The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-03-16

That they are crazy Perhaps always greedy 10
grasp five or six tons OF sugar per acre from tne
most generous soil. but too avariclous 10 spebu u
dollar to save the forest, the fountain OF all NOW
retribution comes and is coming and wondef OF
wonders !! every body is astonished' that IL really
has come in due time, just as much as many .
youngster is astonished when n long PROMISED
spanking begins TO sting uncomiortably'
What might have been done has been LETT un-
done. Even the great reservoir which should noiu
the empty money bags has. ] say, luckily not oeeh
built, and the money thrown away IL Dull1'
might have contained sufficient water on II hao
not meanwhile evaporated at the rate OF an incha
day. to tide over for q few years o water supply
from one shower OF rain till another, PROVIDED tne
showers would fall often enough, but the bad ei'
feet Of a reservoir would have been that the peo'
pie would have become so secure In their very IN
security that no steps would ever have been taken
TO restore the forest, until such would have become
an impossibility. / have seen the very largest
reservoirs In the interior Of Mexico, between sal
tillo and Durango, dried out by n four years
drought. Such q long ~droughtf you may perhaps
ask. Why should we be more exempt from drought
than the island Of San Juan, in the West Indies. or
any other country in the tropics? IL Is only a ques-
ton of a few months more, sooner or later, and
the quondam Nuunnu River will be one more adj
ded to the many dry ravines, old streams, that In
dictate this day where water, pure and sweet
flowed from the mountains 20 the sea In the long
ago, never again to hear within It's banks the gentle
murmur of the clear mountain stream. The existence
OF the river as a river Is ended, although rains Will
at times revive a stream, or more likely Goods will
rush down the old river bed and sweep roads and
bridges away somewhat oftener than is desirable.
No one in the present day can be SO silly ne to sup
pose that the river, which has years on years ina
constant stream rolled from the internal reservoirs
its millions Of gallons Of water per day, will have ito
fountains and deep hidden reservoirs, which IL took
centuries to fill, replenisbed by 4 or o or 6 years
even Of unusual rainy seasons, 90 become again as
young and as fresh, and vigorous as twenty-five
years ago; aud, If that were possible, where is the
rain to come from1 Certainly not from the heated
air of those mountains Of Nuuanu, when they are
once denuded Of all forest. and how that process
Of denudation proceeds, the people Of Honolulu will
have ample opportunity to observe by looking up
Fort Street, where Mt. Tantalus 80 broadly comes In
view. Drought makes its attack on the forest quite
the reverse from the usual aud gradual process Of
the disappearance Of forests on the mountain sides.
Drought commences at the top and works down.
instead Of the common process Of working
upwards. You will see by looking up Fort street,
the sharp ridges. knobs and hillocks on the noun
becoming gradually bare Of trees; then detached
Of forest lying in valleys and shady hollows,
until Mount Tantalus is as baldhcaded as Diamond
Head or Bunchbogl hill. When1 In less than ten
years, and If this drought should, as is very proba-
continue n year longer, IL may be in less than
seven years. There may be hope that n serious
or tidal wave may change the atmosphere
Iowards u lasting rain; bat still people must bear IN
mind that the heaviest rain will bring us more water
sunply than a few cisterns full. II. HoIsTEIN.