The Hawaiian gazette., 1890-08-12
LETTER FROM RIVERSIDE, CAL.

LETTER FROM RIVERSIDE, CAL.
Mr.. EDITOR: As / am often re-
ceiving letters from the Islands
making inquiries regarding the de-
STABILITY of Riverside as a place of
residence, 1 will, with your kind
permission, endeavor to present to
your readers some of the facts and
impressions regarding the place
which l have acquired during my
soiourn of nearly Il year here. l
am not a real estate agent, and am
rather buyer than seller of
land, and consequently have no in
terest in booming" the city, but
on the contrary decline in the
price of land would suit my private
lnclinations us atfording better
chances for invest ment.
1t seems to me that in Riverside
are to be found nearly all the con
ditions necessary for full develop
ment of the ideal community As
Il matter of fact, | doabt if there
can be found anywhere in the
world to day, another community
which can compare with this us re
CARDS high general average of in
telhgence, morality, thrift, culture
and wealth. The large cities of the
world of course are possessed of
enormous wealth, but it is not as
here so evenly distributed among
the citizens. Here there is no
poverty, except in those isolated
cases where physical misfortune
may have incapacitated for work,
and there is no criminal class. The
office of police justice or recorder,
as he is called, is almost sinecure,
and the lookup would be tenantless
year in and year out, were it not
for an occasional tramp attracted
by the fame of Riverside oranges
The community is chiefly made up
of the better elements of society
from Canada, New England and
the western States-people of
means who. III most instances, have
here sought deliverance from the
long winters, the droughts, the
billiards, the numberless lnfelici-
ties incidental to the eastern eli
mate. The Iaboring class is COM
posed for the most part of Ameri-
cans with small proportion of
Scandinavians, and as Il rule they
are Industrious, moral and steady,
and many of them after few
years residence acquire land and
become farmers and horticulturists
In their own right. The Irish for
some reason DO not congregate in
Riverside.
The high price of land has undoubt-
eddy tended to make society more
select, acting, as it were, as sort
of property qualification for would
be settlers. Speaking of the high
price of land, to those who are I'M
acquainted with the conditions here,
and familiar only with the value of
farming land in other parts, it may
seem like absolute folly to ask from
81 600 to $4,000 an acre for land in
bearing orchards, or $500 to $500 |
an acre for born ground which has
never had stroke of work done on
it, but which has an ample water
right. Yut there is no doubt that the
percentage of profit is larger and
surer in orange culture in this valley
than in any other kind of agrIcul-
tural industry in the United States
The orange rancho SIX years old or
over which will not pay ten per cent.
net on a valuation of $1,000 per
acre are the exception. And one
of the chieI beauties of the
thing is that doubled or qua
drupled income is always among |
the possibilities. Money invested |
in bonds or mortgages will pay
certain rate of interest, and 10 more,
but With the same money put into |
an orange grove the ten per cent
may easily be transformed into |
twenty or even forty per cent. AS |
the trees grow larger and the me-
thods of cultivation become per-
fected the yield increases in rapid
rate.
As regards the future of the
orange industry, there appears to
be no reason to doubt that it will |