fraud, for the laborer has no other object in view but to dwindle away time as easily as possible and evade if he can the vigilance of his overseer or driver, for his only aim is to get along as easily as possible.

Concerning the laborers employed about the manufacturing department I purpose paying them according to the stations they fill, for there are certain works about the manufactory that are more tedious and require more skill than others, consequently the men that fill these posts require a little more wages than the rest so as to make it an object for them to take an interest in their business and excite competition. The system of task work is not so well adapted to the mills that are worked by cattle, but I see no just reason for it not being applied to those mills that go by water or steam, and I feel confident that should this system be universally adopted that the agricultural community of these islands would be benefited at least from 30 to 40 per cent, which I can show from my experience here, for I have had charge of from 15 to 20 natives on East Maui plantations, for over five months, which natives I worked on both plans. In the first place I worked them at trashing canes by the day for over three weeks, from sunrise until sunset, with intervals for breakfast and dinner, I found that by doing my best, with the assistance of a native driver, I could not get more than 50 rods on a single row out of them. I then gave them a task of 75 rods, this task I told them that when they finished properly their work for that day was finished, and that they could go home; they went to work cheerfully and by three o'clock the able men had finished the task in a proper manner and I have not the slightest doubt that had I given them one hundred rods it would have been done in a similar way and about the same time for they wasted a great deal of time smoking &c. After I had finished the trashing we went to work digging a ditch fence, 4 feet wide at top, 3 feet deep and one foot wide at the bottom, with all the earth thrown on the off side so as to make a perpendicular dam. I worked the natives over a week on this job, by the day as before, and during that time did not accomplish more than 10 feet to a man per day. I then gave them a task of 16 feet which they finished at about 2 o'clock, a few days after I gave them another task of 22 feet, with a promise that I would not increase it a single foot more. They, after some little deliberation, went to work and

finished it by 4 o'clock each man, and then went to bathe in a beautiful pond which is situated in the large ravine adjoining the plantation, and so continued until they were taken away. This amusement of bathing and jumping from high cliffs into the water which the natives are passionately fond of, was the grand object in view to get the work finished in time so as to participate in this sport, for they got no more wages for doing double the quantity of work than if they had merely done the 10 feet; therefore this shows that unless self interest, in some shape is brought to bear on these people, and in fact, on all other classes of laborers, a fair day's work cannot be got out of them, although there is in my opinion very nearly as much work in a native as there ever was in a negro, but we have no legal and efficient means at present adapted for getting it out of them. Another thing I must mention concerning these proceedings, that during the time I worked them by the day I had a great deal of difficulty in turning them out in the morning and after breakfast and dinner, for they did all in their power to waste time and avoid work, consequently my presence was indispensable, but when I adopted the plan of tasking I never had the necessity to go to the native house in the morning and after breakfast or dinner but they were at work long before I got to the spot where the work was going on, and my presence was not requisite until the latter end of the work to see that it was properly done, &c. Another thing, a native driver can take charge of a gang managed on this plan, for all that he has to do is to see and keep them straight during the day concerning the quality of the work, &c., and then let a foreigner visit him at the latter end of the day to see that the work is really and efficiently performed. The plan of foreigners being with natives constantly, as a general thing, will not answer, for they cannot stand, in nine cases out of ten, the native's obstinacy, &c., without using violent means, and this does not answer in any case; therefore, I propose having native drivers to be with the people constantly and make him responsible for the quality of the work, for without a driver in any case they cannot get along, then have one or two foreigners, if requisite to visit the gangs about the latter end of the work, to see that the driver had done his duty faithfully, and if not, to check his (and the ones in fault) wages, quietly, until it is finished as it ought to be, but never by any chance resort to harsh means. Now I do not see any just reason

for this system of task work not answering here as well as it has answered in Demerara and Berbice, for it is by these means we employ all agricultural laborers in those colonies. We were, after the emancipation of the slaves, precisely and in some respects worse off for labor than we are here, and we found from sheer experience that employing laborers by the day and working them as we had done in the time of slavery, with a driver behind a certain number of men for a given time, did not answer, consequently we were obliged to have recource to the above mentioned system which we found to answer a first rate purpose and is now universally adopted throughout the country. The laws concerning the binding of laborers for a given time answer an excellent purpose with one exception and that is if an employer ill uses a laborer he can, by applying to a justice of the peace, free himself from all further obligation, this in my opinion is an inducement for laborers to be refractory and more especially if they are dissatisfied with their employer or their bargain. The system that I would propose in this respect would be a heavy fine on the accused according to the nature of the case and not a total dismissal of the laborer.

