Office of the Historian

No. 385.
Mr. Comly to Mr. Evarts.

Legation of the United States,
Honolulu, April 8, 1880. (Received May 1.)
No. 101.]

Sir: Referring to my last dispatch (No. 100, dated March 15, 1880), inclosing Hawaiian custom-house statistics for 1879, I have the honor to make these supplementary remarks.

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The detailed statement confirms all the conjectures and figures of my No. 100.

The importation of rice fell off considerably, the amount for 1879 being only 761,481 pounds, with 265,532 pounds in bond. This rice all pays duty to the Hawaiian Government, and releases that much Hawaiian rice to be sent free of duty into the United States. The export of rice is increasing rapidly. The collector-general reports, for first quarter of 1880, 1,232,200 pounds exported (to United States), an increase of 421,500 pounds over the same quarter of 1879. There is also an increase of [Page 605] 5,807,537 pounds in sugar, the amount for first quarter of 1880 being 15,967,857 pounds.

The figures of the detailed statement (p. 17) verify my figures as to sugar machinery: seven complete and two incomplete plants from Great Britain; none from the United States.

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I have, &c.,

JAMES M. COMLY.