The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-04-04
ON GOVT. LANDS
Commissioner Brown Tells Of His
Recent Investigations
SUGAR AND COFFEE INDUSTRIES
The Effect Of the Proposed Plan
tation-Many Applications for
Land-VoIcano Road.
SUGAR AND COFFEE INDUSTRIES

turned by the k1nau yesterday morn |
ing. He has been in Hawaii for sew
eral weeks during which time he has
made a thorough investigation of the |
lands soon to be thrown |
open.
The following account of his inyesti- |
cations and ideas is taken from the
Hilo Herald:
Olaa is in the throes Of reorganiza
ton and coffee as an industry in that
section is going out of date. In other
words, sugar is king and will continue
to rule the Islands. Reports which
reach Hilo from different sources in
dictate that coffee plantations are being
absorbed by the promoters of the sugar
plantations to such an extent that, ex-
cept upon the new lands to be opened
by the Government, coffee will be prac
section of the country. Land Com
missioner Brown, accompanied by Land
Agent Baldwin, returned on Tuesday
from visit to the Olaa district and
was asked by reporter for the Herald
his views on the subject of transforma-
ton
81 was sorry to see it, he said, '.be-
cause the Government has gone to
great expense in providing for settlers
and individual holders of land rather
than corporations. The land was given
to them at a low price because it was
thought they would develop big in
dustry in coffee. 1t is not pleasant to
contemplate the swallowing up of the
land by a corporation. When the
proposition to establish a mill in Olaa
was first mentioned [ approved OF it,
because / knew that a number of the
coffee men had gone into debt in clear
ing and planting portion of their
land, ard as they had not made big
thing out of coffee, / saw for them
ample returns in the cultivation OF cane
on the balance of their lands. But the
affair has taken on a different shape,
and l am disappointed. When / saw
Mr. Thurston, who is really the father
of the Olaa coffee industry, going into
a planters home the other day with
the view Of making a bargain with him
for the purchase of his land for sugar
cane cultivation l could not help
telling him that he was the last man l
would expect to see taking the step.
But it will be big scheme and it will
put great zeal of money into circula-
r VIII hp lar ra
Asked about the allotments of lands
to persons who hold crown land leases
and who, under their contracts, are en-.
titled to additional holdings, Mr..
Brown said:
THAT is a matter which will require
careful consideration. These men, in
some instances, secured only a fourth,
or fifty acres, of the land to which they
were entitled. At the price given it
was supposed they would take up land
in the original Olaa reservation, but
they did not, they delayed selecting
until there was finally none to select
and now they want it. The question is,
will they be allowed to select land in
the new section soon to be opened up?
believe they will, but whether at the
price charged for their original hold
ing is a matter to be determined by the
L.
more complicated by the recent action
of the Olaa Coffee Planters Associa-
ton in fixing the price of inside coffee
lands at $40 per acre. The Govern
ment knows that much of the land
which was sold to coffee men at three,
four and six dollars per acre a very
few years ago, has recently been sold
by them at 800 per acre to the sugar
men. This, backed by the action of
the Coffee Planters Association. will
be factor in determining the price to
be charged for the new lands The
Government has shown a disposition
to help the people in the past by Civ
ing them land at a low price, but l do
not know how it will be in the future.
This special right of purchase lease has
features which makes it easy for men
to take up the land at cheap rate, do
little or nothing to it and sell at big
profit. For instance: there is the mat
ter or improvements. Now, what con-
stitutes improvements The lease does
not specify and you know there are as
many different opinions as to the prop
er method of growing coffee as there
are settlers in the district. John Doe
takes up hundred acres. which he is
expected to improve. He finds he has
a forest Of ferns and ohia and decides
that coffee must have plenty Of shade.
He will clear off few of the big trees,
plant eight or ten coffee trees to the
acre, and presto, his land has a market
value Of 500 per acre with the men
who want it for sugar
Another thing to contend with is
the so-called settlement association"
continued Mr.. Brown. THE Govern
ment has the right to set apart land
Tor an association who wish to settle
for the purpose Of being together with
their families and maintaining pleas
anter social relations than if their
nearest friend was three or four miles
down the tract. I guess l have enough
applications from such associations to
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