The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-10-26
KOhala Matters.

Mr.. EDITOR: There are some peo-
pie who are never satisfied, and so 1t
would appear from general growl
by one "Echo," in the Bulletin. So
far as the people here are concerned,
such stuff as echo" has poured
forth proves nothing, but to the I'M
informed it may be different.
It is a sufficient refutation Of his
first point of grievance, to look at
the composition of the police or
Judiciary department, the road
board, port collector, tax Office and
post office, to see that not one of the
incumbents of these Offices is in any
way related to the present Cabinet,
nor to the missionary" stock.
Now to look at the matter of roads,
his next point of grievance. 1t can
safely be left to any man of common
sense, whether it is not emjnently
fitting, that the main thoroughfare
of a district, extending from its
principal and only public landing,
through its whole length, should be
put in good repair, Notwithstanding
the fact that a railroad runs from
the same port. 1t is an entirely
new idea, that the public could make
it convenient or even possible to do
all their travelling by rail, whether
the train runs but once or a dozen
times day.
It may here be admitted that
there are two small bridges between
Halawa and Multi that are so far
out of repair as to be scarcely safe;
but it must also be stated that all
the heavy grades in ravines between
Puehuehu and Multi, several of
which were before almost impass-
able to carriages after a heavy rain
of half an hour Or less, have been so
changed that it may be stated as a
fact, that when Wainaia is opened,
as it probably will be before long, a
horse in buggy can be kept on the
trot nearly the whole distance from
Mahukona to Multi, distance of
about fourteen miles. What part Of
the district then is it, that "can
whistle" for good roads?
Since echo" complains that the
Road Board has largely everdrawn
the appropriation for roads, in doing
what it has already done On the
most important thoroughfare. ex-
tending it even as a bride path
across several deep gulches beyond
Pololu-an entirely new road-it is
scarcely consistent in him to COM
plain that they did not make car
riage drive into the uninhabited
woods, or even over the mountains
to Waimea, where, it is said, surveys
are already commenced or contem-
plated, for better grade than the
old.
I pass "Echo's" dig at the school
teachers with the mere observation
that it never seemed to occur to him
that even competent master COM
ing from distant land and finding
a class of pupils and methods here
so different from what he has been
accustomed to in his own country,
might do something worse than leave
his school half day to visit another
one to take observation. The cane
planters of so small a country as
Hawaii, as we'll as those of Louisi-
ana, have greatly benefited them
selves and their business by meeting
with one another to compare notes
and exchange views. How much
more then, would planter coming
from far country to raise cane here
find it to his advantage to visit other
plantations, however expert planter
he might be in his own country?
Before echo" undertakes to send
another such growl to the press, he
might tell us what part of the com
munity he claims to echo. If he was
in the district a year ago he ought
to appreciate the difference between
the roads now and what they were
then. **
Kohala, Oct. Fl, 1889.