The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-11-03
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1885,
HARBoR MATTERS.

In the AdaertiSe,'s article on harbor
m 'tters, partly dealt with in yesterdays
is ue, the HERALD is misrepresented as
s,ying that ''the answer to all this its
talk about Honolulu harbor was to be
found in the opening of Pearl harbor to
the worlds commerce, and the found
ing of rival seaport to Honolulu" A
journal that is capable Of such wilful
distortion of the utterances Of a con-
temporary is perhaps hardly worth
noticing. Still, there are some people,
whose good opinion is not valueless,
who have weakness for believing
anything they see in PRINT until it is
ehectually contradicted, and, rather
than give an appearance Of despising
tins class, we shall set their minds at
rest regarding the position of the
HERALD.
This paper said no such thing as
that attributed to it in the above quota
ton. Our argument, in the first place,
was that it was folly to carp at harbor
improvements already accomplished
which could not be countermanded,
and, in the second place, that the capa-
city of Honolulu harbor was capable of
immense enlargement without revers-
ing the plans hitherto followed. We
said distinctly in effect that, when the
vast commerce anticipated by our con-
.temperaries was within grasp, the har-
Dor Of Honolulu could be made avail
able for it by doubling the width and
depth OF its entrance and cutting down
the extensive reefs in the environs, at
least as cheaply as the space built over
could have been excavated to accom-
modate sea going vessels. Then, when
all that had been accomplished, the
reasonable presumption was that the
colossal commerce capable of accom-
mediation in the new Honolulu harbor
would be out Of proportion to the size
Of the town plot available for business
purposes, and ii might be worth while
to seek a safety valve in the adjacent
waters of Pearl Harbor.
Excepting the Pearl Harbor sugges-
ton, the scheme advocated is in the line
of the plans adopted by the Hawaiian
Government since about 1856. "A
slight error made in the article criticized
by the Adaey1iSey was in assuming that
the Government owned all the reefs in
the harbor. Under the unique laws
relating to water privileges in this
country, the fact is that the private
fishing rights take precedence over the
national commercial interests in our
harbor, so that the extensive reefs run
ming down to deep water can only be
utilized for harbor extension by Gov
ernment appropriation. The time must
come when it will be necessary for the
Government to acquire all the territory
washed by the tide within the whole
lagoon, no matter what the cost may
be. Therefore, our argument is not
made void by the erroneous assump-
tion referred to. When all the posi-
BILE works of harbor extension are com
pleted, if is doubtful if there will be
more trade than can be accommodated
in this port. The suggestion as to
Pearl Harbor was thrown out in view
of a very remote contingency.
There is, however, a word due to
each of our daily contemporaries in
regard to the Pearl Harbor question.
The Bulletin, with an air of transcen;
dental wisdom and an assumption OF
thorough information that it did not
possess, thus expressed itself: "The
idea of commission Of engineers to
report upon the cost of deepening the
entrance to Pearl Harbor does not
annear IN nc nc nossessinp remarkable