The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-05-08

the Interior had decided not to grant the license.
The IMPORTANCE Of making, with as little delay
as possible, an inventory and classification Of the
lands belonging to the Government throughout
the islands, cannot be oyerestimated. 7 Without
indulging in any extrayagant "great expecta-
tons" it will be admitted as more than probable
that the new status which these Islands will take
in the eyes of the world under the treaty of COM
mercial reciprocity will attract capitalists to our
shores within the next year or two, and it will be
for us to present the inducements which shall
lead them to invest here, or, on the other hand
to send them away discouraged. Our neighbors
across the water are quite shrewd and far-seeing
enough to estimate correctly the value of our
improved prospects, and they are enterprisipg
enough to desire to share in them. A large
party of tourists, it is already reported, may
arrive here during the present month, and among
them will doubtless be some who are not mere
sight-seers and pleasure-seekers but who will be
i~nquirers after permanent locations. To such,
let US ask, what immediate encouragement or
what real facilities could We afford? The present
Minister of the Interior and his Secretary are
polite and attentive, and ready to give all the
information at their command but we doubt if
either of them possesses much knowledge of
practical value as to the size, situation or condi-
ton of the unocupied Government lands on the
different islands. Neither are they to be blamed
for their want of knowledge in this respect, see
inc that since the : mahele - in 1916, there has
never been apS movement made towards prepar-
ing al exhibit Of those lands, beyond the bare
list of names and location to be found at pages
37g to 4O2 of the Civil Code. Moreover, it has
been the policy Of succeeding administration in
the past to have just no policy ut all about these
lands. There has been no disposition to allow
them to be improved, but a vague idea seems to
have prevailed that, lying thus, they somehow
represented national wealth, which would be lost
if sold to private parties. And so, with the ex-
ception of here and there q lease to a privileged
friend of the then Ministers or of the reigning
family, most of the Government domain has lain
idle and uaprOductive. Any applicants who did
not come within the last named category, were
either snubbed at once or put of with promises
that were forgotten as soon as made, and with
y~exatious and trifing delays. Sometimes the
would-be purchaser or lessee of a Government
land has been referred TO the agent" resident
IN the district where the land was situated.
Here. again, the inquirer stood a poor chance Of
Getting what he wanted, for either the agent was
Indifferent, and aped the style Of his superiors at
the Office in Honolulu, or he desired the land for
his own use, or that of a friend. And so the
applicant, wearied and Disguised, has given up
and retired.
Sueh was the course too often pursued in the
rast. 10 which We referred in our issue Of the
17tb ultimo when we spoke of the old-time
obstructionist way of dealing with people who
,ys-s maturing for lands and expressed the
Lore that a sensible and liberal policy in this
regard is to be adopted by the present Govern
nent and under the altered conditions into which
,re are about to enter. The Ministry cannot fail
>, have seen the worse than folly Of the course
rrrsued by their predecessors, and they must
admit the correctness Of the position assumed at
the beginning Of this article,-that it Is highly
;mportant that the Interior Department shall
cause 10 &c made, az soon as the nature OF the
labor will permit, AZ inventory and description OF
all the lands belonging to or under the control of
the Government, including, it may be added, the
Crawn lands. This work would no doubt neces-
state the employment Of an additional clerk in
the Interior Once, OF under that Department,
hut the results TO be secured will well repay the
cost. In making up such a description Of Gov
erumeut lands as we have here suggested, the
work Of the Surveyor General, now going on, viii
supply many needed facilities.