The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-04-23
Letter from Maui.

AIler, CHdSluS dIIeF5 Us O1teu SatSHAhS HS h"HNS'
dearly paying for, and never, if once securely cor
nered, released until the whole fraternity of news
paperdcn have had their full swing at it-one party
tearing it to pieces, analysing, philosophising, and
another party putting together again the shreds pro-
miscuously, till at last the g highly interesting, .
or {" extraordinary or - horrible news tale is
so often corrected and retaiied in the four quarters
of the globe, that whOsoever indited the first para
graph might be apt to take the o-much-corrected
item for something new. not knowing his own baby.
From such news good Lord deliver us, and 1 have no
doubt that Mrs. Beecher Stowe, who certainly de-
serves the highly honorable title of champion
itemizer and news reporter will by this time re-
spond with a devOut Amen" OF such highly ex-
citing and interesting C) news we are happily free
and our nerves and sensibilities are neither startled
nor shocked by either horrid "deeds of deepest
guilt" nor &c ISLANDERS of blacklist dye All these,
let me call them charming little paragraphs of a
mornings paper, would be like startling meteors on
the horizon of our so-styled &" half civilization but
they are very like the bright fre-fles of tranquil
southern evenings and the atmosphere of such highly
| civilized parts of the world as, for example, New
York. Shall 1 add, from such highly concentrated
civilization good Lord deliver US, and also from
almshouses, good Lord deliver US from founding
hOdoNos vi - @A6 a." O-fH
from Sorosis, and many other such institutions, good
Lord deliver us. We can do without them we
don't need them. Without such newS and such in
situations are we not truly e happy people-happy
to be sneered at as half civilized? No murder. no
burglary, no garroting case, no defalcation or bank
swindle sullies the recording pages of our Island
press. Our newspapers show from week to week q
g clean sheet" and a years file of our papers is
cleaner than n single New York half days morning
or evening sheet. Here we live in peace and dwell III
security-there, murder and raplne stalk abroad.
There the general newspaper topics are crimes, black,
blacker, blackest-here our topics are the weather,
the crops, or Miss Simkins' %hornpipe, or Mrs. Jack
sons party, or Mrs. Jansen's twenty-five pound
baby, or Mr.. Jenkins lately imported breed Of pigs !;
and when babies, pigs and all things fail, we have a
good round at the labor question report speeches
about slavery, whereof we don't know anything ; re-
print resolutions, each commencing with q big WhfTe-
as, of little consequence, you know, as Toots would
say, or give the : Ministry - fits, and becoming
tired of all that sort of talk, you know, fall back on
the babies and the pigs. aud the little incidents OF
tranquil lives and u well-ordered COMMUNICATIVE
dents that, like the breakfast talk Of n family, fall
pleasantly on the ear and leave each individual in IL
frame of mind to follow peacefully his daily pursuits.
Would we sigh for or would we prefer New York
Never \ blessing on our Island home.
The Weather
Has. from the last years general drought, changed
very much on most parts of the Island during the
last month or two. At Makawao rain has been so
plentiful as to stop the mills at several times. Wal
hee, Wailuku and:Waikapu have had a full supply of
rain. At Ulupalakua, even, where the drought has
been of longest duration, though perhaps not of the
most disastrous effects, very refreshing showers have
fallen some time ago. and a cloud-coyered sky and
changeable winds appear to be the harbingers of a
plentiful supply to facilitate the planting of large
tracts of land that are ready to receive the plant
aopn vorv rapnaclob1a fAok = 4loA l. o-oo 80
regular kona storms have ceased during the last
three years, 1868, 1869 and 1870. Obviously there
must be a reason for the cessation of these rain storms
during several years, and l would ask, 4" can the
destruction of woods and forests on Hawaii exercise
any influence upon this remarkable change in the
once so usual and regular system of rain storms ?'
That wooded districts or forests exercise q most
prominent influence on rain, wind and climate, is a
fact so well understood and established, that the
Viceroy of Egypt is planting twenty million euca-
lyptus trees in the desert, and Michigan has found
out that by destroying her forests the State has lost
five million dollars in one years wheat crop and il
is so well understood at Ulupalakua that, during the
last three years, forty thousand trees have been plant
ed out and forty thousand more, from three to ten
feet high, are ready to be transplanted during the !
first weeks of ample rain. On these Islands where
annually a thousand cords of wood (wood that ia of
such very slow growth as our native forest trees) are
consumed under the boilers of sugar houses. and
where the city of Honolulu is constantly engaged in
6 burning up the other Islands, the plantiug of
trees should be made, as in older and wiser countries.
n part of legislation and the s~trictest supervision.
What can and will these Islands be without forests,
without rain? \ years drought has been a severe
lessen. Well for the Islands and its population if
that lesson has taught wisdom.
The General Health,
Which used to be good on this Island, has for the
last few months been unprecedentedly bad. 1t ap-
pears that the sudden change, from a long continued
drought and very dry atmosphere to wet and damn
weather, exercised this bad influence upon tbe ren-
state of health. Some severe disease was last
year at work in the Hamakua district, and later at
staying the native population in large
Rain undoubtedly brought the disease To
Waihee, where n number of people died, and to Wal
luku, and eventually the few showers of rain intro
duced the disease also ut Ulupalakua, where nanv
were Frustrated by a kind of pleurisy, and several
sudden deaths occurred, which startled the commn-
not a little. 1t was ascertained that a kabuna
had been p~racticing at Waihee, had conferred
the favor OF his talents to the sick at Ulupalakua. ex-
changing the haole medicines for a patent mixture of
and tobacco, and thus relieving the sick from all
in very short time. Unfortunately for the
eminent practitioner, but rather fortunately for the
sick, the proprietor of Ulupalakua has so little faith
in the talents of learned kahunas, that he couldn't
see the virtue of the mixture of ava and tobacco. and
went so far as to cause the arrest of this excel-
member Of the medical profession. One of the
most remarkable and notable facts is this, that the
arrest OF the Kanun1 cauSeQ the " twin brother of
Death, 10 make immediate tracks for some
other parts, apparently disguised with UIupalakua,
md very likely in search of some other genial COM
Oanion in the guse of a native kahuna. Facts are
he best illustrations Of truths, and it seems to me
hat it is high time that an old standing mistake
Ihould be corrected, in calling sleep deaths gentle
lcin brother. Fact proves that there are three
,rothers, and kahuna, sleep and Deaths swarthy
brother, is one of 'em, faith. A very fortunate cir
was, that at the very worst time of the
disease at Ulupalakua, the
New lupuni Doctor
iade his visit there. This gentleman, DR.. -,
emained for several days, visiting the sick, dispens-
ng medicines and laboring most zealously for the
,eneft and relief of the suffering sick, and gaining
" his kind and gentle manners in q short time the
and aloha of the natives, the most impor-
acquisition for a physician who aims at becom-
ng useful TO the native population. That gentleman,
do not hesitate to say it, will be to the native popu-
alton one of the best blessings of the year 1870.
The UIupalakua English School
opened its this years course on February 1st, in q
ouch enlarged, newly fitted up and much more