The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-05

mile posts below, but the rain is with
us in the spirit and in the flesh.
Speaking of Hilo reminds me that
two things are needed in the boom
town''-less rain and more boom. I'm
provements are going on there slowly
and moderately certain; new blood Is
being gradually infused into the old
town, and unless all signs fail, the
wharf, for which the Government has
made appropriations at four different
times, will be built.
There are no immediate signs of any
great building operations in the bust
ness part of the city, but back on the
slope, where the residents spend their
earnings, residences are going up. These
buildings may be in anticipation of
the boom which c. E. Richardson as
sures me is nearer realization than it
was twenty-five years ago. Homes are
needed for the people who will surely
come to Hilo with the development of
the thousands of acres of coffee lands
in the Olaa district
Another projected improvement is
the new hotel. Mr.. Vierra, who CON
ducts the only hotel in town, and does
it well, so far as table service goes,
tells me the building will be erected
behind the present one and will have
six semi-detached cottages. With these
and the additional sleeping rooms in
the new house he should be able to ac-
commodate all the volcano travel, and
with the excellent table he provides his
guests, travel in this direction should
increase.
Hilo is essentially a town of factions.
All old towns in which an invasion is
made by men of this generation are, but
whether the existence of two such
strong factions as may be found in Hilo
is beneficial or will lead to harmonious
results is a question difficult to solve
One side, for instance, clamors for i'm
provements. progress and all that fol-
lows in it's wake; the other is inclined
to "lay low
l saw piece of land, a beautiful spot,
in the heart of the town, owned by an
old timer. The demand for homes is
just in this locality, and the owner was
offered $4,000 for it, but he will neither
lease, sell nor build This is only one
of several instances, and so long as they
exist it is a question how far improve
ments can go on.
Along the water front, that part of
the town which should be inviting to
visitors, is filled with shanties that
would almost disgrace Chinatown in
Honolulu, and a majority of them have
been built within the last ten years.
am told the Government owns the prop
erty by right of release, or something
else, on condition that the street line
be fixed. The part of the agreement
made by the Government has been car
ried out, but the agent of the former
owner Mr.. Spreckels, continues to col
lect rents from the occupants of the
disgrace-where he can. Some of them
who believe there is no title to the
property decline TO pay, and no effort
has been made to force them.
Another burning disgrace in the sec
ond city is the wharf. How its existence
has been permitted, and how anyone
could make a second visit TO Hilo after
landing once when the sea was inclined
to be rough, is beyond guessing. Not
a passenger landing from the Kinau
last Saturday escaped drenching-
and yet it has gone on for years.
If P. G. Jones succeeds in floating the
new loan, the people of Hilo assure me
he will be treated as a savior of this
part of the country. Hilo wants a
wharf and wants it badly.
The improvements on the volcano
road are beyond description, and an in
spection of the coffee trees and the
work done by the owners of tracts
shows that they have not been idle.
w. H. Shipman has a piece as thrifty
and as pretty as a garden. Then fur
ther along the Eldarts, Grossman Bros,
Furneaux, Jones, Trowbridge, Pashaw,
Mason, Folger, AbercrOmbie & Smith,
Arthur Richardson and a dozen others
have established homes and plantations
that are q credit to localities many
times older than this. Flowers are
blooming, walks laid out and tiled, with
fern trees as ornaments, as one will
find in the homes of we'll to do people
in the States. Much of the coffee land
is back of the road, but these people
believe, evidently, in having good COM
Portable homes as we'll as good paying
plantations. The entire population on
this end of the Island have gone coffee
wild. Every other man you meet is in
coffee, and others going in. Those who
have not already secured tracts are
waiting for the Government to hold an
other sale. 1t looks like a good thing,
and from what people tell me I believe
it is Even the sugar plantations are
trying it. and in time the race among
Il Of mill no
coffee and sugar, with chances in favor