The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-28
SUGAR Is KING
IN HAWAII-NE
Frederic Haskin on the Rise
and Growth of Staple
Industry.
advertiser Correspondence. Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin.)

49, - AAcCG LII ESUuIELECs
by Frederic J. Haskin.)
HONOLULU, T. H. May 12-Sugal
is King. To Hawaii he is a most in
dulgent monarch, for he has brought
this little group of islands to the point
where it is the greatest exporting coun-
try of its population on earth. This
year the Hawaii sugar crop will sell
for between $4,000, 900 and $50, 900. 600
The price is high on account of great
shortage in Cuba. Java and elsewhere.
The crop here is larger than ever be-
FORE Last year it was 440.017 tons.
This year it is estimated at from
$4,000 TO 100000 tons.
Hawaii has been growing sugar for
nearly a century. By 1875 the produc-
ton had increased until the annual
crop was 1880 tons. Then something
happened. The United States made a
reciprocity treaty with the Kingdom Of
Hawaii and the sugar from the islands
was admitted TO America free of duty
Immediately the sugar business began
to take on new life, although the crop
returns did not show an enormous in
crease for some time. Sugar cane can
not be grown over night. Each crop
grows two years in Hawaii. Even the
two-year period was not the beginning
of the greater day, for all great bust
ness must grow. Modern methods of
agriculture have brought the Hawaiian
cane fields TO their present productiv-
ity, but it was the abolition of the duty
on sugar entering the United States
that made this development possible
Twenty years after that treaty went
into effect hawai- became frightened
lest the United States might abrogate
it, as it had the right to do upon one
years notice. Hawaii was clamoring
for annexation. The war with Spain
came up, Hawaii's great strategic value
was impressed upon Congress, and an
nexation came. Free sugar was made
a fixture by that act, for Hawaii was
annexed and made a part and parcel
of the United States before the in
sular possession to which the Consti-
tuition does not follow the flag, was in
The treaty of 1875 was made before
there was any beet sugar interests in
the United States, or ii would never
have been made at all. If the Ameri-
can beet sugar industry had been as
great in 1898 as it is now, Hawaiian
annexation probably would have been
defeated.
Hawaii, having benefited by these |
things, is now a unit n opposing the |
extension of like assistance to the |
The worst nightmare |
hat can come to a Hawaiian planter !
5 the dream of Cuban annexation. |
Hawaii has the backing of the power |
'ul beet sugar interests in this, and the |
beet sugar people have the backing of !
he entire stand pat" party on prin- |
,iple, so its danger is remote.
1t is interesting tn take a RETROSPECT |
i've glance at the industrial history OF /
Hawaii TO show what King Sugar, with i
IN American free market, has done. /
lust twenty-five years ago pamphlet /
vas published in Honolulu reviewing |
he sugar industry, of the islands |
Maps of the various islands were given i
With the plantations marked on them /
n red. Tables showed how much land /
vas planted in sugar cane and how /
much more there was available for that /
purpose. AT that time, 1882, there were
:. 900 acres of cane, and the estimate
# the maximum possible" acreage
vas 4, 500. AS a matter Of fact the
resent acreage is 213,400. or nearly
hree times the maximum possible
# twenty-five years ago. The same
authority said that on the island of
oahu. where Honolulu is situated, the
.creage was 5000 and that its maxi
mum extension would be $500. The
ugar acreage of Oahu now is $685.
The statistician of 1882 was honest
nd painstaking. and his estimates OF
he maximum possible extension of the
Industry were not made by guess, but
~ careful surveys. But he did not,
nd could not. take into consideration
he nresent methods of irrigation and
team cultivation.
The irrigation plants now in use on
hawaiian sugar plantations cost over
Il 600. 600. As there are only fifty plan
atoms of considerable size this irldi-
ates a great expenditure for indi-
idual plants. In fact only twenty-six
Limitations have irrigation systems at
II. the Others depending on rainfall Il
tx plantations have plants which cost
yer a million dollars each. \ good
ain that will fill the reservoirs means
saving of a thousand dollars day
1r pumping on more than one planta-
ion.
This kind of agriculture requires