The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-03-08
kauai RUSSIANS
NOT SATISFIED
Neither Are Their Employers
Manchurian Scheme Is
Called FizzIe.
tstaF Correspondence

labor importations are not looked upon
with favor by the average citizen of
the Garden Island, where Russians,
Filipinos and Hindus are being tried
out.
Russian immigration is pronounced
upon on Kauai by those whose interests
do not make it advisable for them to
! say nothing on the subject, as decid-
ed fizzle so far as its proving the solu-
tion Of the labor problem is concerned.
True, the Russians now on the Kauai
plantations work with fair degree of
steadiness, even if they are very slow,
but they are very much dissatisfied,
and the prediction is freely made that
within six months there will not be a
subject of the Car left on the Garden
Island.
The trouble there appears TO be vir-
tually the same as that that has de-
veloped among the Russians now in
Honolulu. They claim that they have
been deceived by the special agents
who recruited them, that conditions
here were misrepresented to them and
that they are not receiving either the
wages or the treatment they were led
to expect should be theirs.
Most of the Russians now ON Kauai
are on Makaweli plantation in camp
by themselves. The camp conditions
do not suit them at all. They make
the same old claim, that they were
promised $24 a month, a good cottage
| to live in and an acre of land to cul-
tivate for themselves, the acre Of land
| to become theirs in fee simple at the
end of three years.
No Acre of Land.
As matter of fact, they are getting
the regular wage of 1922 a month, and
instead of each family having an acre
| of land, they are crowded so closely
| together that there is no land for any
of them to cultivate. Six or eight cot
| tages are, on one acre, instead of only
one cottage. As for their acquiring an
acre apiece in fee, there is no more
chance of that than there is of their
being paid $4S month. Makaweli is
not so land fich as all that. In fact,
in view of the reversion to the govern
ment in about three years of large
| portion of the land now planted in
cane by Makaweli, the plantation could
not afford to carry out any such prom
Use, even if it had been made.
"The Russians work fairly well,
though they are Slow" said a luna of
Makaweli plantation to an Advertiser
reporter last week., '.but they are very
much dissatisfied and | don't think that
within six months there will be any of
them left here. They like Makaweli
better than any of the other planta-
tions, but they don't like conditions
here. They can be induced to work
on the other side of the Island, COM
planning that it is too damp for them.
The truth of the matter is, though, that
over there they are too far away from
other people. They like it better on
this side because there are lots of other
laborers and because they can go visit
ing and can run in to Waimea some
times. But as solution of the labor
problem they are a failure and the
sooner the board of immigration stops
getting more Russians, the better it
will be. 1t is just money wasted.'
Some Have Left.
The opinion expressed by the Maka-
well luna was repeated in other words
by many residents of Kauai and no.
body was heard to express any enthu-
siasm over Russian immigration.
. Already number of the Russians
have quit Kauai, and it is fully expect.
ed that most of the rest will follow as
soon as they shall have saved up money
, enough to get elsewhere.
Filipinos Are Worse.
Filipino labor is looked upon on Ka
J uai even more unfavorably than Rus
, sian. The Filipinos work only when
they have to and stop on any pretext
] They can be seen at any time of day
$ ambling lazily down the roads toward
' their camps, usually with their hands
g pressed to their stomachs when they see
Q luna, trying to make out that they
! are sick. When they do work, it il
in slipshod fashion, each man trying
l. to see how little he can do and still
a draw a days wages
g Moreover, they are vicious ant
treacherous and the lunas have to keel
Q lookout all the time lest they fine
|. a knife in their backs. They fght
among themselves ON any excuse ant
are not particular what weapons they
use One day last week at the moor
5 hour, one Filipino persisted in bother
r ing another who was eating. The one
!. who considered himself aggrieved sprant
!. to his feet and plunged the tines o.
G fork several times into his tormentor
; A Luna for Lunch.
Il a German luna ON MAXWELL had oc
: casion last week 10 reprove lazy Fila
= Pine. He undoubtedly used unwaI
!. ranted violence, but just as he sthrte'
!. TO knock the Filipino down for refusing
$ to obey orders, the little brown ma
o spraug upon him aud bit,him yieiousl
: in the shoulder. The luna ID now look
y ing anxiously for symptoms OF hydro
!, phohia.
!. The two instances mentioned are onl
samples OF tho disposition and tempe
/. OF our little brown brothers who ~
!. being so sedulonsly collected ON Oh
a other side OF the water by pinkhal
i. 81 al, The language OF the plantailo
u lnnas who have 90 lry 10 manage thei
Il and get soule work out Of them IL %
!. "a for publication, bni u IL much mol