Sugar | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

November 6, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sugar in Hawai‘i in 1915

“Sugar is the commercial life blood of Hawai‘i. There are 46,000 persons actually on the pay roll of the Hawaiian sugar plantations, with twice as many more directly dependent on the industry, and almost the entire population indirectly dependent thereon.”

“It takes, with a few exceptions, from eighteen to twenty-four months, and on the higher lands, as many as thirty months to make a crop, instead of a year, as is the case in almost every other sugar country, with the consequent increase of cost …”

“… for all expense of upkeep and overhead charges for the longer time must come out of one crop. There are always two crops in the ground, and during several months of the year, three, all under care.”

“With the exception of certain districts, Hawai‘i is too dry to produce sugar cane without artificial irrigation. The cane from which one half of the sugar output is produced has to be irrigated every week or ten days. One-third of the employees of irrigated plantations are continuously engaged in watering the cane.”

“There is more water used per day for irrigating cane in Hawai‘i, than the daily . capacity of the New York aqueduct – 700,000,000 gallons.”

“Sixty per cent of the cost of sugar in Hawai‘i is for labor; and on sugar plantations in Hawai‘i, laborers are better and more expensively cared for, and are paid more than in any other cane producing country.”

“Under the United States coastwise shipping law, Hawaii is compelled to use high priced American ships only, to carry freight to and from the mainland; while other sugar producing countries can use the cheap freight rates of foreign shipping.”

“The opening of the Panama Canal has reduced the freight rate on sugar, from Hawai‘i to New York, from $9.50 to $8.50 per ton, and it may go somewhat lower; but the freight on Cuban sugar to New York, Hawai‘I’s chief competitor, is only $2.50 per ton.”

“The average cost of marketing a ton of Hawaiian sugar, covering freight, insurance, charges and commissions, is from $10 to $15 per ton.”

“The freight on merchandise from New York to Hawai‘i ranges from $8 to $20 per ton. The canal has reduced the rate by an average of about ten per cent. Later the reduction may be somewhat increased.”

“Hawaii has to plant cane anew about every third crop. In Cuba they are said to be still harvesting cane growing from cuttings planted by the grandfathers of the present sugar planters. It is common to continue harvesting annually in Cuba from cane planted ten to twenty years before.”

“There are other minor handicaps to Hawai‘I’s disadvantage, among them that Hawaii is so bedeviled with insect pests, and cane diseases …”

“… and the problems of meeting the naturally adverse conditions are so ever pressing and imperative, that the Hawaiian sugar planters are compelled to maintain, at their own expense, an experiment station, demonstration farm and corps of scientists that cost from $80,000 to $160,000 per annum.”

“The foregoing partially explains why it costs more to produce sugar in Hawai‘i than in any other sugar producing country in the world, except on the mainland of the United States.”

“The great world sugar producers, Cuba, Java and the European beet sugar countries; have cheap material, cheap labor and cheap freights.”

“Hawai‘i is inside the sacred circle of the American tariff, with its resulting higher basis of cost as to everything which enters into the production of sugar.”

“If it, too, can receive reasonable protection, it can continue, and better its past magnificent record of development; but it cannot buy and produce in a protected market and sell in the open market.”

“In this respect, Hawai‘i is in the same boat with the cane sugar industry of Louisiana and the beet sugar producers of the North and West.”

“Although Hawaii has some advantages over them, they also have advantages over the sugar producer in Hawai‘i, such as cheaper material, cheaper freights and near-by market.”

“There are forty-five complete sugar plantations in Hawai‘i. They are nearly all incorporated and owned by thousands of stockholders.”

“Twenty-four of these are listed on the stock exchange, and their financial affairs are open to all. They are a fair representation of the whole.” (Thurston, History of the Panama Canal, 1915) (Images from Babcock – 1926)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

July 25, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Raising Cane

“The Hawaiian race is, to all appearance, dying out; and the resources of the land are in large part idle and untouched—a promise and a temptation. At this juncture the Hawaiian people and the Hawaiian government could appropriately ask, What must we do to be saved?”

“Judging from the steps that were taken and the discussions that were indulged in, we may conclude that the things which the missionaries and other resident foreigners believed to be necessary were:
1. to develop the latent industry of the people and the natural resources of the land;
2. to get Hawaii formally recognized as an independent nation;
3. to establish a government along modern constitutional lines which would be understood and respected by foreigners as well as by natives.” (Kuykendall)

“About 1836 the missionaries were led to take a general survey of conditions in Hawaii and the progress which had been made toward Christian civilization.”

