Show OUR BIG HAWAIIAN TRADE United States Ships Carry the Bulk of the Commerce During the year 1S97 427vessels with a tonnage of 513826 entered the ports of the Hawaiian republic The United States still leads the whole world in the number of ships and aggregate tonnage engaged In the Hawaiian HawaIan trade Ships carrying the American flag numbered num-bered 2S6 with a tonnage of 270045 while other nationalities only numbered 141 with a tonnage of 243781 This Is a good Increase over the figures for 1896 but what will be particularly gratifying gratify-ing to Americans is the fact that she increase is almost entirely in our favor Of the Increase of 41 vessels 39 were American while all other countries had only two The above figures do not fully show the preponderance of American bottoms because they Include steamers touching touch-Ing here only to discharge mail and a few passengers The majority of these steamers are British and as they carry little freight to and from hese islands it is misleading to include them in any report of the nationality of vessels employed em-ployed by theHawailans in their commerce com-merce with the world Only one steamer steam-er the Australia makes this place her port of discharge and she is owned by Americans and has an AmerIcan register regis-ter She piles between here and San Francisco making 13 trips each year To appreciate how much of the products ducts of these islands Is carried in American bottoms the steam tonnage should be deducted In 1897 sailing vessels ves-sels to the number of 291 with a tonnage ton-nage of 215262 entered the ports of these islands Of this number 237 with a tonnage of 164406 or 82 per cent were American while those from all other countries only numbered G4 with a tonnage ton-nage of 50856 |