The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-08-12
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOertisrr
SATURDA /. AUGUST l.
Forest Culture and Preservation.

ADVERTISER, we came upon the annexed mem
orial by Mr.. Ii. Holstein to the Legislature of
1870 and as this is the third legislature since
then, neither Of which has taken the subject of
Forestry into active consideration, we reprint
it for the benefit Of tie present Assembly and as
a reminder 10 the public of the Importance OF
the question of which it so ably treats. We
beg to recommend il TO the consideration Of the
Legislature, with this change, that instead Of
requiring each proprietor or lessee of land to
plant annually one tree, mot shrub) for every
two acres Of land in his possession, to require
each father of a family to plant annually one
tree for himself and one for each member of his
family and as Mr.. Holstein is at present in
the city, we will add, in the words of the mem
orial. slightly altered, "There is no one who
takes a more earnest interest in the welfare Of
these islands and who is better fitted TO taHe the
preservation of our forests and the correction OF
the errors Of the past in hand, than Mr..
Holstein himself; and we suggest that out of
appropriation for the encouragement Of agricul-
ture and immigration a liberal provision be made
for the purpose indicated by the heading of this
article.
At the risk of being judged presumptuous IN
presenting this memorial to your notice, ! feel
nevertheless that l am but fulfilling 4 duty in
sending forth my voice in warning. 1t may
appear strange that |, one of the very humblest
and least of the denizens of this country, am the
only one whose eyes are opened, as some may
perhaps sneeringly remark, to perceive the i'm
pending danger and threatening ruin. Perhaps
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, |
am fully and intensely convinced Of the correct
ness Of my views. The cry of the lonely sailor
on the sinking wreck is perhaps UNDECIDED 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 | must earnestly, with a sincerity and a
conviction which fully to express L want words,
warn you, the Legislature, chiefs and people,
that in less than fifty years hence these Islands
will be ruined and be but barren wastes, unless
you prevent the total destruction of our forests,
and by some means retrieve the abuses and
errors of the past.
Agriculture is the basis of the present and
prospective prosperity of these Islands. Success
full agriculture depends mainly, l might say
altogether, upon a sufficient supply of moisture,
dew, rain or irrigation and dew, rain and
water for irrigation or fountains, 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 replenish the
subterranean reservoirs and fountains, instead of
running to waste in short-lived, i0aming cata-
racts, and provide shade and shelter against the
absorbing rays of the sun and drying winds. to
keep the received water in the ground and it's
hidden receptacles. Mists and consequent rains
depend much upon the quantity, and | might
add also upon the quality of trees, whose leaves,
absorbing heat during the day, give it off at
night, and thus act as condensers of the atmos-
phere.
Every man of intelligence in the present age
is, or ought to be, well aware of the value of
forests as regards rain, and it would therefore be
unnecessary to enter into any more lengthy ex-
PLANTATION. To those who may still doubt, / only
say at this time of the Jubilee, if perchance 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 seaboard and
on the hill-sides, and sheltered the thousands of
native huts and hamlets?" The streams that in
the days of yore bore fleets of canoes, and whose
waters harbored fish, and were the sporting
places of adults and children, have dwindled
down to cutters, the brooks have ceased their
murmurings, and arc changed into silent, rock
strewn gulches, the forests and groves have dis
appeared with the people who sported under
their shade, and vegetation has receded and is
receding with every year farther, farther, and
still farther from the shore, inland and upwards
/ a NbC OohtdA , ohN NbAS IL SN StGSs
with the exception of a few locations, on all the
islands. On Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai and Maui
vegetation recedes with every year from the
shore, leaving the seaboard 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 remember fifty years ago. and may
think my statements exaggerated, or perhaps
there are many who are unacquainted with the
T,Ioo1, lo-;-- n1rIo&c lafE tho nifu on1
surroundings of Honolulu for the last fifteen
years. To those / would say, Call to your
remembrance the Nuuanu stream of fifteen years
ago, flowing full from bank to bank from the
distant valley to the sea remember the deep
bathing establishment of the late Macfarlane /;
remember the dense growth of timber up the
valley and on the mountain sides, and the miry
and often impossible road towards the Pail, and
look now upon the sickly looking gutter of
eighteen inches wide and two inches deep, yclept
Nuuanu stream or river look at the treeless,
shrubless, barren valley, where once the han
trees grew in dense and impenetrable tangle,
and then pause and consider the change which
the last fifteen years only have wrought, and ask
yourself, what change will the next fifty years
work Is it time to introduce vigorous
measures to avoid impending danger? A few
minutes suffice to lay the ~stateliest tree, the
monarch of the forest, but it takes years for one
to grow up in its place. Nevertheless some trees
grow very rapidly, and in general trees grow
very fast in this country.
The purpose of this memorial is to warn you
first, to prevent the total destruction of our
forests, and second to retrieve the errors of the
past. Our forests are going TO destruction
not only on the lower slopes of the moun-
tains. where the woodlands axe lays low
the trees of our ancient forests, but worse,
1 may say worse than all, in the very sum-
NIT regions. the very cradles of our mists,
our rain and water. Five years ago 1 noticed on
Hawaii that the woods were gradually dying
out, and l notice the same on Maui. Thousands
of acres of forest land, instead of a sea of green
leaves, present at this day only nakedness, from
the weather blanched, limbless trunks, and no
young grotCth IS Springing up 10 take tie place Of
The dead. It is the same in the HIGHEST forest