“They were compelled to admit that while a great change had been effected in the religious views and religious institutions of the country, little or no improvement had been made in the economic and political condition of the nation.”

“So impressed were they with this fact that they prepared a memorial on the importance of increased effort to cultivate the useful arts among the Hawaiian people.” (Kuykendall)

“The missionaries, intent on providing a needy nation of 125,000 souls, with ample means of instruction in every useful department, and unwilling to have the ordinary useful arts of life neglected, applied to their Directors specifically for forty-six additional missionary laborers, to be sent at once, pointing out the location and the work for each …”

“… and before the close of this year they, moreover, sent to the ABCFM and other philanthropists, a memorial on the importance of increased efforts to cultivate the useful arts among the Hawaiian people.” (Bingham)

The memorial stated, in part, “The introduction and cultivation of the arts of civilization must, it is believed, have an important bearing on the success of the preaching of the Gospel, and the permanence of evangelical institutions in the Sandwich Islands.”

“But if there were no immediate connexion, and the influence of the latter could be permanent without the former, still the arts and institutions of civilized life are of vast importance to the happiness, improvement, and usefulness of any nation where they are, or may be, properly fostered. “

“Of the importance of both, our Directors were aware, when they instructed us to aim at raising up the entire population of these islands to an elevated state of Christian civilization, and to get into extended operation and influence the arts, institutions, and usages of civilized life and society.”

“The people need competent instruction in agriculture, manufactures, and the various methods of production, in order to develop the resources of the country (which are considerable), for though there is a great proportion of waste and barren territory in the group, yet either of the principal islands is doubtless capable of sustaining quadruple the whole population, were its resources properly and fully called forth. “

“They need competent instruction immediately in the science of government, in order to promote industry, to secure ample means of support, and to protect the just rights of all.”

“They need much instruction and aid in getting into operation and extended influence those arts and usages which are adapted to the country, calculated to meet the wants, call forth and direct the energies of the people in general, and to raise up among them intelligent and enterprising agents, qualified to carry on the great work of reform here and elsewhere.”

“There are various obstacles to be met at the outset. … They have not the capital nor the encouragement to enter on any great plan of improvement in bringing forward the resources of the country.”

“Though the people, as a body, perform considerable labor for themselves and drudgery for superiors, yet there is a great deficiency in the amount of profitable industry.”

The missionaries suggested that “a company be formed on Christian and benevolent principles, for the express purpose of promoting the interests of this country by encouraging the cultivation of …”

“… sugar-cane, cotton, silk, indigo, and various useful productions adapted to the soil and climate; and the manufacture of sugar-cane, cotton, silk, clothing, hats, shoes, implements of husbandry, etc.”

“Should the agriculturists have the control and profits of land, they would pay a rent to the government which would be better than is now received, as they would probably occupy chiefly ground that is not now tilled at all.”

“Thus the government would be an immediate gainer, besides the ultimate and immediate advantage to the people. A school, either under the direction of the mission or of the company, should be maintained in connexion with every establishment.”

“The Society, or company, on entering on this plan, would need a ship freighted with materials, implements of husbandry, and other articles, and to be always at their service. A considerable amount of funds would be requisite to get under weigh …”

“… but it is believed the enterprise would pay for itself, in a pecuniary point of view, in a few years, and the persons engaged in it obtain an economical support for themselves and families.”

“The profits of the whole establishment at these islands, above the original and current cost, must be devoted to the support of schools, or churches, charitable institutions, or internal improvements in the nation, according to the judgment of the company, for the benefit and elevation of the people, conformably with regulations to be approved by the ABCFM, or the SI Mission.” (Mission Memorial, 1836; Bingham)

In part, the suggestion was put into practice by some of the missionaries on O‘ahu and Kauai. A writer in the Sandwich Island Mirror, in 1840, stated that missionaries on Kauai, at a distance from Koloa, had set up sugar mills as early as 1838, grinding cane for the natives on shares.”

“The same writer gave an interesting survey of the situation on O‘ahu and Maui in 1840. He reported that Rev. John Emerson at Waialua had a mill run by horse power and made sugar and molasses for the natives on shares …”

“… Rev. Artemas Bishop at Ewa had a mill run by water power, where he had made for himself and the natives during the past season several tons of sugar, besides molasses …”

“… Rev. Hiram Bingham had raised sugar cane on his field, having it manufactured at a Chinese mill in the back part of Honolulu; Dr TCB Rooke had a mill in Nu‘uanu valley; three or four native young men had begun to develop a small plantation in the Ko‘olau district …”

“… Governor Kekūanāoʻa, Dr. Judd, and others had organized a company to establish a plantation and mill near Honolulu; on Maui, several Chinamen had mills in operation, where they made sugar upon shares.”

