employ were good men, but
not equal to the Japanese, while man
ager on Kauai and another on Hawaii
considered that they accomplished more
field work in a day than any Asiatic
and nearly as much as a Portuguese
or a European. Two cases We're actu-
ally observed where Porto Rfcan and
Japanese gangs CHANGED to be work
ing in the same field, in one instance
cutting cane and in the other distrib-
uting fertilizer, and on both occasions
the Porto Ricans We're covering ground
much faster than the Orientals. There
was complaint that Porto Ricans work
irregularly. but this is only partially
borne out by the figures taken from
the books of two large plantations for
the months of July and August, 1902.
The averages, for men only, are as fol-
lows: