COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



449 



shows an increase of 28 per cent. The net increase in quantity is 

 750,280 pounds, or 12 per cent. In value of products secured there is 

 a decrease reported from every island. (As Kahoolawe had no com- 

 mercial fisheries in 1900, there are not figures for comparison.) These 

 decreases are considerable in each case, the lowest being in Hawaii, 26 

 per cent. The net decrease in value amounted to $405,749, or 37 per 

 cent. For some years preceding 1901 the islands had been enjoying a 

 boom, owing to the high prices realized for sugar, the dominant crop, 

 and as a result the prices of everything else, fish included, rose 

 exceedingl}' high. From 1900 to 1904, however, the price of sugar 

 steadily declined, causing financial distress in every quarter, and cur- 

 tailing very materially the purchasing power of the people. As a 

 result the prices of the necessaries of life, particularly fish, have fallen 

 to a point more nearly consonant with those prevailing on the mainland. 

 The prices of fishery products in 1900 were extremely high, and 

 are still much above the normal. In the New England States in 1898 

 the average price per pound received by the fishermen for all kinds of 

 fishery products was about 2.5 cents; in the Middle Atlantic States in 

 the year 1901, about 2.1 cents; in the Gulf States in the year 1902 

 about 3 cents; in the Pacific Coast States in the year 1899 about 3 

 cents; and in the Hawaiian Islands in the year 1900 about 17.5 cents. 

 In 1903 the average price had dropped to about 10 cents per pound. 

 If the prices are not sustained by monopolistic combinations, as is the 

 case at present in certain markets of the islands, the}^ will drop even 

 Jower and thus bring fish into more general use as an article of diet. 



Comparative table showing the extent of the fisheries of the Hawaiian Islands in 



1900 and 1903. 



CAPITAL INVESTED. 



F. C. 1904- 



