The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-03-30
Bad Effects Of Being Governed at
Arms Length.
AS ME. ARM-rKoNG SEES 1T.
Moe White Men on tho Coffee PIanta-
lions Than in Sugar-OPPOrtunitIes
for a Young America-Leaseholds are
Barrier-LocaI Government Needed.

y. n. Armstrong arrived yester-
day on the Kinau from his tour
among the coffee planters of Ha-
waii !, Mr.. Armstrong is thoroughly
enthdsed with the great prospects
for the country that are being
worked out on Hawaii. In speak
ing of his trip and the impressions
received, he said:
MY trip around part of the island
of Hawaii was very interesting, from
the standpoint of Labor Commits
sioner. I examined chiefly the coffee
industry. That island has for some
reason been kept in the background,
but it is jumping to the front.
perhaps its people had some rea-
son to feel sore in the past about the
treatment they received As they are
increasing in numbers very rapidly,
they will be reading the riot act to the
Legislature some day, if they are
sighted. The local affairs Of Hawaii
can never be we'll taken care of in
Honolulu. It is too far away. There
should be some local self government.
A provision for it should have been
put in the Constitution, unless the
Government officers are abler men
than most Anglo-Saxon countries pro-
duce.
"The streets and cutters and side
walks of Hilo can never be we'll pro-
vided for by a distant or subordinate
official. As it is, a curbstone must
come through the Minister of the In
terio~.
"F ona is making good start in the
coftSe business Mr.. Miller, DIR. Nc
Wayne and other enterprising men
make the very best pioneers. Mr..
Miller has experience, and all of them
stump-puller is q novelty there. 1t
snaps out the guava trees as if they
We're weeds. The situation in Kona,
so far as land is concerned, is absurd,
and will make trouble. Some one
said, in the English Parliament, some
years ago, that a ship full of emf
grants could coast along the shores of
Australia for two hundred miles, with
out a house or a cow in sight, and yet
not an acre of land could be bought,
as it was in the hands Of settlers who
had taken it all up.
"Pretty much so in Kona, for fifty
miles. / asked dozen men in Kali
lau, ANY land here for sale?' Don't
know of any And yet it
is q wilderness for sixty miles or
more, under long leases, and produc-
ing a few head of stock and vast
number of donkeys. When the sun |
gets up over Hualalai in the morning, |
you can hear q morning hymn of
praise from thousands of them. The !
jackass has a grip on the land. II a |
hundred members of the San Fran |
cisco Chamber of Commerce were to |
land in Kona, for settlement, they !
could not get land without great trou- !
BILE, nor can the coffee men. The |
jackass and the goat have the most of |
it. And if he is to occupy it, why not !
give him a vote? They say it takes
81, 900 acres to support an Indian. |
Kona is worked on those lines. l met |
a capital fellow, an excellent man,
who has been trying for year to get
a homestead there. He hasn't got IL |
vet There are $4,000 acres of good !
coffee land on that side, and there
ought to be 10000 people settled on it
within fifteen years. How they are
going to get fOothold don't see, as
they cannot break through the lease
hold fences
"There will he no outlook for occu-
patton there unless something is done
about it. The Portuguese and Japanese
will go in and take up small patches
of leasehold, and there will be some
fine coffee plantations, but no chance
for many white men unless some ade-
quate provision is made by which
land can be obtained easily, and in fee
simple. We are praying for settlers,
and yet if they come they won't find
at hand in this district.
"Over on the Hilo side, the coffee
industry is doing well. a surprisingly
large number of white men are right
on the soil, with their coats off, at
work. The pioneers are a credit to
any country; there are brainy men
there. 1t recalls the settlement of the
Western States of America. Homo
lulu people don't grasp the move
ment 1t may have a deep POLITICAL
significance. It means, if we take
of it, fine civilization, and
homes.
"MOre English speaking people are
now owning land and working it, in
coffee, than there are white men in
all OF the sugar plantations of the ISL
lDds. There are about five individ-
Ial white sugar planters on the ISL
and, and there. are more than 200
white meu in coffee, on the soil, and
making homes. The sugar business
goes into large corporations, with few
white men. Here about HilO is a
chance for 10000 white farmers and
heir wives and for 10000 more if all