These have false
interiors of wire gauze, and the mass is forced violently against
their sides by centrifugal action, and they let the treacle whirl
through, and retain the sugar crystals, which lie in a dry heap in
the centre.
The cane is being flumed in with great rapidity, and the factory is
working till late at night. The cane from which the juice has been
expressed, called "trash," is dried and used as fuel for the furnace
which supplies the steam power. The sugar is packed in kegs, and a
cooper and carpenter, as well as other mechanics, are employed.
Sugar is now the great interest of the islands. Christian missions
and whaling have had their day, and now people talk sugar. Hawaii
thrills to the news of a cent up or a cent down in the American
market. All the interests of the kingdom are threatened by this
one, which, because it is grievously depressed and staggers under a
heavy import duty in the American market, is now clamorous in some
quarters for "annexation," and in others for a "reciprocity treaty,"
which last means the cession of the Pearl River lagoon on Oahu, with
its adjacent shores, to America, for a Pacific naval station. There
are 200,000 acres of productive soil on the islands, of which only a
fifteenth is under cultivation, and of this large area 150,000 is
said to be specially adapted for sugar culture.
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