Rev Richard Armstrong wrote from his station at Wailuku, Maui, July 7, 1840: “I have assisted the natives to break in some twelve yoke of oxen, which have done a great deal towards relieving the people of their burdens.”

“Three years ago every thing, food, timber, potatoes, pigs, stoves, lime, sand, etc., were carried on the backs of natives, or dragged on the ground by their hands.”

“Their taxes were carried sometimes thirty or forty miles in this way; but almost all this drudgery is now done by carts and oxen, and the head men say they cannot get the men on their lands to submit to such work as they once could. This is clear gain.”

“By a request of the king I have taken some part in inducing the people about me to plant sugar-cane. A fine crop of sixty or seventy acres is now on the ground ripe, and a noble water-mill, set up by a China-man, is about going into operation to grind it. I hope some good from this quarter. I keep one plough a going constantly with a view to the support of schools.” (Armstrong, Missionary Herald)

“In the years from 1835 to 1840 a great many sugar mills were set up in various parts of the kingdom, being especially numerous on Maui, O‘ahu, and Kauai. In the early part of 1838 there were reported to be ‘in operation, or soon to be erected, twenty mills for crushing cane, propelled by animal power, and two by water power.’ (Jarves)”

“An interesting point is the large part taken by Chinese in the setting up and operation of these mills. The mills of this period were mere toys in comparison with those of a later time and together produced a very small amount of sugar with a disproportionate quantity of molasses.” (Kuykendall)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

sugar-cane

June 12, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawaiian Fertilizing Company

The first sugar to be made in Hawai‘i is credited to a man from China. The newspaper Polynesian, in its issue of January 31, 1852, carried this item attributed to a prominent sugar planter on Maui, LL Torbert:

“Mr. John White, who came to these islands in 1797, and is now living with me, says that in 1802, sugar was first made at these islands by a native of China, on the island of Lānaʻi.”

“He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandalwood, and brought a stone mill and boilers, and after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.”

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde. He had made some arrangement with Governor Boki, while the latter was in England, to go out and engage in cultivating sugar cane … and, probably, rum. (Kuykendall)

Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825. In that year, Wilkinson and Boki started a plantation in Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing and processing. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum. (Schmitt)

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i in 1835. It was to change the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of monocropping that lasted for well over a century.

Over the years, sugar‐cane farming soon proved to be the only available crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947) A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

“After the experiment station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association was started in 1895, analysis of soils and fertilizers became one of its major functions. On the basis of the chemical analyses. fertilizers were prescribed, and when necessary specially compounded to suit the requirements of each plantation.”

From 1890 two local fertilizer companies started: The Pacific Guano and Fertilizer Company (when first organized in 1890 by George N Wilcox); and The Hawaiian Fertilizer Company (started by Amos F Cooke). (Kuykendall)

Amos Francis Cooke was born December 23, 1851 in Honolulu, son of Amos Starr and Juliette (Montague) Cooke, early missionaries to Hawaiian Islands. He organized Hawaiian Fertilizing Co. of Honolulu, 1889, selling out in 1898. The company primarily serviced the sugar and pineapple plantations in the ‘Ewa plains.

The Hawaiian Fertilizing Company was organized by the present proprietor and manager, A. Frank Cooke, in 1888, and has grown from a struggling enterprise, furnishing to plantations two thousand tons of stable manure annually, to one of the largest fertilizing works on the Islands, the grounds and buildings covering nearly five acres of land at Iwilei.

When he conceived the plan of supplying plantations with fertilizers he engaged the old bone mill at Kalihi Kai, formerly owned by GJ Waller.

But by economy and rare managerial ability the business soon outgrew the accommodations and facilities to supply the demand made upon it.

Land was leased at Iwilei and the company, yielding to the pressure brought by a growing clientele, the lines were extended until Mr. Cooke bought more land.

Besides consuming yearly hundreds of tons of bones gathered here, the company was the first among the largest importers of nitrates and phosphates in the country.

It has business connections in the United States, Europe and South America, who supply the home factory with the highest grade fertilizers for compounding purposes.

From the United States and Germany sulphate of ammonia, double super-phosphates and potash is secured, while the nitrates used are from the famous banks in Chile.

