

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



391 



fields, with improved cultivation and powerful 

 machinery, average a sugar production of but 

 1| ton to the acre.. The sugar - crop can re- 

 main long in the ground without injury. It 

 is not infrequent to plant only once in three 

 years, taking off two ratoon-crops meanwhile. 

 The area actually cultivated in cane is at pres- 

 ent 23,500 acres, distributed as follows: 



Acres 

 Hawaii 12,000 



Maui . . . 



6,000 



Acres. 



Kauai 4,000 



Oahu 1,500 



The value of the sugar-lands in the islands 

 is estimated at $15,886,800, of which amount 

 $10,235,464 belongs to Americans. 



The process of manufacture employed is the 

 old one of crushing the cane and evaporating 

 the juice, of which not more than about 75 

 per cent, can be expressed by the most im- 

 proved mills, nearly 25 per cent, being lost. 

 The amount of sugar yielded by this process 

 is about 8 per cent, of the weight of the cane. 

 To save this very considerable waste, it is 

 proposed to introduce the diffusion method, as 

 now practiced on a vast scale in France and 

 Germany In the manufacture of beet-sugar. 

 The process consists essentially in carrying a 

 stream of water, increasing in temperature as 

 it flows, through a series of tanks filled with 

 sliced cane. By the action of osmosis, this 

 current takes up nearly all the sugar through 

 the vegetable cell-walls, whether of the cane 

 or the beet-root, leaving scarcely a chemical 

 trace of sucrose behind. The cells not being 

 broken as by the crushing process, few impu- 

 rities are disengaged, and nearly all of these 

 are coagulated by the heat employed, so that 

 the diffusion- juice is much purer than mill- 

 juice ; its only disadvantage being its consider- 

 able dilution by the water employed in the 

 process. The immense European production 

 of beet-sugar by diffusion, within the past 

 two years, bringing the price of sugar down 

 to four or five cents a pound, threatens to 

 drive the cane -mill and the cane-planter to 

 the wall in spite of the great natural advan- 

 tages he enjoys, unless more improved pro- 

 cesses of manufacture are soon introduced. 



Trade with the United States. On the 9th of 

 September, 1876, a commercial treaty of reci- 

 procity between the United States and Hawaii 

 went into effect, to remain binding for seven 

 years from that date, and further until the ex- 

 piration of twelve months after either of the 

 high contracting powers shall give notice to 

 the other of its wish to terminate it. This 

 treaty, which is in the ninth year of its opera- 

 tion, remitted the taxes on the chief products 

 of either country in the ports of the other. It 

 has greatly stimulated the sugar-culture and 

 the general trade between the two countries. 

 San Francisco is the direct market for the Ha- 

 waiian products, which are mostly consumed 

 on the Pacific coast. Many Americans have 

 gone to the islands and have engaged in agri- 

 culture or mercantile pursuits, and have real- 

 ized fair returns. American capital to the 



amount of $3,200,000 in ships and wharves, 

 and $3,300,000 in loans, was invested, in 1882, 

 in the islands; and in all, about $20,000,000 

 of American capital has found permanent em- 

 ployment in the group. Three fourths of the 

 vessels that visit the islands are American, and 

 95 per cent, of the commerce between the 

 United States and Hawaii is carried in Ameri- 

 can vessels. 



The imports are of very varied character. 

 They include agricultural implements and ma- 

 chinery (though much of the latter is imported 

 from England), breadstuffs, cotton manufact- 

 ures, hardware, clothing, and supplies of many 

 kinds. The total value of the imports from the 

 United States, under the treaty, for the year 

 ending June 30, 1883, was $3,811,913; of ex- 

 ports to the United States, $8,029,835 ; making 

 an excess of exports over imports of $4,217,022. 

 This is practically the amount of admission 

 free of duty from the islands, the balance 

 being set off by merchandise sent free of duty 

 to that country. This apparent balance against 

 the United States represents, however, the 

 profits of Americans engaged in agriculture, 

 navigation, and trade and provincial deal- 

 ings with the Hawaiian people. Interest and 

 profits on the $20,000,000 investments already 

 specified are $2,000,000. Freights, insurance, 

 and handling of produce interchanged, amount 

 to $1,184,174 on a low estimate ; American 

 commissions and profits, estimated at 5 per 

 cent., are each $592,087.40 ; in all, a sum of 

 $4,368,348, which more than cancels the ap- 

 parent .balance of trade against the United 

 States. In point of fact, Americans are not 

 called upon to ship coin or to transmit ex- 

 change to Hawaii to pay it, but, on the con- 

 trary, exchange is now (March, *1885) consid- 

 erably against Honolulu. 



In the year before the treaty (1875) the 

 Hawaiian trade, including exports and imports, 

 was $1,722,555. In the absence of the treaty 

 this would not have been materially increased. 

 In 1884 the trade with the United States had 

 increased to $3,523,000 exports from the Unit- 

 ed States, and $7,926,000 imports from the 

 islands; total, $11,449,000, or a nearly seven- 

 fold increase, the treaty having caused nearly 

 all of this increase. The United States are 

 the creditor country, and handle nearly all 

 of the commerce ; and the taxes remitted by 

 the United States are upon articles that are 

 consumed by her people. The exported Ha- 

 waiian raw sugars are refined on the Pacific 

 coast, and consumed there, at a cost but a trifle 

 greater than that of their production. The 

 treaty permits the exportation of " muscovado, 

 brown, and other unrefined sugars" from the 

 islands free of duty, and charges have been 

 brought against the exporters of falsifying the 

 grades. These charges have not been sus- 

 tained, it having been shown that the centri- 

 fugal separator and the vacuum-pan were in 

 general use among the planters before the 

 treaty was drafted. 



