The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-10-04
F|sHMARkET Lot
FOR GOAL DEPOT
To Supply All Passenger Boats
Is the Suggestion of
Ia. McCandIess.

Editor Advertiser: With all this
talk the last few days about the
esthetic Improvement of the water
front, I would like to know where the
money is to come from to carry out
Mr.. Robinson s recommendation, and if
we had the money, would it be wise
to spend it for such purpose. Per-
sonally, l am of the opinion that it
would not.
The situation of Honolulu at the
the commercial side of this controversy
Here we have, on Allen street, slips
] completed for the accommodation of
| three OF the largest sized steamers and.
the plans adopted for slips for three
more vessels. making total wharfage
for six of the largest steamers af1oat
at one time, making a dockage that
| any sea port town might well be proud
of. We hope it won't be long before
they viii all be occupied and we know
that on completion of the Panama canal
our present wharf facilities will be en-
tirely inadequate to handle the ship
ping which viii come this way. While
additional wharfage will be necessary
another very important factor must
be considered.
How are we going to coal the call
ing passenger and freight steamers in |
the futurel 1t must he done in the /
most economical manner possible so |
as to let shippers know that they
can obtain coal at the lowest possible
price. At the present time, / under
stand that the best Australian coal /
can be laid down in Honolulu at one
dollar and fifty cents ($1.5O) per ton
less than it can be laid down in San
Francisco. If this be correct, we have
big advantage already. Then we
must handle the coal after it is here
from the collier to the pile and from
the pile to the steamer we sell it to,
as cheaply as any other port. If we
do this, it win help make this gen
eral port of call.
In order to handle this coal econom-
ically, it must be piled near enough the
docks to be handled by machinery and
the only place we have is the Fish
market block and parts of two or
three more lots ON the manka side of
Allen street. This, I submit then, is
the place and the only place TO store
the coal for passenger steamers. Ash
to freight steamers, there are other
parts of the harbor where they can
be handled just as well I,
As for giving one steamship company
he control of any one of our water ]
'front.' blocks TO the exclusion of any
'ther steamship company, I would say !
no. thousand times. Let sAe Ter
itory lease one or two blocks 20 our F
resent coal dealers or TO a combina- b
ion of steamship companies with the =
light to erect coal handling plants,
With the condition that they maintain r
coal supply and that they viii sell
GAL at reasonable profit to all pas =
enger steamers requiring it, or an
ther way, if this plan Is objectiona- v
lie. Let the Territory grant permits Q
0 the different steamship companies
0 store coal on part Of block at a
DIV rate until the business grows
nough to justify the erection of a
lodern coal handling plant, then ear G
7 out a plan of leasing the property -
> outlined above.
I am not afraid of any company, !
aving the lease of such yards, charg k;
IL exorbitant prices, as that would ~
md to drive away business and in
ire the reputation of the port and n
nus prejudice their own interests v.
Then let us get ready for more bust
sss by making Honolulu cheap port K
: call by reducing pilotage, wharfage 70
I'd water rates--in fact, if we want G.
1siness, let US get after it in bust
.sslike way and for all we are worth NJ
" advice is not to dispose of the Ia
aterfront to any steamship company %
1t to keep it for the benefit of all
q companies now using this port and
ose that the future win certainly mi
ing. p
J. A. M'CANDLESS.