The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-08-26
How 1t strikes a stranger.

Mr.. EDITOR Il remember among the reading les
sons of my old school days, one entitled 81 How it
Strikes a Stranger" and have thought that if we of
Hawaii would sometimes lift our egotistical eyes from
the contemplation of our own little Pacific mushroom
bed, shallow devices and pOttering horticulture, and
pay some passing regard to the amused stranger
who stands quietly observant at our elbow. (Heb. Is:
y, we might profit by the recognition. or Parlia-
ments and their appliances, of social evils and their
remedies, of commercial conceits, internal improvers,
tall foreign relations, war departments and other
painful and pitiful parades, our Hawaiian Museum
is a curiosity of its kind, half Of Sleepy Hollow and
half of Vanity Fair. If some sheer, some speak
kindly, and from the wide world outside of US wis
dom and folly will come together.
Not long ago 1 heard one OF our visitors from
foreign parts who pOked about good deal whilst here,
bOtanizing among other amusements and setting
Gown queer little hieroglyphics in his note book, de-
clare that these islands were richer in tf6Tous plants
chan almost any other country he had visited, and
he wondered why such valuable resources were
so8ered to remain unappreciated, or why the govern
iDent. presumed to know the inert and unspeculatiye
Character of its people, did not in some active way
start the ball rolling. Ramie 1 believe is on trial,
but why SHOULD stranger ramie, cuckoo like, usurp
the rightful dominion of olona, &c. Who ever handled
the beautiful olOna as prepared by the native fisher
men, and did not wonder at and admire its fine and
glossy texture, astonishing strength and clean and
silky richness? You pass the shining threads mus
ingly between your fingers, and perchance recall
some " sunny wealth of hair in radiant ripples bath
ing the rounded throat and dimpled shoulders s"
ola brown study. The Olona grows wild in Hama
kua and Hilo forests and gulches, and viii endure a
good many cuttings. Samples have been sent
abroad,-with what result 1 never heard. Then
there is the wauke, from whose inner bark is made
those soft and delicate muslin like kapas, which on
special occasions not enticing, grace the loins of our
graceless terphischorean Wrigglers, and which is in
reality, heather tissue paper. The fibre is fine and
strong, and it will grow almost any where like q
weed. Then there are the mamaki and hopue, from
which kappa is made, remarkably vigorous and tena-
cious in growth, unrivalled material for paper. Also
the hala, leaves and surface roots, and the cocoanut
tree, (both fine cabinet woods), the ~plantain, the
hau, and many palms, including the date, which
ought to grow here if they do not, all of more or less
value for fibre and paper-making, yet all suffered to
waste their sweetness, unregarded. And then there
is that magnificent parasite the ieie, which may be
regarded as the usurping king Of the forest. En-
bracing first the feet of the true monarch, the Ohia,
il winds in spiral column of massy green to the very
topmost branch of the tallest trees, whose dark foliage
oyeTspreads and crowns the summit, altogether pre-
senting to the traveller one of the grandest and most
graceful pictures of the aristocracy of the vegetable
world. The roots of this glorious creeper, being first
steamed, are wonderfully tough. elastic and endur-
ing, many yards in length the size of your pipe stem.
I have seen houses, built in Kamehameha lists time,
where the ieie strings. used for fastening the ahos
were sound and elastic as ever. For fine basket
making and in many useful and ornamental arts it
might be of great value.
1t is or should De in the power of every man living
in the country to avail himself of the natural re-
sources and productions, and so supply the vacancy
created by the coffee blight, and a magnificent ex-
port of substantial novelties might be extracted, if
some apostolic minister or clique of ministers would
but bring the people to experience religion - in