At the industry’s peak a little over a century later (1930s,) Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Hawaiian_Fertilizing

April 5, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Japanese Language Schools

Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the plantations between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry.

“The government contract workers who arrived in Hawaii in the 1880s did not have much time or energy to worry about their children’s education.”

“Their only aim was to make enough money to return to Japan. With mothers going to work from early in the morning the children were virtually left to themselves all day long.”

“Takie Okumura, posted in Hawaii as a minister after his graduation from Doshisha University, was astonished as he made his pastoral rounds at how little communication the immigrant children had with their parents.” (Duus)

“Christian missionary Reverend Takie Okumura, who started Honolulu’s ﬁrst Japanese language school, was moved by a little girl’s peculiar Japanese: ‘Me mama hanahana yōkonai’ in response to his question ‘Are you with your mother?’[“

“He learned that ‘me mama’ was pidgin for ‘my mother’, ‘hanahana’ was the Hawaiian word for ‘work,’ and ‘yōkonai’ was a Japanese expression equivalent to ‘cannot come.’”

“Okumura credits this exchange for his strong urge to establish a school.”

“After several failed attempts to receive support from either the Japanese consul general in Honolulu or politicians in Japan, Reverend Okumura decided to establish a school independently.”

“On April 6, 1896, he opened the Nihonjin Shōgakkō (Japanese Elementary School) in a room of the Queen Emma Hall, originally used as Queen Emma’s residence, with 30 students. Okumura purchased desks and chairs from $15 in donations and was able to use the room for free.”

“The ﬁrst Japanese language program at a public school was established at McKinley High School in Honolulu on October 1, 1924.

“The first instructor of Japanese language at the public school was University of Hawaii Japanese Professor Tasuku Harada, who had a close relationship with Reverend Okumura. Harada was a former president of Dōshisha University (Congregationalist).” (Asato)

“Both Harada and Okumura were on the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association and members of the Textbook Revision Joint Committee.”

“This Japanese language program was arranged by the Committee for Oriental Language Studies, chaired by University of Hawaii President Arthur L. Dean, who also was an American member of the Joint Committee for Textbook Revision.”

“The minutes of the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, dated September 10, a month before the Japanese program at McKinley High School began, reveals who was involved with this movement.”

“During the meeting, Treasurer Theodore Richards expressed his concern about female high-school students who attended the Hongwanji School for advanced Japanese language study, saying that they ‘were getting led away from Christianity.’”

“Richards was discussing the Hongwanji Girls’ High School (Hawai Kōtō Jogakkō) established in 1910, the girls’ counterpart of Hongwanji’s junior high school, Hawai Chūgakkō, established three years earlier.”

“Okumura and Imamura had a long history of confrontation over creating their own high schools. Imamura invited Ryūsaku Tsunoda, who later established Japanese Studies at Columbia University, to be principal of the ﬁrst Japanese junior high school, the Hawai Chūgakkō.”

“Okumura tried to compete by offering a junior-high-school-level class at his “secular” Honolulu Nihonjin Shōgakkō, although this advanced class was short-lived because of low enrollment.”

“Then, in 1910 the Hongwanji Girls’ High School opened, and Okumura again countered by expanding his Japanese school with both its junior high school and girls’ school, renaming it the Hawaii Chūō Gakuin or Central Institute.”

“So it was no surprise that in 1924, after discussion, the Evangelical Association appointed Harada and Okumura to ‘investigate the matter of organizing a Japanese high school.’”

“At their next meeting, on October 8, 1924, Reverend William D. Westervelt reported that Japanese instruction at McKinley High School was arranged by working with Superintendent Willard E. Givens, University of Hawaii President Dean, DPI supervisor of foreign language schools Henry B. Schwartz and McKinley High School Principal Miles E. Cary. “

“Westervelt also reported that the University of Hawaii agreed to recognize the credits students earned from the Japanese program at the high school as entrance credits for the university. Okumura stated that ‘this plan was satisfactory for the present taking care of the Japanese High School teaching’”.

“Although Japanese instruction began at public schools in 1924, it did not seem to prosper. Besides McKinley High School, only one other public school seems to have offered Japanese. Reverend Kikujiro C. Kondo of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association began teaching Japanese at Maui High School in 1925 while taking care of the Paia church on Maui.”

“Reverend Kondo later moved to Honolulu to take over the McKinley High School Japanese program from Mr. Kunimoto, Harada’s successor, in 1926.” (Asato)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Japanese_Coming_Off_Ship-causeway on Sand Island-(HSA)-PP-46-4-005-00001

January 24, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Frederick Arthur Godfrey Muir

“One of the outstanding results of the great commercial and agricultural developments of the past century has been the enormous increase of insect pests.”

