Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 261, 18 August 1891 — DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES. [ARTICLE]

DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES.

Our brother Daniel of the Bulletin frequently attacks this classic subject for editorial compositions and struggles valiently with the difficulties of English diction and a congenital lack of grey matter in the cortex of the brain. Even this is not an altogether safe topic for a journal owned by a stock company and whose editor is instructed not to raise opposition and to refrain from disturbing the somnolence of the public. Recently the Bulletin suggested the fishes as a suitable class of animals for canning. This aroused the morning silurian and the Bulletin has had the finger of scorn pointed at him and insinuations have been made that he does not know what he is talking about. We will not discuss any of the diverse industries that might be established here, but discuss shortly the reason why the sugar planters have a monopoly of all the resourses of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The which is a necessary element in most industries has been grabbed by the missionaries—by begging inheritance, mortgages, trusts and various sharp practices known to pious lawyers and money-changers. Government land has been fraudulantly sold and leased in immense tracts far beyond the means of common people. The land is owned by a few rich proprietors who will neither cultivate the land nor sell to those who might wish to do so. lt is like the aristocracy in England making large tracts of land waste for their amusement in hunting, while the common people went through life in a state of chronic hunger. It is not possible to get land for farming near the market. The best that is open to the agriculturist in this kingdom is to take a lease, but the rent and the feeling that the tenant has only a temporary interest prevent the establishment of industries. Again all district outside of Honolulu are subject to the exactions of transportation companies, and it has frequently happened that independent efforts to establish a business has been frustrated by exorbitant charges, unjust discrimination and active persecution. The missionaries are so narrow and jealous that they use every effort to strangle and drive out every

one whom they see trying to make a living in anyway except as hirelings. Every attempt at independence meets the determined and bitter opposition of the bloated money-bags that call themselves missionaries. Some years ago there were a number of small plantations. Where are they know? They have been absorbed and the owners robbed under courts and laws calculated for such purpose. Now plantations are consolidating, two or three under one management. Is not the country in a bad way?