The Hawaiian gazette., 1889-03-05
CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS.

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article to the sparse population ot
these Islands in proportion to then
area, the meager agricultural and in
dustrial development outside the
production Of our two great staples.
and contrasted our deficiencies in
! these respects with the astonishing
progress in all the elements of ma
terial prosperity which has been go
ing on in California and the other
Pacific States of.the American Union.
At the same time we remarked that
there were certain conditions funda-
mental and indispensable to this
prosperous state of affairs, suggested
the propriety, not to say the wisdom
Of inquiring what these might be,
and how far the same could be made
available for our own benefit. 1t
seems fair to assume that the same
causes which have produced so high
degree of prosperity on the Pacific
Coast would, if they could be brought
to bear upon our own conditions,
produce similar results here. Until
the experiment has been fairly tried
and failed, we have a right to con-
slider this proposition as sound.
Those who dispute or deny it should
bring forward good reasons for their
unbelief.
First among the agencies by which
California and contiguous States are
being transformed into hives OF hui
man industry is the subdivision of
the land into small holdings, and the
consequent facilities afforded for
men Of moderate means to make
homes for themselves and open up
honorable careers for their children.
Large tracts formerly owned by sin
gle individuals are being cut up into
ten and twenty acre lots, of which
small proprietors cannot afford to
leave square foot unimproved
Great cattle ranches, profitable
enough while land was not wanted
for other purposes, have given place
to orchards and vineyards. Where
one person or one family subsisted
and possibly accumulated wealth,
now hundreds live, literally under
heir own vines and fig trees, and So
cure for themselves a comfortable
support and what is better than
wealth: self respect, feeling of
manly independence and the felici-
les of home life.
If the subdivision of any consider
ble portion of our lands among
mall proprietors is at all essential
0 the development of the country's
esources and the building up of
ound social state, then these Islands
re about as well fixed as the most
igoted enemy of progress could de- e
ire for indefinitely postponing such
consummation. Hundreds of
of acres, outside of the
ugar plantations, are held by land =
wners for apparently no other pur-
ose than not to use the lands them
elves and not to allow anyone else
} do so.
The confirmation of this statement
an be had by consulting the latest \
statistics. The four islands,
laval, Maui, Oahu and Kauai con
I'm, in round numbers, three million
ght hundred thousand acres of
nd. The population according to
lie last census was about eighty
That is, on these Islands,
ith perpetual spring, summer and J
arvest, all in one, with rich soil and
xuriant vegetation, and one of the
.ry healthiest climates to be found
ithin the entire tropical belt, an n
-erage of nearly fifty acres is ]
.eded for the support of each in D D
.bitant W
Leaving out Honolulu, Wailuku.
ahaina and Hilo, the principal
nters of population, but whose
ople have but little dependence on