Commercial Development [pp. 613-627]

COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT.
highest years of export values, I889 and
1890, which reached $I3,874,34I and
$I13,282,729 respectively, give a like
annual average return of $I5o.68 per
capita of population.
Marked improvement is to be noted in
the number and class of vessels in the
various lines of Hawaiian trade. Not
only were the regular established lines
of packets with the Coast, the Eastern
States, and Europe, augmented, but new
lines were added, notably the Crossman
New York packets, the Liverpool and
Glasgow line, and the Oceanic line of
packets with San Francisco, the latter
subsequently increased by the steamers
Mariposa and Alameda, built in Philadelphia, to give us direct semi-monthly
service with the Coast in addition to the
regular call of the Australian line of
steamers to and from San Francisco, but
afterwards changed to run through to
the Colonies in connection with the
Union Steamship Company and putting
on the steamship Australia as the local
liner. W. G. Irwin & Co. are the local
agents of the Oceanic Company's
vessels.
In the progress of events new vessels
and of larger tonnage have been built to
replace the former San Francisco packets,
and the same is to be said of the vessels
engaged in the lumber trade with the
Sound. The majority of our San Francisco packets are Pacific built, but mostly
of barkentine or bark rig.
The change of the inter-island coasting
service from sail to steam has been
steadily progressing. In I877, the Likelike was built in San Francisco for the
Hawaiian government, to replace the
old Kilauea. At the opening of that year
the coasting fleet of the Islands consisted
of one steamer, 24 schooners, and seven
sloops, with a total of 2,044 tons. At the
opening of 1895 the fleet comprised i8
steamers, 17 schooners, and six sloops,
with a total 5,070 tons. The Island
steam service that had to be heavily
subsidized or conducted entirely by the
government, is now mostly carried on
by two corporations in business rivalry,
unaided by subsidies, yet giving satisfactory returns upon their investments.
All this fleet, except one each, built in
Philadelphia, the Clyde, and in Honolulu,
are Pacific Coast built vessels.
This and other developments of steam
in the Pacific has given employment annually to quite a coal fleet, mostly from
Newcastle, New South Wales, the larger
portion of them arriving during the grinding season so as to secure sugar cargoes
for the East. The value of coal imported
in i88o, was $36,514; in I890 it was
$94,52I, and in I893 it increased to
$I46,5 5 3.
Since i882 the frequent calls of large
ocean steamers off port demonstrated the
necessity of dredging the bar to permit
their entry. This has been accomplished
-through contract with San Francisco
parties-at an expenditure of $I175,ooo,
a much smaller sum than first contemplated. The Oceanic was the first large
ocean steamer to enter the harbor, May
9, I893, followed a month later by the
China.
The same year also dates the inauguration of the Canadian-Australian steam
line, with Honolulu as a regular port of
call to and from Vancouver. Some idea
may be formed perhaps, of the importance of this "cross-roads" station in the
Pacific, when it is stated that the various
regular steam lines already scheduled
have Honolulu listed for eighty-five visits
this year, not inclusive of tramp or other
possible visitors.
This increased shipping calls for enlarged port facilities. To meet this the
harbor is being dredged, the existing
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