The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-05-28


considered nearly as valuable, taking
it all round, as the Western portion
of MolOkai, which had not long be-
fore been sold to the Hon. Charles R.
Bishop at the rate of 1917 cents an
acre. Mr.. Bishops purchase is all
available pasture, and has been very
profitable on account of the quantity
of cattle raised upon il and sold to the
Board of Health. Much of the area
Of the Ahapuaa of Waikiki, which
Colonel Spreckels obtained, consists
Of irreclaimable sands and sand
dunes.
In 1880, Mr.. SpreckeIs hearing that
Her late Royal Highness Ruth Ke-
liikOlani claimed to be entitled to a
half share in the land known as
Grown Lands" which were origi-
nally reserved by Kamehameha III,
when he divided the rest of thc
islands among the people, as his
"private Iands,T "to have and to
hold to himself, his heirs and sue
cessots forever" and not desiring to
have his own title to Ieasehold on
which enormous sums of money had
already been laid out questioned in
the courts, purchased her rights from
the Governess Ruth, for $40, 900. Hon
E. Preston, then Acknowledgement
Mr.. A. S. Hartwell, former Attor
ney-General, and Mr.. w. r. Castle
another ex-Attorney-General, gave
Col. Spreckels their opinions to the
effect that he had purchased a valid
claim to an undivided half of all the
Crown Lands, list of which may be
found on pages 375 to $40 Of the Civil
Code edition, 1852. These opinions
were supported by those of eminent
American lawyers, and Col. Spreckeli
| preferred his claim.
His chief object being to prOtec
the valuable property best known a.
"SpreckelsvilleP Plantation" he SEEM
to have readily yielded to a compro
mise offered on behalf of the Grown
Lands Com missiOners by the Gov
eminent, and confirmed by the Legis
lature after careful investigation, il
the statute already quoted. Tn
millions of acres for Mr.. Spreckels'
therefore drop down to a good dea
less than the fOrtieth part of a mill
ion. Taken at ten years purch ase a
the rental he was paying, this traC
was value for $4,000, which is abou
the price any one would have beel
willing to pay for the fee simple a
the time. Nevertheless, at the dat
of the transfer, this formerly deser
tract was, through the enterpris
of Colonel Spreckels and his assc
ciates, paying annually in take
nearly twice as much as the Who'll
estimated value of the freehold q
the time it was leased to him. 1t
now paying about SOS, 200 year i
taxes to the Government, on al
count of the vast expenditure of cap
tai and labor upon it, while the is
more valuable and far cheaper pu
chase on MOlokai, by the Hon. G. F
Bishop, is paying a mere trifie to tn
Government, that thrifty owner pre-
ferring to leave it in state of natul
and sell the beef fed upon it to tn
Board of Health to feed the Iepers.
That is, in one particular, the di
ference between the Bishop monopol
and the "Spreckels monopoly" an
we call upon the Gazette and tn
Opposition Press as a whole to d
right and justice in the premises.
Furthermore, if Colonel Sprecke
had not obtained possession of til
plains of Wailuku, and expende
millions of dollars in irrigation an
improvements upon the land, doe
anyone suppose there would hay
been any demand for Portuguese in
migrants, or any necessity to prOvid
land OH which they might settle
The truth is, this whole question
settlement arises out of the ente
prise and public spirit of Colon,
SpreckeIs it could never, by an
possible chance, have arisen unde
the old regime. AS a matter of fac
the whole area of all the dry land
these Islands out of which tt
GaSette's "few millions for NJ
Spreckels have been apochryphall
taken, is, in round numbers, onl
about 100000 acres. The Onl
"millions to be talked about i
connection with this land are tn
millions of dollars that Colont
Spreckels and his associates hay
spent on this once desert tract.