The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1891-09-24
THROUGH KONA TO HILO.
Written for the P. C. ADVERTISER
Concluded.


tenanted, waiting for the dawn of life
but, alas, Kona is cursed with grasoing
owners, many of them nonresident.
They will not sell, and they do not seem
anxious to lease, except upon short
terms and at high rents. It is not hui
man nature, nor is it just, that man
should use the land of another, paying
therefor all or more than its rental value,
putting on lasting improvements, and
when the land begins to pay, find that
the lease is out and the landlord, alive to
the enhanced value, proposes to take it
all IN, on higher rent. Until small
parcels of land can be had in fee simple
for settlement and improvement, Kona
will not make very rapid strides forward,
and it ought not to. The same is true of
other parts of the country. 1t might be
good thing to tax landowners on their
ideas as to rental value. 1t would give q
line income in the days of cheap sugar
and depression.
But to return to our travels. Some
fine sugarcane growing in fields near the
road in and about Holualoa shows what
might have been had not the bottom
dropped out of the sugar market and the
kona Sugar Company. Perhaps the
new coffee plantation will benefit from
the improvements made for sugar
plantation certainly there are houses
enough for many workmen and cleared
fields sufficient for much coffee. Mr.
Costa, late of Hilo, is on hand, however,
with a little mule power mill and a
sorghum pan, and proposes to harvest
the cane fields. Success to him! Mr..
Miller has, and showed us, some quota
lions from London on samples OF Ha-
waiian coffee forwarded there some time
ago. Our product stood nearly as high,
both in quality and price, as the finest
Ceylon. Such facts ought to lend cour-
age to our growers, and the increasing
prices for coffee in the worlds market
ought to keep us alive to prevent the in
PRODUCTION OF any plant or green berries
at all from foreign lands, or We shall
have the leaf disease, which has 50
nearly ruined the industry in Ceylon,
and which, so far, has defed ali the
efforts of science to destroy.
A pleasant ride of few miles and we
are in Kainaliu and Kaawaloa. Here a
considerable population resides, battling
with the lantana for house lots and a
few scattered fields of corn or potatoes.
Itshas been very dry and fruits show it
on all sides. Very few oranges have set
fruit although more may come on later
and the pineapple crop is short.
! Mr.. John Paris kindly gives us day
and under his pilotage ride is taken up
through the woods to Trousseau's old
sheep station at Kanahaha. An excel
lent road on an easy grade, which re-
qulres but little mending to make it
carriage drive or good freight track,
leads up through the forest. The ride
is simply inspiring. The woods are
beautiful, the air cool and invigorating.
The leaves hide host of feathered song
sters, such as are rarely seen Or heard
on Oahu, but familiar "can camp
attracts the ear and genuine crow fol-
lowed by others flies curiously overhead
watching the strangers. Where did
these birds come from? The ancient
Hawaiian tells US they have always
been here. The "akala" RASPBERRY is |
n fruit and we stop to pick few now
and then. At an elevation of something
over 5000 feet the woods open. A level |
plain dotted with occasional clumps
Of trees, some shrubbery and an
abundant grass stretches away. The |
eye is raised. What an incompatible |
view! Maunaloa scars aloft crowned |
With patches of snow; its sides furrowed |
md SCARED with countless lava flows. |
The lower slopes are wooded, heavily be- |
ow, lightly above, till stunted bushes |
Ind grass alone represent vegetation |
battling with frost and snow. Further |
1T, but standing clear and sharp in the
brilliant sunlight, is Maunakea. Then |
lear at hand on the extreme left is |
dualalai, mass of cones with stretches |
" sand between. A few low houses |
he old sheep station-are the only signs |
II lie, and they are uninhabited. But |
We lind In the tanks abundance of clear
old water. One listens for sound-the |
llence IS intense. 1t becomes most en-
icing. 1t is almost incredible that this
lear, crisp air is in the tropics. What a
leaven for invalids; what resting place
Or the weary man of business, for the
lred mother. When will we learn what
wonderful health resorts are at our doors,
INVITING US to step in and live new life.
md all SO easy of approach. It can not
70 that these places will be left solitary
nd neglected much longer. Hawaii is
Ill of them. They are on Maui, Oahu,
4auai and even on Molokai. II one has
weeks vacation, four DAYS can be had
n Hualalai. Take the Hall on Tuesday.
ne next morning land at Keauhau and
de up the Judd road to the outside of
le woods, 5000 feet above the sea. STAY
you like till Monday morning early,
hen ride back and take the Hall,
nd land in Honolulu Tuesday after
DON. The four days on the noun
lin will afford time to see its
Mysterious wonders, to shoot wild cattle,
oats. pigs (getting a pair of fine ivory
lsksl, turkeys, and perhaps a fierce
lid dog or two. If people will only do
lat, accommodations will grow up.
From Kealakekua a ride of thirty
lifes more or less brings us to Mon
.rrat's pretty ranch in Honomalino.
/ and near Kalahiki the road leads
trough the thrifty coffee plantation of
le new company. At Hooper's we see
hat has been done by careful and intel
gent cultivation. But all complain of '
le drought. 1t is shown mostly in the {
'arse Towering OF the orange trees and G
lat looks like short crop this fall. T
e see very few young trees of aDy
nd, but the country still maintains the c
onderful character of its vegetation. t
mere are lew inhabitants, but most of
em are well and comfortably housed.
ne has the impression everywhere that :.
e country is waiting for population and 4
lprovement. 1t seems hard to feel !
at it must wait till the Lord mercifully
moves the big land owners and gives a
ance to divide up the estates. Per-
Fps the legislature will intervene and :.
axe it expensive and uncomfortable to t
ok up big lands which ought to be =