“It is a very common opinion that sugar will become a leading article of export. That this will become a sugar country is quite evident, if we may judge from the varieties of sugar cane now existing here, its adaptation to the soil, price of labor and a ready market. From experiments hitherto made, it is believed that sugar of a superior quality may be produced here. It may not be amiss to state that there are now in operation, or soon to be erected, twenty mills for crushing cane propelled by animal power, and two by water power.”
Just here it may be remarked that at that time the price of labor was a potent argument in favor of making the islands a sugar-producing country, for native labor was available in abundance and the current rate of wages was from 12½ cents to 37½ cents per day, or $2.00 to $5.00 per month.
In an article on commercial development,[40] Thrum says:
“Hawaiian produce in the early days had to seek distant markets, for we find shipments of sugar, hides, goat skins and the first shipment of raw silk moving to New York per the bark Flora in 1840. A trial shipment of sugar was sent to France, but it did not offer sufficient encouragement for any renewals. The Sydney market was also exploited with sugar, where it obtained better figures than similar grades of Mauritius.”
Between the years 1840 and 1850 a cane field and rude mill in Lahaina, Maui, were owned by David Malo, a well-known Hawaiian, who made molasses and sold it for home consumption. His apparatus consisted of three whaling-ship trypots set up on adobe and stone mason work. The crushing was done with wooden rollers, strengthened by iron bands.
In 1841, Kaukini, governor of Hawaii, planted about one hundred acres of cane in Kohala and the crop when harvested was ground under contract by a Chinese named Aiko.
In Wyllie’s “Notes” on the islands, published in the “Friend,” December, 1844, the quantity of sugar exported from the island of Kauai is estimated at about 200 tons, and the molasses at 20,000 gallons. Hilo, in the same year, exported 42 tons of sugar. Maui had, at that time, two mills, but the amount of sugar produced is not reported.
In 1851, D. M. Weston, then manager of what is now the Honolulu Iron Works, invented the first centrifugal machine for drying sugar, and this machine was installed on the East Maui plantation in the same year. This, it is claimed, was the first centrifugal to be used for the purpose anywhere.
Prominent among the early planters are the names of Stephen Reynolds, William French, Ladd & company, Dr. R. W. Wood, L. L. Torbert, W. H. Rice, and later on S. L. Austin, A. H. Spencer and Captain Makee.
In the year 1854 or 1855, Captain Edwards of the American whaler George Washington brought from Tahiti two varieties of cane, one known as Cuban and the other as Lahaina. The latter proved to be profitable to raise and fifteen or sixteen years later began to displace other species throughout the islands. Since then its popularity continued to increase and up to twenty years ago it was the variety most in favor on all Hawaiian plantations.