The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-02-11
ring to the means to be adopted. he

cOnCluueS JnaC, " however per-
formed, there is no doubt the opera
ton would he financial success, as
all such works have ever proved
where water is supplied to fertile
soil in warm climate" Great
stress is laid upon the vastly superior
advantage of agricultural as com
pared with merely pastoral com
munities as the environment of
towns. Old-established towns are
mentioned which, surrounded by
sparsely populated pastoral lands,
are half-dead and altogether dreary,
while infant towns, in the center of
well-peopled agricultural districts,
are fourishing and making rapid
progress. This testimony should be
thoughtfully considered and remem-
bered by the capitalists of Honolulu.
1t affords support to the arguments
this journal has put forward, from
time to time, in advocating the
supreme Importance to the city and
the kingdom of having all available
and reclaimabe lands on this island
and the group settled with an in
dustrous population. Artificial irri-
cation is pronounced, by persons
who have investigated the matter
with a practical object, to be feasible
on this island for bringing large
tracts of fertile land under cultiva-
tion. While there is not the slight
est prospect of the state being able,
within any near period, to provide
n loan for that purpose, as the Gov
ernment of Victoria promises to do
for its people, we believe that there
are men in this city possessed of in
fluence and means sufficient to en-
sure the success of the scheme set
on foot by few of their enterpris-
ing fellow-citizens. 1t is their duty,
and we consider it would be to
their great advantage, to closely
examine this great project, instead
of averting their faces therefrom,
and dismissing it from their minds
without investigation as mere
speculative land deal. In view of
the country's present dependence
upon the comparatively small portion
of the land under sugar cultivation,
and of the fact that some of the
most profitable areas have been
made cultivable by artificial irri-
cation, it is surely incumbent
upon our capitalists to ascer-
tain the practicability of reclaim
ing other tracts by the same means
and thus adding to the country's re-
sources. In California the system
has been tested with most satisfac-
tory results, and is being vigorously
extended over large areas-that, too,
while vast regions of virgin soil
watered by nature are still unoccu-
pied in the nations domain. A des-
patch from Merced in that State,
dated Jan. Sth, says the great enter
prise at that place is the Merced
irrigating canal, upon which
work is being pushed day and night
so as to have it completed ready to
let the water through in April. AS
we have seen, the Australian Colo
nies arc not afraid to incur heavy
state obligations in providing theil
people with the same means of land
reclamation. In view of these eX.
amples, it can only be regarded as
culpable negligence on the part OF
those having stake in these Islands
with means to invest in the develop
ment of their resources, or influence
to attract capital hither, if they dt
not avail themselves of the oppor
tunities presented, to at least ex
anime the details of project tina
promises large benefits to the king
dom and its capital by the reclama
ton of extensive tracts, and tn
settlement of those, together wit
lands already fit for cultivation, wit
a population of independent pre-
ducers.
GOVERNMENT AID TO the C0l0NIzi