Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
The direct and indirect cost to Hawaii to date of the shipping tieup which has paralyzed ocean transportation between the territory and the Pacific coast was estimated today at more than $500,000.
But Hawaii’s severest loss, it was asserted, will not be in the money already lost but in the likelihood that, because of the strike, thousands of tourists who had planned to visit the islands this winter may be diverted to other tourist centers.
From the dollars and cents standpoint, the territory has already lost since the beginning of the strike approximately $275,000 representing funds which some 550 tourists would have spent here had the tieup not prevented their arrival.
The Hawaii Tourist bureau estimated today that had there been no shipping tieup approximately 150 tourist visitors would have arrived during the past 10 days.
It also estimated that some 400 additional tourists would have arrived next Thursday on the Lurline, had that ship been on schedule instead of now being tied up in Honolulu.
Because of the tieup steamship companies have, according to estimates, lost approximately $65,000 in fares which would have been paid by tourist visitors and by territorial residents departing from or returning to the islands.
There are eight ships, including several freighters, now tied up in the islands, and it is estimated it has cost around $20,000 to maintain them, and to pay wharfage fees, during their enforced sojourn at territorial ports.
There are approximately 700 tourists now "stranded" in Honolulu due to lack of transportation from the islands, and it is estimated that this enforced stay has cost them probably $75,000 to date, since they are required to bear all of their expenses while here. …
The fact that the army has announced that it will be compelled, because of the strike, to bring here by transport certain food supplies for troops which would otherwise be purchased locally, will result in a loss of many thousands of dollars to territorial dealers.
