The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1861-02-14
Rural sketches
of the tlawaiian ISLANDS.
ApAYs RAMBLE ON KAUAI.

MR. EDITOR If your readers are not already
wearied with accounts of pleasant vacations, long
journeyings in the saddle, sublime views and hos
pitabIe receptions, l will undertake with your
permission to fill part of column. In going
from KOOa to Hanalci, as Kauai curves with the
sea- the traveller inyOluntariy laments the scarcity
Of population everywhere manifest. The wrecks
Of deserted houses, fCrsaken tarO-patches and
broken caiabashes at the springs, tell the mourn
ful tale of a people passing away The hand of
determination seems even To have fallen upon the
forest trees Acres of barkless, leafiess and
blasted trees-skeletons of departed forests
whten many plain and mountain side. This
phenomenon is noticed ON other islands as well
as Kauai Some attribute the fatality among the
forest trees 20 the trade winds. Why winds
which were formerly not injurious, should prove
50 now. has not been explained. The truth
probably Is, although your correspondent cannot
at present cite scientific data, that the wild trees
of Kauai, like her aboriginal inhabitants, have
reached the natural period Of their decline; the
result Of which may be, that our hills viii one
dav be as destitute of wild trees the Highlands
Of Scotland. To be little sentimental, 1t Is al
ways melancholy to forest trees, the noblest
structures of the vegetable creation and the ex
pressive witnesses Of the past, departing before
their time.
The scarcity of population observable on Kau
al Is seemingly Is unnecessary as it is lamenta-
Bile. Extensive table-lands of at least fair fer
tility, numerous little notches of unfailng rich
.ness call aloud for the plough and the strong
arm Of the husbandman- The comparatively
barren soil Of the little State of Rhode Island,
with an area of less than 1900 square miles, soil
requiring constant fertilization, and rendered
torpid four months in every twelve by frost and
STOW, yields annual crops of various kinds, ex-
eeedins a million dollars in value.
The hill sides Of France and Italy, which de-
mand constant stimulation, seldom refuse rich
tributes Of corn and wine to moderate, steady,
labor. To say that the neglected districts of
Kauai are uninhabitabIe and worthless, is to say
that which il not true The time must come
when these green fields, which are now the re-
treats of the rat and the owl, shall be happily
transformed To conjecture that the populous
coast States Of the future, viii create some new
demand which the Hawaiian Islands, through
their natural advantages, will be peculiarly cal
eulatei TO meet, i 10 conjecture within the linn
it, OT probability The great desideratum of
Kauai and our whole Kingdom, of course, -
people. \ leading question. theret ore, with our
ruling minds at the present crisis, when our
diminutiye population i becoming less, might
be,--,rkaf MAY be done ,rlioh shall e6scf an aug
1AeHtafioH Of population? IL ~ to be hoped
shat the advisers of his majesty and future leg
islatures, will give this question-and no one
doubts that they Willis just share of conside-
ration
To see the valley of Hanalei, is an ample reward
Tor tine toll Of getting there As the traveller ar
riyes hefora L. md .ieNss from emInence this !