The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-08-11
THE CHARACTER OF THE WIT
NESS

Herald that the Annexation party is
trying to speculate in Hawaiian realty.
"A land boom, such as the Provisional
organ, the STAR, speaks
Of says Mr. Nordhof, Knight help
spectators to unload on
Americans, but it would be a base
fraud on our farming people" at
would be the worst kind q a swindle |
upon American farmers" adds the cor
respondent virtuously, "to deceive them
into going to the Hawaiian Islands to
take up lands
1t will be a province of our future
articles to show how much greater is
the area Of Hawaiian land which may
be cultivated than that which is now
in use how the opening up # the
public domain, Vide the Crown property,
will give a prosperous livelihood to
half million people how the build
ing OF roads to arabic plateaus and val
leys, now inaccessible only for want of
them would result in vast industrial
development and how coffee, banana,
coCoanut, ramie and fruit culture is yet
in its infancy here. All this will serve
later purpose. What we wish to
treat of now is the character of the
witness, as shown in the contrast be-
tween his TRADE against land swlndes"
| that have no existence, and his com
placent eulogy of land swindles which
had run a lucrative course and in the
profits of which the Heydld cor
respondent shared
| About seven years ago company
of sharpers got 10000, 900 acre con
cession in Lower California from the
Mexican Government and put 1t on the
market. At least fifteen million acres
of the country were as worthless for
farming as SO much glass and sand
lpaper-alkali desert, pinnacled rocks,
desolate mesas; and about one million
acres of valley soil, most of it inaccessi-
bic, were capable of tIlage under irriga
ltion. But water works did not exist
and could not be built except at vast
cost to the taxable population. How
lever, the company issued pamphlets
and folders of an attractive sort and
Induced several hundred American
farmers to invest. 1t was not long
before these unfortunates found them.
selves tilling desert upon which moth
ing could grow without water-a desert
as forbidding as the blackened under
/. world which Dante saw in his night
mare visions. Starvation stared then
in the face, and but for charity many
of them would have died Meanwhile
f the exactions Of Mexican law fell upor
: the food and implements sent then
from the United States, and their 10
! increased in misery.
5 There remained much land to sell anC
there were no more customers. Final,
: the syndicate of thieves be.hough
them Of a new device. They woulC
: hire writer of reputation to lend tn,
p, authority of his name to their graceles
/. pretenCes. With a keen instinct the
> turned to Nordhof, and in fe,
\ months out came book on Lower Cali
lfornia which covered the wide waste c
Y its Saharas with the glamor of romano
: and the reputation of almost Eden.
= fertility and charm. The gospel of tn
e Peninsula, according to Nordhoff, wa
a newly read, and human sheep agai
j focked to the slaughter. A million O
S so of dollars were cleaned up by tn
| banditti, and then they left the countr
to their English creditors. Singular
enough, as it soon appeared, the till
S to about the only desirable piece {
realty in the whole land--a big ranch
. close to Ensenada, with mineral indi
: cations on it and position near dee
I water-was found vested in Waite
S Nordhoff, Charles Nordhoff S hopeful
Y son and convenient dummy TIT
= dupeS of the Lower California boo
= ragged in vain. They were very hungr
, and very thirsty they had bought lan'
: over which, in his flight, the GRO,
| would have to carry his rations-bu
the Nordhoffs were serene, Manifest
it was not their funeral
1t is this fine and impartial judge o
land, Charles Nordhof, who now pro
claims to the world that the tropica
savannas of Hawaii, with their rict
volcanic soil, such as that in which the
olives and the grapes OF Cesarea grew
lands which have been waiting fol
centuries to welcome the husbandmer
are frauds" and those who invite the
farmer to them are "swindlers" 1t is