The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-10-14
BOW LABOR IS GOT
FOB ISLAND PLANTATIONS


Engineers, pump, Sugar Boilers,
Chief Assistant.
Engineers, Supt- experimenting
steam piow. Engineers.
Engineers, Trac- Surveyors.
tion. Teachers.
Foreman, Car kindergarten.
penters. Ilmekeepers.
Foremen, Masons. Tinsmiths.
Well-borers
"'Since the early part of this year a
large number of citizen labor las APP
piled for various positions on the plan
tations and many have been acconlmo-
dated. We have sent out from this Of
fee alone since March of this year
over forty people and have had appli-
cations from the plantations, which we
have been unable to fill, of about half
that number 1t is very difficult some
times to find the men when they are
needed Many of them leave their ad-
dresses as General Delivery Homo
lulu. and time and time again letters
addressed to them offering them posi-
tions have been returned by the Dead
Letter Office. Again they Will move
from the address which they gave and
leave no word as to their whereabouts,
or they will have found a position
either in town or on plantation and
have failed to notify this office. The
list which we occasionally send to the
plantations showing the names of the
applicants, is very often corrected,
showing that men named therein have
already obtained work on plantations
without having Informed US.
"Just recently there was occasion
to employ four carpenters on Maui and
of the five men sent for not one was
obtained, and it became necessary to
advertise in the papers. Some of those
sent for on this occasion had changed
their residences and others had found
employment.
"There are also on my list num-
Der of men who stop here for few
days on their way to the Coast from
Manila by the U. S. transports.
These men come in and demand imme-
date positions, which, of course, it is
impossible to find for them, but they
leave their applications nevertheless
and they are carried along for some
time Many negroes returning from
the Philippines have sought work and
when it has been suggested to them
that this is small country and it
would be better for them to proceed to
the mainland where work is more plen-
tiful, they say it is going to be cold up
there before many months and they
would prefer to stay in a warm eli
mate.
''The unreasonableness of some of
the applicants is also matter of an
noyanee at times. 1t is but natural
that a plantation manager should pre-
fer to employ his men at the planta-
tion if possible, rather than to send to
a third party to pick him out a desir-
able person and I have laid stress upon
this to most all of the applicants, adj
vising them if possible to see the PLAN
tation managers. An especially an
moving case of this kind occurred "a
short time ago. A man who had been
given his picture and two columns of
the Advertiser to roast the Planters
Association for not furnishing him i'm
mediate employment, was sent through
this Office to plantation on Kauai.
Reports as to his competency are con-
flicting, but leaving that aside, he had
trouble with the manager, or head car
penter, and when work was slack was
dismissed, after being there for some
months. He wrote to the Association
and said that he was coming back to
Honolulu and wanted work. In re-
ply 10 tu1S. d letter wa StHt 10 uluu,
telling him to seek work on Kauai be-
fore returning to Honolulu; but the
minute he was discharged he rushed
to Lihue and came to Honolulu with
out turning his hand to seek another
position up there, and when it was
limited to him that we would do all
that we could to obtain employment
for him, but that we rather objected to
his lying down on the association, he
seemed indignant and it is expected
that another roasting will appear in
the Advertiser.
, Many of the men who file their APP
plications for skilled positions are men
that we could not under any circum-
stances, send to the plantations; the
danger signal looms up in the middle
of their faces, and there certainly
would be trouble if we undertook to
put them into responsible positions
1.-THE records of a great many of
these men have also been sent to this
office from the plantations, where they
have worked, and some of them are not
very reassuring. Some time ago "a
| man who appeared to be a responsible
hard working fellow, was secured a po-
sltion on a Hawaii plantation; he had
been miner and had absolutely no ex-
pCIIcnCe LII plantation WOrk, DuC he
was hard up and on his uppers, and
after a number of personal letters to
plantation managers, he was secured
position. He touched me for $500 to
pay his board bill and a ticket was
given him for the Kinau. The follow
ing day / met him on King street
beastly drunk, and the plantation was
unfortunately deprived of his ser
vices Somebody, however, used the
ticket which had been given the appli-
cant.
''As a general rule, however, the
men that have been sent out from this
office have given satisfaction and this
work will be continued in dead ear
nest, Notwithstanding the occasional
disappointments.
1.-The plantation statistics show that
the proportion of citizen labor in the
skilled positions is continually on the
increase. In 1904 in July there We're
452 skilled Americans as against 553
on all of the plantations, July, 1905,
and 3S7 Portuguese as against 316 in
1904. The number of skilled Asiatics,