“Some of these pests have been distributed by commerce and many of them have become great pests only after leaving their home country.”

“In 1900, the sugar cane industry of the Islands began to be seriously checked by a very small insect known as the sugar-cane leafhopper which somehow had become established from Australia a few years earlier.” (Timberlake)

“This insect is extremely prolific and when multiplying unchecked it increases to such an extent that the sugar cane is badly stunted and finally killed. The adults migrate especially at night from one field to another, flying generally from the older cane to younger fields.”

“By 1904 the situation had become extremely bad and the whole industry was suffering enormous losses and was threatened with entire destruction by this insect. There seemed to be no practical· means of combating it”. (Timberlake)

As an example, the Big Island’s Pahala Plantation harvested 18,888 tons of sugar in 1903, but only 1,620 tons in 1905 and 826 tons in 1906. (Tucker)

Dr. Frederick AG Muir began this work for the Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association in September, 1905. This was when the sugar cane leafhopper was still a serious pest in Hawai‘i. (Swezey)

Before coming to Hawai‘i, Muir was employed in various parts of Africa, first as engineer and electrician and later as entomologist, having been connected with Eckstein group of gold mines in Johannesberg. (Nellist)

Frederick Muir (an entomologist with HSPA – at the time the only entomological research institution in Hawai‘i), began a long search to find and introduce natural enemies, seeking biological control as a method of controlling insect pests. (Swezey)

He was sent out to the tropical areas of the South Pacific, Australia, and the Melanesian Archipelago to search for potential biological control agents for sugar cane pests. (Evenhuis)

In a magazine article published in 1912, a newspaper man asked Mr. Muir, “Were you ever in danger of losing your life?” Muir was a small, mild-looking man with the air of a college professor, in spite of the outdoor color on his face and hands. He seemed much embarrassed by the question.

“Oh, no,” he said with a sharp English accent that ten years knocking about in the tropics had not altered. “You see, I have a theory that a man can go anywhere safely as long as he respects the point of view of the inhabitants, whether they be man or animals.” (Easton)

On one expedition, “he fell ill of typhoid fever and lay helpless in the hospital for five weeks. His precious insects were almost continually in his mind, be he was too ill to care for them”. (Washington Herald, Oct 11, 1914)

He was instrumental in finding and bringing to the Territory numerous parasites to counteract the ravages of the leaf-hopper, borer beetle, and anomala beetle, thus saving the industry an immense amount of money if not from destruction. He has published a number of monographs on leafhoppers, beetles and other entomological subjects.

“(H)e considered (the) isolated oceanic (Hawaiian) islands to which during a tremendously long time the flotsam and jetsam of ocean drift had brought a few forms of vegetable and animal life from which have since been evolved the numerous species that in a few tribes only now characterize its flora and fauna.”

“It is noteworthy that in this evolution no degree of adaptation is exhibited, species have gone on forming regardless of adaptation. The peculiar simplicity of the biological conditions with known factors make these islands the finest center for the study of evolution”.

“(I)ntroduced insects, from the absence of their parasites, are liable to play an important role. As an example, a leaf hopper damaged the sugar crop $5,000,000 in a year; but the introduction of an egg parasite from Fiji reduced this to $15,000.”

“The absence of secondary parasites has caused such introductions of parasites to be attended with unusual success.” (Proceedings of NY Entomological Society, Nov 26, 1917)

Muir was born in London on April 24, 1873, the son of Alexander Muir of Scotland and Annie Marie (Lempriere) Muir, of Jersey. His early education was obtained in England.

“On October 31, 1917, Dr. Muir left for England to engage in war service for his native country in the trying days of the World War. He returned to Honolulu a year later on October 28, 1918.”

“In the meantime he had married Margaret Annie Sharp on April 9, 1918, the daughter of Dr. David Sharp (another entomologist).” (Swezey)

Dr. Muir’s health had been undermined by so much time spent in unhealthful tropical jungles, etc., and he went to England at intervals, spending most of the years 1927 and 1928 there.

On his return from England, September 12, 1928, arrangements were made for his retirement from active service at the Experiment Station, HSPA.

He left Honolulu on November 17, 1928, to make his home in England, (Swezey) He died there on May 13, 1931.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Frederick Muir-Easton

Frederick Arthur Godfrey Muir