A tariff regulating the field work in some respect on a sugar plantation, would not answer on a coffee estate or a grain farm, consquently it would be requisite to have a tariff established for each separate branch of business. Let the parties concerned in it interest themselves in it and moddel their tariff to suit circumstances. I have in my possession Sir James Carmichael Smith's Tariff of Work in British Guiana and would be most happy to give a copy to the planter that may have the regulating of a tariff here should my suggestions meet the approval of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society. I remain, gentlemen,

Yours most respectfully,

ROBERT J. HOLLINGSWORTH.

Honolulu, Oahu, August 14, 1851.

ON IMPLEMENTS.

To the Committee of The Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society:

GENTLEMEN.-In answer to your inquiries on the subject of implements, I send you a few remarks. My experience in regard to ploughs is but limited, as I have used but two kinds the Eagle plough and the self-sharpener; both of the largest size, are the best for breaking up new land on East Maui; in my opinion they are the best plough that has been imported.

Each plantation requires two or more large ploughs, and two horse ploughs of different sizes.

Harrows can be made here cheaper than they can be imported. Cultivators must be imported; it would be well to import a quantity of extra teeth, as the cultivator teeth are frequently lost.

Hoes here require a lighter and stronger article than any I have seen. The Carolina hoes are not strong enough for the land here in the hands of the natives, it wants a short strong hoe.

Carts had better be imported, as there is no good wood to make carts in this place. There is one objection to the imported carts, they are too narrow and the wheels too high easily to be upset by the native drivers.

Yokes and chains must be imported, also mills for grinding sugar cane, and kettles &c., for manufacturing sugar.

Butter could be made on some of these islands to pay a good profit by persons that understand the business.

Farming implements cannot be manufactured at this place, as a general thing they must be imported. To get them at the lowest price we can, I think it would be best to box them in the smallest possible compass they can be put up in; it will save freight, as any man that knows any thing about farming can put a plough together or handle his hoe.

The natives in general like the hoe better than the old Oo, excepting in the cultivation of the sweet potato, the hoe does not suit on account of cutting the roots.

There is one thing that has not come in practice among the sugar plantations, that is the subsoil plough. I think it would be a great improvement to the East Maui sugar cane lands.

When ploughs are imported it would be well to have a quantity of spare points for the different sized ploughs; the points are always breaking and good ploughs are thrown away for want of them. Very respectfully, yours,

Lilikoi, July 22, 1851.

E. MINER.

COMMUNICATED BY BARON DE THIERRY.

The Hon. Mr. Severance, in his admirable lecture of yesterday evening, commented on the advantages which might result from the introduction into these islands of the Phornium Tenax, or native flax of New Zealand. The knowledge that such an attempt must be followed by disappointment, induces me to take the liberty of offering a few remarks, which, I am convinced, his anxiety for the good of these interesting regions will induce him to forgive. These remarks are founded on the experience of many years, attended by much labor and expense, which terminated in my being awakened from a dream in which I, in common with many others, had long indulged, as to the magnitude of the importance of that too celebrated plant. In attempts to work the Phornium Tenax many thousands of pounds sterling have been sunk, through expectations sanguine as my own, and with nearly the same result.

The Phornium Tenax requires three years growth from the young shoot to bring the leaf to maturity, and about seven years from seed. It thrives best in moist, rich land, and must be guarded from cattle, as notwithstanding the rank bitterness of the leaf, cattle render it unfit for use. It never can be grown to advantage where labor is dear, as those employed in scraping it can barely earn ten to twelve cents a day. The fibre, so celebrated for its strength, is not, strictly speaking, a fibre, but an immense number of very minute particles cemented together by the gum of which the leaf is chiefly composed. The New Zealanders scrape the flax with a shell, throwing away