The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-06-17
FARMING AND IMMIGRATION.


, the mainland, though the farmers them
selves want to come and have been
making inquiries for a year and more
about land, climate and products. I'm
doubtedly there is n strong conserva-
tive influence in the islands working
against any change, however slight,
from the system of baronial estates in
habited by serfs and making returns to
stockholders. This was indicated in a
recent interview With Hon. w. G. Irwin
in which he said:
II have lived in Hawaii for fifty
years and know something of the coun-
try. Frequently 1 have been asked If
II offers good inducements for people
who would like to migrate there with
view of making permanent homes.
1t Is not easy to give a direct answer
The agricultural labor will, in my opin-
ion, always be done by Asiatics, for
the reason that the climate is too warm
and enervating for men of the white
race, and, aside from agriculture,
there is not much to be done, except
perhaps a limited amount of cattle
and sheep breeding. So, on the whole,
the islands are not inviting from the
immigration standpoint but they form
a most beautiful and picturesque part
of creation, and no one who ever has
time to pay a visit there ever regrets
the trip"
This Is a very mild way of putting
the conservative side of the argument,
but two impressions are left in the mind
of the enquiring farmer namely, that
the climate would not be good for him
and that he would find agriculture in
the hands of Asiatics. Against the first
| postulate one may urge that white
farmers do well in hotter places, like
the interior valleys of California; and
| against the second, that the best kinds
of small farming here have not yet been
attempted and cannot, therefore, be In
anybody's hands. They await the COM
ing of intelligent white men who, no
doubt, would make the same use of the
cheap labor on the ground that the
fruit-pickerS of Santa Clara county do,
and with it's aid create or extend new
and feasible lines of industry such as
the cultivation of sisal, tobacco, coffee,
vanilla, export fruits, bananas, pine
apples, rubber, castor beans, etc.
Mr.. Walter NJ. Giffard, second vice.
president of VIM. G. Irwin & Co., Ltd,
a man of great intelligence and local
knowledge, is performing mastery
work in showing the adaptation of Ha-
wall to other commodities than sugar.
The books in the land department of
the Territorial government prove the
existence of a large number of acres on
the various islands that could be profit
ably applied to diversified farming. In
reference to the use of white labor on
the plantations, Mr.. Irwin's view is
probably correct, and resident Ameri-
cans. who have studied local conditions,
have long since advocated under rea-
sonable precautions, the Introduction of
10000 Chinese for the benefit of the
cane fields. But the reason for this
necessity is chiefly the indisposition of
white or Hawaiian laborers to enter
into competition with Asiatics in this
branch of industry. The climate has
something, but not everything, to do
with the question. In the San Joaquin |
and Sacramento valleys in California
the heat is far greater, and, making |
all possible allowance for the difference |
in moisture and the comparative cool
ness of the winters, far more oppres-
sive than in Hawaii; and there, during |
the summer as well as in the winter |
months, whites are constantly employ
ed though even there the encroach-
ments of Asiatics have been felt and |
in some measure are encouraged. In |
the Sacramento valley, in June, July |
and August, the thermometer often |
ranges, in the middle of the day, from
ITO degrees to 112 degrees Fahrenheit |
in the shade, and 80 degrees is not I'M
common at three o'clock in the morning.
Those who have watched, day after
day, for a week or more at time for
the cooling south wind will appreciate
the intense oppression, though unac-
companied by sunstroke, through which
they have passed In the San Joaquin
valley, especially in its southern parts,
removed from the sea, the summer heat
is even greater. In portions of Arizona
the thermometer attains still higher
range. AT this time of the year. in
New York, in Chicago, in Philadelphia,
in st. Louis and in Washington,
throughout many of the northern and
middle states, as well as in the fields of |
the southern states, the heat oppres-
sion far transcends any Honolulu ex-
perience.
The fact is that owing to the trade
winds and the mountain ranges, Ha-
wall. though within the tropics and
famed for tropical productions, does
not possess a genuinely tropical eli
mate. The local heat in the warmest
places, rarely attains even 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, and at different elevations,
almost any desired temperature can be
found. The labor question arises, not
altogether from climate but also from
our contiguity to Asia, and from the
increasing intelligence and race con-
seriousness Of the whites and their de-
termination 10 rise above plantation
work, which Ia the great detriment of
Americans and white Europeans. Is
also possessed by the Japanese and the
Chinese, whose competition In the high
er walks of industry, while making no
pretensions 10 citizenship, Is a valuable
aid TO tho selfish policy of exclusion,
now driving the whites away which