The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1918-08-02
BRIGHT i,
IN PHILIPPINES
SPONTANEOUSLY
Former Resident Of Islands Is
Z Optimistic and Tells Of
Growth In Progress >
SECURING or BOTTOMS .
( IS GREATEST. Problem
Planters Object To Seeing Labor
Leave To Come To Ha-
waiian Cane Fields

WdUdIl OdUG TlCiuo
Norman CampiOn, formerly with Ono
mea Sugar Company, now manager Of
the Calambra Estate in the Philippines
is highly optimistic on the subject of
the sugar industry Of those islands and
expects to see il 90 forward with rapid
strides Just as soon rs shipping can be
secured to make the transport of the
outturn reasonably certain. He feels
assured that arrangements have been
made that will bring about the moving
of the present crop and believes that I.
the immense ship building program will
care for the next and subsequent crops.
He stopped OF in Honolulu last week
, envoyage 70 the mainland. y HE
One Of the great difficulties which
the Philippines had TO meet in the past
has now been removed, he said. This
has been the difficulty to interest CAPT:
tai in the industry which resulted in an
insufficient number Of mills. Now, he
says, mills are being ordered rapidly
and ample capital Is available for, in.
yestment in the industry. He mentioned
four large mills, with capacity for a
thousand tons of cane q day, that have
been ordered, three from the Honolulu
Iron Works. His own plantation is put.
ting in fine mill. Other reports have
told Of two or three more mills in addi
tion to those which he mentioned.
Conditions Differ ''' y
Conditions for growing sugar are
more simple in the Philippines than
here. The growing period is twelve
months instead of eighteen SO that three
crops can be harvested TO two In Ha-
waii. This gives one advantage. Is
Fertilizers are little needed. Some
nitrates are used but very little as
compared with here When he left the
philippines there was an ample sup
| ply Growing conditions are such there
that IL the same system Of fertilizing
were used the cane would yellow in.
stead Of being improved. 49,.
' Little or no irrigation is undertaken.
The season is clearly divided into a wet
and dry season and the keeping of
the cane fields free from weeds is not
' SO difficult and costly. In. this there
have been some experiments with the
0laa, mnlching system, advocated there
by Mr.. Eckart, but the paper is so high
as TO make the plan practically pro-
hibitive.
Labor Problems ~
! Labor is a cause of some worry, Mr..
Campion said, and in touching ON this
1 subject he clearly showed the sentiment
of the planters in the Philippines In
reference to drafts on their laboT snip
ply by the Hawaiian plantations. In
! the Philippines, he says, the. labor sup
ply is limited. There would seem to be
an over supply Of men but the bulk Of
them will not work, at least not fegu-
| Larry. They are, as he described them,
q parasite lot who live OFF the earning
I of the comparatively few who do work.
| Living costs are small, their necessities
are not large and they would rather
"get along" in this way than earn
living: He complains that the Hawaiian
4 labor scents go down into the same dis
| tricts and at the same time that the
Philippine labor recruits are working,
offer higher wages and the lure Of a
visit to strange lands, painting an at
ltraetive picture. The result the Philip
pine planters are unable TO meet. With
freight rates higher, for what they
bring in as we'll as what they send out,
the Philippine planters are unable to
meet the bids which the Hawaiian
planters are able to make for labor.
Freight Rates
AS to freight rate that was fixcd
by the shipping board the planters
would have little cause for complaint
were it possible to get bottoms, but
this has been impossible. The foreign
Isteamers, not bound by those figures
would charge at least double for sugar
and are not anxious at such figures to
sell the lsDaee for supaF Ia admittedly n
dirty cargo" aud the ships can sell
their space for practically whatever
they desire to carry in the way of
goods.
Mr.. Campion took no stock in the
theory advanced by some here that the
reason the Hawaiian planters are put.
ting a mill in the Philippines is to keep
the Philippine planters from Directing
50 strenuously against labor exports.
He said the putting, In Of q central
would not have that effect although il
might bring about somewhat closer re-
lations between the sugar industries OF
the two groups.
India Needs Watching
4 India is the coming sugar produced
that must be watched he believes. That
country now grows more and wastes
more sugar than any other country fo1
il has not the facilities for pprifyihgI
When the war is over he expects TO SEE
capital go into the Indian sugar IN
dustry' and 10 see business cOmpeti
tion result that it will require constAn
attention and the shrewdest bushnell
management to meet. aEr
~ r u Rn0auorans n,ananar 81 th