The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-25
SANTA f CONTRACTS
FOR 100000 OHIA TIES
Robert ShingIe Trying to Induce Hartman to
Place Big Order for the Southern
Pacific---More Steamers Needed.

I and many passengers may be handled
| in both directions.
IF there were a sugar refinery at
| San Pedro, there would be sufficient
| business at once, without the Santa
Fe ties, TO warrant the establishment
of a line of steamers between Homo
lulu and that port" said Mr.. Thomas,
who formerly published the California
Cultivator here, but who went to Ha-
wall in 1898 and now is engaged with
his son, Will P. Thomas, in the devel-
opment of 400-acre pineapple planta-
ton.
With his wife, Mr.. Thomas is stay
ing at the home of his hrother-in-law,
D. W. Perman, No. ISL Ell Molino
street. His son has gone East to pur~
chase machinery to be used in a pine
apple cannery, and a daughter is at
tending the State University at Berke-
ley. The Thomas home is at Wahiawa,
on the Island of Oahu.
1.-THE pineapple industry in the Ha-
waiian Islands is simply in its infancy"
said Mr.. Thomas. Between 5000 and
1000 acres is the total acreage. Our
cannery will be the fifth on Oahu,
while there are three smaller ones on
other islands. The output of canned
pineapple, the principal form in which
the fruit is shipped, has reached 175, 900
cases a year, and is growing rapidly,
the demand far exceeding the supply.
Fresh pineapples shipped to the Coast
are only a small part of the crops of
which there are two, the main, or sum-
mer, crop in July, August and Septem-
her, and the winter crop in January
and February, the latter being about
one-fourth the size of the main crop.
MORE STEAMERS NEEDED.
what we need more than anything
else is better steamer connection with
the States. We now have two local
steamships month between San Fran
cisco and Honolulu, which carry al
most all the freight and passengers.
Many vessels flying foreign flags stop
at Honolulu, but, under the coastWise
shipping laws, they can handle pas
sengers and freight only under heavy
penalty.
I'VE keenly desire steamship connec-
ton with Southern California. Your
Chamber of Commerce excursion,
which visited us on the steamer Ohio
several months ago, opened many eyes
to the possibilities of such a line. A
sugar refinery at San Pedro would do
much toward securing the establish
ment of such line. Half the money
required to start the line could be
obtained in the islands. Besides, big
shippers there would be willing to make
long contracts for the handling of their
fTai erhf m, hot n; &c
Fe tie contract is the entering wedge.
The opportunity should be followed up
quickly and earnestly.
I'VE have much to ship-sugar, rice,
coffee, bananas and pineapples leading.
we need Fiiany Of your produets-pro-
visions Of all kinds, for instance, for
we raise but little of the staples. We
need hay, barley, flour, oranges, cab
bages-just to mention few Of the
things you produce in abundance and
could ship in large quantities at low
cost If you had a steamship line from
San Pedro.
Our pineapple shipments. canned
and fresh, amount to not less than
10000 tons year. Coffee growing has
suffered backset for the reason that
it is not protected by tariff and
our growers cannot compete with Bra
zil. If, there were duty of two cents
a pound on coffee. we could raise
enough of the best kind to supply the
entire United States"
Another pineapple grower of Ha-
vail now visiting in Los Angeles is
Leonard G. Kellogg, who is staying at
No. 642 West Thirty-sixth street. He
also is urgent in suggesting that a
steamship line be established between
San Pedro and the islands.