Evening star., 1896-02-21
TOURING HAW All
President Dole Makes a Trip Over
the Island.
IMPROVEMENTS IN The ROADS
Minister Willis and tho lndepen-
dence Celebration.
THE BOSTON IN PORT
Srecial Correspondence of The Evening Star.

around our largest Island, Hawaii, during
the month Of January, combining recreation
with public service, in observing the needs
of those districts. 1t has been very gratify-
Ing to hear of his cordial reception by all
classes of the people. and especially Of the
natives. AT every point he visited the
native people spontaneously gathered to
welcome him. Mr.. Dole Is naturally popu-
lar man. with a fine. attractive. genial pres
ence and opeaness of manner His efforts
In providing homesteads for the landless
portion of the population are well appre-
ciated by the people.
The presidents attention has been par
ticularly drawn to the great need for roads
In especially the western and southeastern
districts of the large island In these dis
trlcts are extensive tracts of land, possess
ing the very highest natural fertility, but
practically inaccessible without costly ex-
pendlture for roads. The country Is ex-
cessively rocky. so that roads have to be
built over and through the rugged lodges
OF lava. with great labor and expense
otherwise there are only rough and difficult
trailS' on which loaded pack animal can
hardly make ten miles day Even to make
Sue~ trails passable costs hundreds of dol
iars mile When a matted jungle has to be
ne"n through: or Jagged clinker flow, torn
eho' mas 10 be worked into shape for travel
The Volcano Road.
The best instance of the value of road
building on that island Is the recently con-
structed Volcano road Of thirty-one miles
which cost over $4,000 a mile. IT 10 n vol
graded macadam:Zed track of twenty feet
width. through such obstacles as are above
described There is hardly a rod on the line
tnat mas not had to be torn through or built
up IKE stone WALL before the surfacine
wa Was applied; Eleven miles of this road
~ nd
greatest luXuriance, itself alone worthy a
iong Journey of the tourist In this forest
Ia IN consequence Of the building of the road
nave already been opened coffee nlant.ttons
on leased crown lands which nav the GOV.
erhtheat s22.UN of annual rentals This in
tblhe tbn e,a Is already realized as an Incident Of
'iir si-o'n expenditure on the road
me surface soil of this forest is a three
1oot layer of the richest yellow ham -
appears u have been a bed of voIcapic
asnes . "nlch was showered over the dis
tha t,e' at quite recent period. Underlying
cinRer lava. To make the road after tho
forest and jungle were cleared it was neces-
sary to cut through the bed of loan to tbe
orh for ana tear Up the cl:nkers at the sides
ior piilnS up the roadbed in the center A
steam crusher and portable railway were
employed. the c!inker lava is so porous
that the excessive rains never form
,breanls ,hrs me entire rainfall soaks
through into the cavernous rocky strata
so mat 1t Is hardly possible anywhere to
hhu a pool where water collects With the
wonderful rainfall, averaging fourteen
lnches s a month the settlers have to catch
from their corrugate iron roofs all the
water they use
On each side Of the track are openings to
the clearings within the forest Some ten
nous .nousaho acres, lying within mile of the
track, are In process Of clearing Miles
larfher within the dark jungle are tens of
THOUSANDS more acres equally good, but
iieeolns additional roads to reach them
az @ nYD1 -.
or thousands Of acres Of superb coffee
lands. all inaccessible until the government
can open them by costly roads The condi-
lions which render these lands peculiarly
suitable for c,ffee culture are, first, the al
tltude, ranging from 800 to 1900 feet and
second, the copious rainfall of from 12O to
l:O inches per annum. Added to this is the
fact that all the lands are of very recent
volcanic formation, supplying soil pecu-
liarly favorable to richly favored coffee,
like the volcanic soils of Java and Guate-
maia.
Built of Lava.
All this southeastern and wet section Of
Hawaii Island. forming quadrangle Of
thirty by forty miles, Is an easy slope built
out into the Pacific by enormous floods of
lava. gushing for, perhaps. one hundred
thousand years from Mauna Loa, and it's
mighty adjutant volcano. Kilauea. The
latter volcano has probably contributed the
largest amount to the forma ton of this dis
trict of Puma. The latest invasion of the
district by lava was in 1899, when sub
terranean eruption from Kilauea buried
three or four square miles. The chances OF
such disaster to any given section would
not be once IN a thousand years. Many
times as seldom would occur the destruct-
i've ash showers, such as created the pc
culiar fertility Of the Olaa coffee section
along the volcano road
President Dole's attention was more par
ticularly directed to the need of roads in
district nf
gicn is yet passable by wheels, notwith-
standing which many people settle there.
especially Portuguese and Japanese, who
are content to live In a small way. The
agricultural part of Kona is strip four
miles wide by forty in length, lying along
the western slopes of Mauna Loa and Mt.
Hualalai (Wholierlye), which are, respect
lively. 1900 and 5000 feet in height. The
entire shore of Kona is arid and barren
Between 1880 and 1000 feet altitude. aver
aging four miles in width. is moisture in
creasing with the ascent. and soil of the
highest fertility between the low lava
ridges and hillocks. When old King 'Ter-
reeohoo" Hospitality entertained the sup
posed god Iona, Capt. James Cook. at keal-
ite home of Hawaiian chiefs and people.
They delighted in the warm shore, with it's
sweet sea breeze. its abundant fisheries
and its grand surf slidngs. Two or three
miles back were myriads of acres of the
richest soil whence they got profusion Of
taro. sweet potatoes, yams and sugar cane,
also bread fruit and bananas.
Supp1auted by Sugar.
Fifty years ago oranges and coffee were
the chief exports of Kona. Both these
products have greatly fallen off, owing to
the diversion of industry to the more
lucrative sugar planting. Both products
also suffered badly from blights. for which,
only of late, has an assured remedy been
found in different varieties of ladybugs,
imported from the countries whence the
blights originally came without their anti
lotes. Now both coffee and orange indus
tries are reviving, especially the former
One large capitalized company is pushing
coffee III scientific manner, so as to mar
ket the choicest quality. 1t is well known
that the best quality of Kona coffee has
probably no superior on the globe; but it
has never been carefully prepared and as
sorted.
The same is true of the orange culture.
There are no grated stocks and no intelll-
gent pruning. The trees are practically
wild. There is a small proportion of lus-
cious. large globes, which utterly cast into
shade the beautifully prepared California
fruit which competes with them in Homo
lulu. The bulk Of the oranges are inferior,
though often high-f1avored. Like every
thing in kona, they are undeveloped.
Forty years ago tolerable horse trail