COMMEKOIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 757 



Fresh lish is also brought to Honoluhi from San Francisco in the cold-storage 

 rooms of the regular steamers. Until last year all of this fresh tish came from 

 Victoria in the Canadian vessels, as the San Francisco steamers had no cold-storage 

 rooms. 



During 1900 the following products (not shown in the wholesale table) were 

 retailed in a fresh state in Honolulu: 



Pounds. 



Cod, herring, smelt, and shad 1, 323 



Flounder 2, 270 



Halibut 35,880 



Salmon 27, 793 



Salmon trout 312 



Sea bass 671 



Hole 606 



sturgeon 290 



FISHERY IMPORTS. 



As the domestic fisheries have not been sufficiently developed to supply the lai'ge 

 home demand, great .quantities of foreign goods must be imported to make up the 

 deficiency. These imports consist principally of salted, smoked, dried, and canned 

 goods, and are very diverse, owing to the unusual mixture of population. The 

 Chinese and Japanese are the principal consumers of dried abalone, cuttle-fish, 

 oysters, seaweed, and shrimp; the dried and salted cod is preferred by the Portu- 

 guese and Porto Ricans, while the natives are great lovers of salmon. 



An attempt should be made to introduce the abalone, as it would probably 

 thrive well on the rocky reefs and sea walls. 



The raising of sugar is the principal industrj- of the islands, and as large 

 numbers of laborers are required on the plantations, which are frequently not 

 accessible to markets where fresh fisherj' products can be obtained, prepared products 

 must be supplied. 



The United States has always led in the matter of imports, San Francisco of 

 late years being the principal port from which goods were shipped to the islands. 

 Previous to the opening of the transcontinental railroads most of the shipments 

 came either by vessel to Colon, thence by rail across the Isthmus of Panama, and by 

 vessel from there to the islands, or by means of vessels which came around the 

 Horn. Many of the whalers which rendezvoused at the islands previous to 1875 

 also brought out considerable cargoes of general merchandise, including cod, 

 mackerel, and other products of the New England fisheries, which met with a ready 

 sale or barter to the natives and the white inhabitants. 



On January 30, 1875, a reciprocity treaty was concluded between the Hawaiian 

 Kingdom and the United States. This treaty went into eft'ect September 1, 1876, 

 and was to continue in force for seven j-ears, and for twelve months after notice of 

 its termination. By its terms, in compensation for the free entry to the United 

 States of certain natural products of the islands, notably sugar, the Government 

 permitted the free entry, among many other articles, of fishery products of American 

 origin. As the same products from other countries were compelled to pay an ad 

 valorem duty of 10 per cent, this gave the United States an immense advantage. 

 By mutual consent this treatjr continued in force until the islands were annexed to 

 the United States on June 14, 1900, and proved of great mutual benefit. For some 

 few years previous to 1876 the sugar industry of the islands had been languishing on 

 account of the duty imposed by the United States on shipments from this source. 

 As a result of this depression and the consociuent inability of the people to buy 

 imported goods, shipments of dried and salted fishery products dropped ofl" until in 



