The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-06-25
THE PACIFIC
Commercial 90bertiser,
SATURDAY. JUNE %.
A Memorial

A Memorial
To the Hon. MesSrs. HtchcocE. Boyd. BishoU
Thompson. KdduIcdi, and other prominent mem
beTS Of the Legislature. LrhO are IoiHiHg to deCiS
measures and enact taJ0S 1rith q rie,c to correct a
much as possible the abuses and errors Of the past
and 10 preUent. as much as lies in human pOlre
and UciSdOm. the impending ruin u these Islands
At the risk of being judged presumptuous in pre-
senting this memoria to your notice. 1 feel neverthe
ess that I am but fulfilling a duty in sending fortl
my voice in warning. 1t may appear strange that l
one of the very humblest and least of the denizens o.
this country, am the only one whose eyes are opened
as some may perhaps sneeringly remark, to perceive
the impending danger and threatening ruin Per-
haps my peculiar occupation during the last fifteen
years has made me more observant than others but
however you may judge of my understanding, my
capacity or incapacity of reasoning and observation.
and my present course of action, l am fully and in
tensely convinced of the correctness of my views.
The cry of the lonely sailor on the sinking wreck Is
perhaps unheeded on the wide waste of water, but
not unheard and unrecorded. My solitary warning
may also not be needed, and fall perhaps on derisive
ears !; but in the coming years, when my predictions
are coming to pass, there will be at least one warning
cry recorded on the pages of the past and L must
earnestly, with a sincerity and a conviction which
fully to express 1 want words, warn you, the Legis-
NtAAS NArOAo ohN P%OpASS NhSS
hence these Islands will be ruined and be but barren
wastes, unless you prevent the total destruction OF
our forests, and by ONE means retrieve the abuses
and errors of the past.
Agriculture is the basis of the present and pros
pective prosperity of these Islands. Successful agri-
culture depends mainly, / might say altogether, upon
a sufficient supply of moisture, dew, rain or irriga-
ton and dew, rain and water for irrigation or foun-
tains, depend again upon the quantity of forests and
such vegetation as will gently lower the descending
rain, SO that the water sinks into the ground to re-
plenish the subterranean reservoirs and fountains,
instead of running to waste in short-lived, foaming
cataracts, and provide shade and shelter against the
absorbing rays of the sun and drying winds, to keep
the received water in the ground and its hidden re-
~ceptacles. Mists and consequent rains depend much
upon the quantity, and 1 might add also upon the
quality Of trees, whose leaves, absorbing heat during
the day, give it off at night, and thus act as con-
densers of the atmosphere.
Every man of intelligence in the present age is, or
ought to be, well aware of the value of forests as re-
CARDS rain, and it would therefore be unnecessary to
enter into any more lengthy explanation. To those
who may still doubt, 1 only say at this time of the
Jubilee, if p~erchance any one of those remember fifty
years ago, Where are the full running streams and
purling brooks and the forests and shady groves that
you knew fifty years ago, that grew near the sea-
board and on the hill-sides, and sheltered the thou
sands of native huts and hamlets The streams
in the days of yore bore fleets of canoes, and
waters harbored fish, and were the sporting
places of adults and children, have dwindled down to
cutters, the brooks have ceased their murmurings,
and are changed into silent, rock-strewn gulches, the
forests and groves have disappeared with the people
sported under their shade, and vegetation has
receded and is receding with every year farther, far
Their, and still farther from the shore, inland and up
wards towards the mountains and this is the case,
the exception of a few locations, on all the ISL
ands. On Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai and Maui vegetation
recedes with every year from the shore, leaving the
eaboard either always or for the most part of the
year, even in the most favorable seasons, barren as
Saharas, where animals would starve.
But very few of our present generation can wildly
'emember :" fifty years ago. and may think myS
statements exaggerated, or perhaps there are many
Who are unacquainted with the Islands, having per-
never left the city and surroundings of Homo
ulu for the last fifteen years. To those I would say,
Ial to your remembrance the Nuuanu stream of
fifteen years ago, flowing full from bank to bank from
he distant valley to the sea remember the deep
athing establishment of the late Macfarlane re-
member the dense growth of timber up the valley and
n the mountain sides, and the miry and often inn
assable road towards the Pail, and look now upon
he sickly looking gutter of eighteen inches wide and
wo inches deep, yclept Nuuanu stream or river ;
0ok at the treeless, shrubless, barren valley, where
nee the hau trees grew in dense and impenetrable
angle, and then pause and consider the change
which the last fifteen years only have wrought, and
SIX yourself, what change will the next fifty years
? Is il time time to introduce vigorous measures
D avoid impending danger? A few minutes suffice
D lay the %stateliest tree, the monarch of the forest,
ut it takes years for one to grow up in its place.
nevertheless some trees grow very RAPIDLY. and in
eneral trees grow very fast in this country.
The purpose of this memorial Is to warn you first,
prevent the total destruction of our forests, and
econd to retrieve the errors of the past. Our for
SITS are going to destruction not only on the lower
Iopes of the mountains, where the woodlands axe
lYs low the trees of our ancient forests, but worse, l
lay say worse than all, in the very summit regions,
ne very cradles of our mists, our rain and water.
i've years ago 1 noticed on Hawaii that the woods
'ere gradually dying out, and l notice the same on
Iaui. Thousands of acres of forest land, instead of
sea of green leaves, present at this day only naked
ess, from the weather blanched, limbless trunks, and
O young groWfh is SpriRging up TO take the place of
e dead. 1t is the same in the highest forest ranges.
he old trees die and no new generation of trees takes
onably destroyed. You ask by whom, and l an ,
Ter, they are destroyed by the most destructive of
i animals-thousand Of wild goats, besides wild
neep and cattle. There are not twenty varieties of
Iants in the world that q goat viii not eat. Sheep :
re nearly as destructive, cattle more particular in 7
food, though their rayages are almost as bad.l !
I am told that all wild animals that inhabit the
fountains and forests are the property of the Gov :
-nment. I plead, most earnestly plead in behalf of =
IT forests, in behalf of the preservation of these ISL ;
and ask for the introduction of a bill before the =
to empower and enjoin the Minister of the ,
lterior to get rid of this destructive and baneful =
roperty of the Government, or in other words, to =
ear the forests from wild animals as speedily as pos a
BILE, as fast as it can be done, for the very reason =
ecause on account of the present scarcity of feed, Il
animals are more destructive to the young .
.owth in the higher mountain regions than at any !,
her time. The killing of wild animals should hence =
nth be free to all. But it is not only necessary to !
Ike speedy measures to prevent the destruction OF =
r forests, but we should also endeavor to retrieve i.
e abuses and errors of the past by replacing as much '
lies in our power these trees that fall under the
rokes of the axe and feed our fires, and whose indu-
ice upon the atmosphere is lost. 10 this end L would
k for the enactment of a law not burdensome to
" one, but by being strictly enforced, productive
much good, namely. to require each proprietor or r
of land to plant annually one tree (not shrub) ii
r every two acres of land in his possession, trees of Ii
" kind-hau, kukui, pandanus, etc, etc., any kind