Library of Hawain

1-8-38

བུ

The Society met in the New Court House, at 10 o'clock, A. M., according to adjournment.

The minutes of the last session of August 15th, 1851, were read. Art. 9 of the Constitution of the Society was read, by which it is made the duty of "the retiring President to render a report of the proceedings of the society for the current year, and deliver, or cause to be delivered, an address at the annual meeting of the society." In conformity with this requisition of the constitution, the President, Hon. Wm. L. Lee, read his Report, as follows :

Gentlemen of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society :

We meet under the most trying circumstances. The last twelve months have been the most critical ever known in the agricultural and commercial history of our Islands, and are marked by ruin to many, and misfortune to all. The sudden check of our trade with California-the consequent fall in the prices of our products-the lack of the

necessary capital to meet reverses-and the unparalleled drought, which has shriveled and blasted our coffee-scorched and withered our verdant cane-fields-turned our pastures into ash-beds-dried up our kalo patches and blighted our vegetables, has been an accumulation of misfortunes which has overcome some of our strongest hearts, and which none have been wholly able to withstand. We meet I say under the most trying circumstances-not prostrate, but crippledstill moving, but under a staggering load of depression. Allow me then, before proceeding to a detailed report of our transactions since the last annual meeting, to take a brief survey of some of our troubles, that you may make suggestions and take measures for their future remedy.

In the first place, the great obstacle in the way of agricultural success in these islands is the want of capital. We have land enough and to spare-good land-and a climate that knows no equal; but what avails all this so long as we have no money with which to improve our lands? We cannot carry on farming in the Sandwich Islands as in England and the United States, with nothing but our hands. to aid us, for here we must have capital in the outset, and that too in no small measure, or behold our labors end in disappointment and ruin. All who have had any experience in plantations, I think will bear me witness, that to carry on a coffee plantation, successfully, requires in the commencement from ten to twenty thousand dollars, and a sugar plantation from twenty to one hundred thousand dollars. There may be exceptions to this general statement, but I know of only one in all the group, and I believe it is the universal opinion, that he who has begun with nothing, has undertaken the task of Sisyphus, to roll a huge stone up hill, which in nine cases out of ten will eventually get the start of him, and carry the poor struggler to the bottom. I am pained to make this statement-deeply pained-but with the past and present before me, how can I say less. From the earliest days of planting in these islands, when the plough was drawn by a team of natives, down to the present moment, the way of the planter has been clogged with this great difficulty-his path has been clouded with darkness, and many a strong arm and brave heart after toiling on for years, under a constantly increasing mountain of debt, has gone down in despair. Money-money-money! is the constant cry of

our planters, and their appeal is to the winds, for we have no capitalists to lend or invest. But where is the remedy for this paramount want? I confess myself unable to answer, and I turn to our committee on capital in the hope that its collective wisdom may have devised some means for the solution of this important problem. It is a subject that calls for our most earnest attention, for though I would not color the picture darker than it really is, yet I am constrained to say, it is my solemn conviction that, unless we can obtain assistance from some quarter, we shall soon see ruin resting upon nearly every plantation in the land. My faith is not shaken in the final success of our plantations, for now, as ever, do I firmly believe that there is no business in these islands that will better or more surely reward capital and industry than agriculture, provided that capital and industry be expended with judgment and economy.

But money is not all we require to prosper, for combined with this want is the almost universal lack of system and economy in the expenditure of our labor and the little capital we possess. Since our last meeting my judicial duties have called me to nearly every part of the kingdom, and, with very few exceptions, I have observed on all the plantations I have visited, a disregard of system, and want of economy in the application of labor, that has filled me with equal surprise and distress; and I believe there is no planter on the islands that has not deeply felt the truth of what I say, in his own individual case, and re marked the same lack of good management in others. I know it is far easier to preach than to practice order and economy, but still I think we can improve on this score, and that, with the aid of Chinese laborers, we can perform our work more systematically, thereby saving great loss, together with any amount of vexation and wear and tear of body and mind.

