The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1922-10-10
P~ineapples Are
important In
Maui Affairs

LMdW AUdlfS
Maui's pineapple industry is second
only TO that of Oahu. Its pack this
year has fallen short of a million
cases but within a very few years its
output will have passed a million and
a half for the present three canneries ,
are constantly growing and expanding
and soon there is TO be a fourth great
Csunery in the Hama district. There
are some who say that in the latter
district alone there is pineapple land
sufficient 10 produce a supply for a
million cans annually. Others con
servatively say a half million.
Haiku cannery is destined to turn
out a million cases annually, Pauwela
may soon be packing a garter of a
million and Baldwin Packers, in West
Maui may produce 1000. The lands
of Lanai are optiOned to the Hawaiian
Pineapple Company and it is expect
ed the sale viii be closed. Molokai
also has its possibilities for the in
dustry.
1t was in 1904 that the first pack
amounted to 140O cases and from
that insignificant start it has grown
into a great industry.
The pineapple industry was started
on Maui through the enterprise of d.
d. Baldwin who began his experiment
tai paintings at Haiku in 1890, paying
as high as % cents each for sets" of
several varieties which he bought
from some of the early pineapple pio-
neers of Oahu-the Jordans, Kidwell,
Cama1inos, and others. Encouraged
by his result and with the advice and
backing of d. B. Murdoch and his
brother, II. p. Baldwin, he extended
his paintings in 1901, at the same
time confping himself to the o
famous Smooth Cayenne" variety.
First Company Organized
The paintings did so well that h
next step was the organization of the
first pineapple company, the Haiku
Fruit e. Packing Co, Ltd, which was
incorporated late in 1903 with an ini-
tial capital of $25, 900. The officers
were: H. p. Baldwin, president; ID. ID.
Baldwin, vice-president; d. B. Muir
doch, treasurer; II. A. Baldwin, secre-
tary. w. A. Baldwin was given the
management of the new venture. A
factory building was soon completed
on the site of the cannery's present
cannery, and can-making machinery
was installed. There was no can fac
tory then and the Company had to
face the problem of making its W
cans with which to pack its fruit.
This however, was lone successfully
and continued for ten years when the
American Can Company built its
present can factory at Haiku and sup
piled cans to the packers, relieving
the pineapple people from a heavy fl
nancial burden and at the same time
furnishing them excellent service. The
plant of the American Can Co, like
all of the plants of that great con-
Germ, is equipped with up-to-date can
making lines.
Experiment Is Costly
From it's initial pack of 1,400 cases,
the Haiku Fruit & Packing Co., in
creased it's output steadily until in
1914 it reached 207 900 cases in spite
: of the loss of at least 1000 o of
fruit owing to the incessant rains of
that year which made it impossible
to haul the fruit fast enough over
the almost impossible roads. This
; experience, however, led to improve
ment in roadways and the systematic
ed upkeep of same, so that a repeu-
: ton of the hauling difficulties of that
: summer is not likely. The memorable
rains of 1914 began in March of that
, year and continued with hardy a stop
: until October.
These "unheard of" rains were the
: Waterloo" to a number of the new
colony of white settlers who had
= taken up homesteads in the Haiku
: district in 1912, and had planted their
lands to pineapples. The rains COM
- ID a., y1n-tfnuu IN m q N -
= fields and consequent financial losses
were so great that many abandoned
= or sold out their places. A few held
on and have finally benefited
through the turn of the tide.
Many Difficulties Overcome
The Haiku Fruit & Packing Co., en-.
countered many difficulties, naturally,
during it's early years-there Were
the skeptical ones and the knockers
its financial agents withdrew credit
during the crisis of the 1907 panic
nevertheless the company lived thru
il all and prospered, and up TO 1871
had paid its stockholders handsome
dividends. The stock advanced theI
very considerably and through nego
t~iations made by James D.. Dole II
1911, the stockholders of the company
sou lutlI NbnNlbllllb lhANANsN 1 9
high figure to the Hawaiian Pineapple
Company. II was Mr., Dole's dream
at one time, to make a second Ha
waiian Pineapple Co, at Haiku, bu
market conditions became demOraliz
ed about that time and he bacem'
discouraged with his Haiku venture
a The control by the Hawaiian Pine
l. apple Co, continued, however, unit
s 1918 when a "hui" of ten Maui men
II headed by H. w. Rice, in conjunction
with Joseph Durney of San Francisco
and some of his mainland friends, ar
Ie ranged with Mr.. Dole to take over all
n the holdings of the Hawaiian Pine
s apple Co. At that time the amalgam
e alton of the Maui Pineapple Co. witt
r the Haiku Fruit & Packing Co, wal
p effected through the efforts of MI
ID Rice in conjunction with Mr.. A. +