The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-08-17
mourning EXPERTS
BUSY AROUND H|LO
Pleased At Housing Conditions
They Find On Plantations -
Think Free Sugar No Menace !,

2 H1L0, August l4.-Dr. Royal Meeker,
,6f tie Department of Labor and Statis-
tics and Victor s Clark arrived on the
Gig Island Tuesday and are pursuing
their Investigation of labor conditions
thoroughly and rapidly. :
F The party has been through the
K0hala, llamakua and Iliro dis,rirls aud
a IL eHp ected that k0u aud Kona will
also be visited. On " eLnesday severaI
plantations near HiIo were listed and
este; day the party went to Dina where
Manager Eckbart showed the commits.
crest the visitor.
Housing System Pleagcs
One thing that seems to have mnde
An impression on Doctor Meeker is the
comfortable manner in which the plan
tation lHborers are housed. The clean.
Janitary camps appear to have made an
impression on the commissioner and he
reverted to the topic more than once
during the course of an interview on
Wednesday evening.
The commissioner takes a great in.
fOANoN ~ bhO sugar COuu-
.Iies, as regards sugar plantation labor,
and be 'enquired as TO the proposition
IN Java, FIJI, Queens and and other parts
Of the world.
Chinese Immigration
In tine course of conversation the
question was brought up as to whether
u would be considered desirable to al
'ow unrestricted immigration of Chinese
'hborers TO these islands, providing that
tho Chinese were not allowed to proceed
20 the mainland of the United States
lit any time whatsoever. The commits.
sioner would not commit himself, but
Il was evident from his conversation
hat some such thought was passing
through his mind.
\ Doctor Clark is doing most of tho
gathering of figures as to earnings,
crime records, working capacity and
other details rega ding labor in these is
lands. He is calling at all the planta-
ton Offices and is obtaining the figures
ne needs direct from the records of the
Plantations. He knows the islands well
md has been over every inch of the
aroup during the past fifteen years or
Thinks Free Sugar Possible
: Doctor Meel;er is not one of those
,eople who believe that the sugar in
lustryt will be killed here by the re.
noval of the tariff on foreign grown
;ugar and the consequent abolition of
the protection afforded the domestic
Industry. He thinks that, even should
the price Of sugar drop to lower fig
ure than that obtained in 1914, before
the war began, Better methods of cul.
"ivation and a saving in the expense
" manufacture will offset the drop
in price.
He will not listen to any suggestion,
however, that the price of sugar will
llrop when the cent a pound duty on
foreign sugar is removed in May next.
lie declares that he thinks that there
will be such world 3 shortage of sugar
! hat the price win remain high-eVen
though the European war ends in the
ear future.
He seemed a trifle astonished when
Informed that the return on the total
"apital invested in the sugar industry
in the Hawaiian Islands was Just
about six per cent. He was also sur.
prised to hear that many plantations
ave never paid a dividend, even un-
Ter the inflated war price of sugar, and
hat they and a number of others which
lave paid dividends in the past will
mrclv go out of business if the tariff
is not put back again on foreign, grown
n"ar.
octor Meeker expresses himself as
'hted with what he has seen of the
islands, so far, and Mrs. Meeker is also
very pleased with her visit.