The Hawaiian gazette., 1897-12-28


avenues forty feet wide through the
forest. These trees are planted at very
little cost. The work of common la
borer for one day is thirty-fve to forty |
holes, and the next man plants three
seeds each in three or four hundred |
holes. The seed costs nothing as they
grow on the land.
AVAILABLE LAND.
We notice with regret that on Ha-
wall as on Oahu, the Government has
so little available frst-class agricul-
tural land. Most of. the best lands are
under long leases to plantations or
are owned by wealthy individuals and
held for speculative purposes. They
are not being cultivated or improved
as they should be; consequently they
are not contributing even a reasonable
proportion towards the expenses of
Government. If this policy of large
holders continues the influx of invest
ors to Honolulu and Hilo will soon be
checked.
The Waiakea plantation has % or
q years lease of 10000 acres or more
within the nighborhood of Hilo. The
Government should not delay making
fair and honorable propositions to have
the unimproved land under this lease
cancelled and divided. OF course a
large area of this land is worthless. 1t
is probable, however, that there are
10000 acres now unimproved that could
be used for horticulture.
AT Piihonua there are $4,000 acres of
Government land under twenty years
lease to John Baker. Mr.. Frank Win
ter took us to this land, adjoining the
Hilo Sugar Company's estate. On ac
count of the large trees and dense I'M
dergrowth we could not examine it in
detail, but we could see an immense
crater-like fiat or plateau, and we were
told by the head luna of the Hilo plan
tation and by Mr. Winter that this
fiat contained 10000 acres or more of
that kind of land We saw a ditch run
into this Baker land by the plantation
to obtain water. Here the depth of the
! soil was some eight or ten feet, and
of the richest kind. In our opinion this
land is equal to the best we saw at
Olaa, if not superior on account of it's
fairness and the fact that it is only four
or five miles from the town of Hilo.
| On the Hamakua side of the $4,000
acres Mr.. Baker has a large cattle run
which is one of the causes of the
gradual destruction of the beautiful
forest This lease the Government
should purchase and divide up for small
settlers.
Our Land Act of 1895 is excellent
and the terms upon which land can
be obtained are most liberal and en-
couraging. Yet, to man without
money, these lands are absolutely
valueless. In our next bulletin or in
our report to the Minister of the In
in detail concerning the working of
the Homestead Act, Land Monopoly,
etc.
We have read with great interest
Mr.. K. S. Gjerdrum's able and instruc-
tive article on forestry. In his report
to the forestry committee, he writes:
"Let this association take the initia-
tory steps, let all the members of our
association stand one by another and
do their share on their own lands"
We only hope Mr. Gjerdrum will fol-
low Carl VOTERS example.
The writer will be one of twenty men
who will pay the round trip passage
to Paris in 1900 of anyone who will
Systematically plant and maintain 600
acres of forest on his own land or on
that of the Government, under lease,
on the plan on which the Lihue forest
is planted. No doubt hundred clubs
similar to the one suggested could be
formed. What an enviable position
such man would have in Paris when
introduced as the man from Hawaii
who made 100000 trees grow where
none grew before.
Mr.. w. NJ. Giffard, chairman of the
Committee on Forestry, deserves great
credit for the interest he takes in this
good work, and we hope he will instruct
the managers on plantations under his
firms control to plant forest trees.
A. HERBERT.
December, 1897
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