The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-08-03
MASTER MARINER =.
SAYS COMMERCE .
BODY IS WRONG
Withdrawal Of Steamer Hanify
From Honolulu Run Should
Prove Warning
REPEAL OF COASTWlSE LAW
FOR PASSENGERS OPPOSED
Would Be Unfair To Transporta-.
g. ton Company That Stands
BY Islands

'i"o S'e"WeT rThhcN nanny, whlch
sailed from Hilo last mouth for San
Francisco on the last run of her char.
ter to the Matson Navigation Com
pany, is now on her way around the
Horn on voyage, which will pay her
owners the entire cost of building her
before she makes the round trip to
the Golden Gate.
/ From the Gate to CaIlao, Peru, she
Is carrying -four. From Peru to the
Gulf of Mexico she will carry nitrates.
From the Gulf to New York she will
carry oil, and from New York back
to San Francisco she will carry coal
for the government bunkers at Cali.
fornia City.
The Matson line, during the peak of
the sugar carrying season, chartered
the Francis Hanify at $500 day net,
that is to say, over and above fuel,
wages and all other costs of operation
Nevertheless the owner, the Hanify
Lumber Company, asked to be released
from this extremely profitable contract
because it could make so much more
money in the open market; and the
Matson line, now that the crush of
sugar freight is beginning to ease of,
readily complied.
Lay Sermon to Merchants
Taking the case of the Hanify for
a text, a merchant captain yesterday
preached lay sermon to the Chamber
of Commerce of Honolulu, of which
President Waldrop, is agitating for the
repeal of the coastwise shipping laws,
insofar as they affect the passenger
carrying trade. The Advertiser print.
ed President Waldron 8 argument Sat
urday morning.
Suppose" he said, "the Matson
line were to treat Honolulu on a strict
ly business basis, as, the American
Hawaiian does, what sort of a pickle
would the Islands be in thenf
"That Matson folk, / understand.
get two dollars and half a ton for
their sugar. Why shouldn't they be
getting twenty dollars to Australia or
forty dollars and fifty dollars on the
Atlantic run3 Look at the Hanify
she's going to pay for herself in one
voyage, without taking a particle of
war risk. You say it wont last. Well,
t doesn't have to last very long when
ship can pay for herself in one round
trip.
Reciprocity one-sided
There is such thing as recipro
city in business, but there is an element
in Honolulu that doesn't know the
word is in the dictionary. The cham
Der of commerce expects protection for
I.,k A. 8
repeating the coastwise shipping laws,
which are the protection of the Am
erican carriers, on which the Islands
depend.
"Oh, I know that the application is
intended to be only to the passenger
trade, but let IS look at the passenger
trade little. No ship can live on
the passenger trade between Honolulu
and the Coast. The Sierra is off the
run. 1t is well known that she didn I
pay, and it is generally understood that
she isn't coming back. When she has
been refitted for the longer voyage
she is going on the Australia run.
Just now it is true that there is
crush in passenger travel. Every
body in the Islands wants to go up to
see the fair, and that leaves less room
for the tourists; but it Is the season )
average the owners have to reckon on
Conditions Are Abnormal
81 know for a fact that Captain
Matson was feeling pretty glum for
time, when the Matsonia and the
Wilhelmina were carrying thirty and
forty passengers a trip and full force
of stewards for two hundred and a
hundred Paying interest on two mil
lions and quarter didn't look SC
ROSY then.
Conditions now are abnormal, This
crush won 7 last. Before long we be
back on the old basis of school ma ans
and kamaainas, the same old names and
the same old faces.
THE promotion committee, see
estimates that something like 1900 tour
lists were brought to the Islands last
year, and that, with the two, fairs thi'
year on the Coast, the figure for 1919
will be 10000. All right, but I've
never seen anything to indicate what
proportion the promotion committee es
Inmates these figures bear TO the tota
pa ssenger travel, or the total possible
travel for which accommodations are
pro, ided. The comparison, think
might prove instructive"