The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-28
SUGAR MAKING
IN HAWAII

Louisiana Planter: The develop
ment of the sugar industry in Hawaii
has been a marvel from it's beginning
The childrenNof the good missionaries
who went out from Boston probably
never dreamed of the future that they
are now realizing. When they Sc
cured the adoption of the Hawaiian
reciprocity treaty in 1875 they argued
amount to much; that it was then
only a few thousand tons and could
scarcely ever exceed $4,000 to 100000.
Thirty-five years have worked many
/ changes in Hawaii and none more con
spicuous than this wonderful change
/ in the sugar industry there. We used
to call our greenish canes, or yellow
ish when they were ripe, in Louisiana
Otaheite cane, coming as they were
presumed to have come originally
from Otaheite or Tahiti, those far dis
tant islands in the southwestern seas.
The sugar canes utilized by the same
race of people, these kanakas that
spread all over those southern seas,
were made into sugar in a very re-
markable sort of way and the mission
aries, or their children, saw that there
were great possibilities in the develop
ment of this country along sugar
lines.
A hundred years ago Napoleon b.
naparte created the beet sugar indus
try in order to save France from suf-
Nfering by the. monopoly that England
had secured of cane sugars through
its possessions of most of the West
Indies The missionaries, perhaps with
prophetic eyes, looked to a later al
lance with the United States and to
the introduction of their sugars free
of duty into this country, which was
finally realized in 1875 and which i'm
munity from taxation they have main
tanned ever since. During the bounty
years of 1891, 1892 and 1898 the Ha-
waiian sugar industry was for time
quite PROSTATE with sugars coming
into the United States free of duty,
the Hawaiians losing the benefits they
had been receiving for some fifteen
years. This pTostration of the indus
try there led to earnest efforts in ev-
cry direction to ameliorate the situa-
ton, and conspicuous in that line of
action were the efforts made for an
neXation to the United States. The
white people of Hawaii, other than
the Portuguese, constituted but hand
fuls people at that time, and yet
successful revolution was accomplish
ed and Queen Liliuokalani was de-
posed and under Mr.. McKinley's ad-
ministration the Hawaiian Islands, I'M
der the control of their successful
revolutionists, became formally an
nexed to the United States as a ter
ritorial possession. The repeal of the |
bounty law gave fresh impetus to the |
Hawaiian sugar industry and it has
been progressing ever since and in
fact, has been practically leading the
cane sugar world, although their
Dutch congeners in distant Java are
close imitators of these progressive
New Englanders and have really out
done, along the lines of manufacture
ing progressiveness, their Hawaiian
competitors and are now producing
million and a quarter of tons of cane
sugar, against Hawaii's half million
tons. We make these comments not
in derogation of the missionary sugar
producers, but in fact in commenda-
ton of their ability, industry and
which has been so extra
ordinarily manifested during the last
twenty-five years.
We have already recounted in this
journal the wonderful work in the way
Of irrigation done in Hawaii, water
being pumped in some cases as high
as 500 to 700 feet with which to irri-
gate lands good for cane culture, but
devoid of any adequate water supply.
Some of the best and largest manu-
lecturers of steam pumping machin-
cry in the United States have been