Year: 1879

their interests. In this matter they must stop |
at no halfway measures, but meet the issue
as it presents itself, like business men. The |
first duty imposed upon them is to devise the
best and surest means of supplying the Islands
with sufficient number of the best class of
laborers that they can procure at the smallest
outlay of capital In our issue of last week,
we pointed out, as we had done months before,
what we consider the only true source whence
labor can be procured; and now we reiterate
the suggestion, namely: That their wants can
be supplied from the Southern States of North
America, and from no other quarter that we
can conceive Here they will have an ample
field to choose from among people skilled in
the cultivation of sugar, cotton, rice and gen
eral agriculture, numbering upwards of three
millions and half, and enough of them with
their wives and children, ready and willing
TO come if provided with transportation in the
first instance at an average cost of about one
hundred dollars per head for adults, and a
corresponding reduction for children. Indeed
we are assured by the Hon. Walter Murray
Gibson of the fact that the field hands of the
South can be landed on these Islands at a cost
not to exceed SO per head, and this gentle
man made it his business, when in the Southern
States last summer, to ascertain whether the
people could be had, and what the cost would
be of landing them here per capita, with the
result as above stated. Why then delay about
af
Would they not be preferable to the natives
of the Polynesian, Micronesian and Madeira
islands, who are uneducated and semi-savage,
speaking as many languages or dialects as the
when brought here must be first taught to la
Dor on sugar plantations, and at the same
time learn another language in order TO under
stand any part of their duties, and then at the
expiration of their period of service, be sent
back to their respective islands at the expense
of this government or the planters who en-
ployed them? To illustrate more fully our
views upon this subject, let US go into call
culation to show how the scheme we propose
will work. Let us suppose that the Board of
Immigration join with the planters by putting
the funds appropriated by the late Legislative
Assembly or SO much as is left of that fund in
with contributions from the planters, to make
sum sufficient to bring hither from the
Southern States such people as we have de-
scribed, say one thousand in number of both
sexes. That number would cost at Sl00 per
head, the sum of 100000. The amount of
their expenses would be reimbursed out of
their first years labor, and the net profit of
their first years labor be worth to the planters
at least 5000 per head, or 100000. Here
then Is q clear gain of one hundred per cent.
on the outlay of a single year. This process
could be repeated annually, until the demand
is supplied with results as encouraging, if not
more so and thus the problem of supplying
laborers would be intelligently and proftably
solved. Now, when we take into considera-
ton the fact that there is an area of about
half million of acres of first class sugar lands
lying waste on these islands, which are ca
pable of producing about 1925 200, 900 worth of
sugar annually, independent of the lands now
under cultivation, is it not astounding that
enterprising and far-seeing men should hesi-
tate to avail themselves of the opportunity of
grasping at once the material out of which
such vast results are to be obtained 1t is
impossible for us to embody in one article, all
the arguments which we could adduce to
prove the correctness of our theory on this
question of the supply of laborers. We have
therefore, to content ourselves with a succinct
statement of such points as we deem essential
to prove our position, in order to call the at
tention of the government and the people to
the interests involved in this question. We
commend what we have written to tie serious
and indeed we are all interested in it. We
are much mistaken if these suggestions will


be lost upon the minds of such men as Col
Spreckles and those associated with him il
the management of the immense sugar enter.
prise contemplated by the California Sugar
company Those men are too astute, and too
vigilant of their best interests, not to see at a
glance the advantages of procuring such la
borers as we have pointed out, and if no othel
parties will try the experiment, we feel wei


assured the latter company will not fritte


away their vast capital of SlO,OOO,OOo, il
fruitless efforts to obtain field hands from any
other source than the Southern States, and W.
feel just as well assured that in doing so the,


will be acting like business men bent upol
certain success.


SPEAKING of the business outlook for tn