Another thing we need, as I had occasion to remark at our last meeting, is better machinery. It is in vain for us to hope for success so long as we continue to express our cane juice by wooden mills worked by cattle, and to boil it in try-pots, heated by furnaces which more nearly resemble caverns in the rocks than the work of a skilful I am aware that great advances have been made in this respect within the last year, especially on the islands of Maui and Kauai, and these improvements are worthy of all credit, yet this work of

mason.

reform is but little more than begun. The past year has brought us one improvement worthy of particular notice, namely, Mr. Weston's "Centrifugal Separator," which has worked wonders in improving the quality of our sugars, without producing a loss in quantity. But this machine, valuable as it is, in giving us a better article in a shorter time than the old system of draining, by no means supersedes the necessity of erecting bins on the old plan; for it will not separate bad sugars, which must be thrown into these wooden boxes to drain by a slower process. No one who has visited the sugar regions of East Maui within the last year, can fail to have had his heart sickened with the sight of three or four hundred acres of the finest cane, going to ruin beyond the hope of salvation, all for the want of proper and sufficient machinery for its manufacture. But this appeal for more and better machinery will be met by the great prime question raised in the outset : "Where is our capital with which to make these improvements?"

On the subject of labor, I am happy to say there is less to fear than formerly. The enterprise set on foot by our society for procuring laborers from China, has at last met with success, and much credit is due to Capt. John Cass for the faithful manner in which he has carried out the experiment of introducing coolies. The Chinese brought here in the "Thetis" have proved themselves quiet, able and willing men, and I have little doubt, judging from our short experience, that we shall find Coolie labor to be far more certain, systematic, and economical, than that of the natives. They are prompt at the call of the bell, steady in their work, quick to learn, and when well fed will accomplish more, and in a better manner, than any other class of operatives we have. The cost of importing coolies is fifty dollars per man, and it has been estimated by those who employ them, that their wages and support amount to a trifle under seven dollars per month. They are great eaters, but their food, chiefly composed of rice and a little meat, is of the cheapest kind, and to make them profitable they should never be stinted in their allowance. To all those planters who can afford it, I would say procure as many coolies as you can, and work them by themselves, as far as possible separate from the natives, and you will find that, if well managed, their example will have a stimulating effect on the Hawaiian, who is naturally jealous

of the Coolie and ambitious to outdo him. There is still a deficiency of labor in some islands, but I believe the door of relief is open to us and that we can procure laborers at a cheaper rate than any other sugar or coffee growing country, except those in the extreme East, or more properly speaking in this longitude, the Far West.

A serious drawback to the progress of agriculture during the past year has been the want of a ready market for our produce, especially for sugar and potatoes. California now raises her own vegetables, and the low price of sugar in San Francisco, produced by overstocking that market from Manilla and China, united with the heavy duty on sugars, has nearly stopped our shipments until within the last few weeks. The Board of Managers of this Society has put forth an effort to obtain the abolition of that duty, and the Hawaiian Government has seconded that effort by the enacting of a law removing all duties on Flour, Fish, Lumber, etc., imported from the United States, provided our Coffee, Sugar and Molasses, is admitted into that country duty free. I confess I am not very sanguine of success in this measure, yet I have hopes.

Let us now pass to a brief notice of our grazing interests.

This interest has suffered in common with all others, owing in a great degree to the drought and low prices, but to some extent from bad management. The day has gone by when our graziers can look to the markets of Honolulu and Lahaina to consume their cattle in the shape of fresh beef; for the increase of our herds is so great, that the competition will soon become ruinous. Within the last year good cattle have been sold by hundreds on the island of Kauai for prices ranging from one and a half to two and a half dollars per head, and yet they are increasing with alarming rapidity. Many of our pastures are overstocked-the supply of fresh beef exceeds the demand, and the time has come when our cattle growers should turn their attention to packing beef for a foreign market. Salt beef commands high prices, but we have none to sell, except a few barrels occasionally received from Hawaii, and why? It is said because our salt is not good, and will not preserve beef. If so, then why not make our salt better, and encourage and assist Mr. Vincent to put in practice the knowledge he is said to have obtained on his recent visit to the United States respecting the improved manufacture of this important article ?