HAWAII.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1782, 21 June 1913, Page 6

HAWAII.

"CROSSROAD OF THE PACIFIC." THE'JAPANESE MENACE. Hawaii, the big island at tho back of picturesque Honolulu, and tho other islands which go to make up tho group, must, in time, play a big part in tho destinies of the Pacific. Such is tho opinion of Mr. J. Walter Doyle, a resident of Honolulu, now visiting Wellington. "Ono reason for that," said Mr. Doyle, "is that the United States of America is at present building at Pearl Harbour, some 20 miles from Honolulu by rail, a big naval base, from which it will direct ail its operations on tho Pacific Slope. Pearl Harbour is almost completely landlocked, and it could float all tho vessels of tho United States Navy without any trouble. The Government has been spending from one to two million dollars a year for tho past five years, blasting away the coral reef which. formerly stretched across tho entrance, and at present a million dollar dry-dock, to accommodate any super-Dreadnought, is being built. With that go workshops fitted to execute any kind of repairs that might be required in a hurry. We call Honolulu the cross-road of the Pacific. All the boats bound west to Japan and China from American ports call there; so do tho boats for the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. It is going to be a great place when the Panama Canal is opened, as all the boats passing through to tho Far East must call there, and must mako the islands a great strategio base, as far as America's interests in the Pacific aro concerned.

"We have at present from 6000 to 7000 troops in the Island, but according to tho last Congress Budget, that .number was to be increased to 15,000, showing that the Government recognise the national importance of conserving a big punch in the group. ,

The Swarming Japanese, "Talking about Japanese, wo have between 76,000 and 80,000 of them in the group, scattered over the eight islands. They do the bulk of the manual labour on the sugar plantations, and sugar to Hawaii is like sheep to New Zealand. It was found that white labour was impossible owing to climatic conditions, and the fact that we. could not compete with other .sugar-raising countries ' without cheap coolie labour. The coolies came in swarms until four or five years'ago, when further immigration was prohibited by law. Since then there has always been more or less of a shortage of manual labour, and experiments have been made with other classes of cheap labour. Russian peasants wero imported from Manchuria, but they were not a success. Spaniards and Porta Kicans were brought from the Azores, and even Koreans and Filipinos were tried, but none gave the satisfaction the apane'so did. To try and get over the labour difficulty, machines wero invented to cut the cane, but these so far have not proved efjual to manual labour, and there is still a shortage.

Not Worrying.^ "As far as any fear of a Japanese uprising is concerned, wo are not worrying a cent. Tho Hawaiian Japanese have proved themselves a peaceful, law-abiding people, and ini soino respects they are ■ alhead of our own peoplo in that connection. There was a stnke for higher wages in 1910, in which some 2000 Japanese were ooncerned. This strike was organised by a Japanese professional agitator, but it came to nothing. It lasted about two months, and there was no bloodshed or violence of any kind. Tho thought of a: rising is never' entertained seriously by anyono on the island. Of course, if they did rise, and - were well organised, they could sweep everyone into eternity, but having got possession, could they hold the group? That is the, point. Honolulu is only five days' steam by a cruiser from San Francisco, and it is nine days from Yokohama. . That is too far .away from their base of supplies. "In California the hatred of the Japanese is intense. They, seem to liavo got a rather different class from those wo have in. Hawaii, and the operations of the Japanese in : the' fruit-growing districts throughout Southern California have caused a growing irritation for years past. Ono favourite trick camo under my notice when visiting California a while ago. A farmer would make .a contract with a Japanese contractor to pick his fruit, and a certain day and price would bo fixed. On the date named the. contractor would come along and say that he was_ very sorry, but (his men had gono on strike, or liiad been secured by someone else. This was very serious for tho fruit-farmer, who has absolutely trusted the contractor, as the crop must be picked there and then, and a few days' delay would mean the los 9of a year's work. A day or two later another Japanese -would call on tho despairing farmer, and ask him how much ho wanted for his crop. This man would not listen to any picking proposition; and as tho fruit was ripe, and perhaps getting over-ripe in patches, the grower was forced to conclude a contract with tho wily bargainer.' That sort of thing was common, and as there was never any available labour to supplant that promised by the oon tractor; there was no option but to make the best of things. Then the Japanese began to buy up land, and the position became oven worse, until legislation was passed prohibiting tho acquirement of freehold land by Japanese, which is the cause of the present trouble. I do not think there will bo a war. Japain. will not fight. Sho has got no money, and it is the nation with the money that is going to win all along.

Money in Pineapples, "Tho second biff industry in> Hawaii is the cultivation or pineapples," continued Mr. Doyle. "A great deaf of land is now bring cut up into small farms devoted ( to growing piin.es. This business has increased about 400 per coiut. in tho last two years, and several •of tho big canning firms from California have t erected factories on the island to deal with the fruit. A ma®, with the assistance of a boy or two, can make a very decent living growing pines 011 from 40 to CO acres.