The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-18
THE NEED OF NEW HOUSES.

We notice a curious attempt in the
columns of a captious local paper to
discourage the building Of houses in Ho-
nolulu on the ground that it would
mean a boom and for the further
reason that rentable houses are not so
very scarce and that returns from oc-
cupied ones are not so very good. The
article appears in the form of an anony-
nous letter so we have no means of
telling what the writer's motives are in
opposing measure that would certain
ly be well for Honolulu. He may be an
owner who does not want new houses
to compete with his old ones, or he may
be a hotel-keeper who fears opposition
or he may be silurian in whose senile
comprehension a boom is fraught with
gorgons and chimeras dire. Whoever
or whatever he is, he is no friend of
Honolulu and does not know what he is
writing about.
The statement of the Advertiser was
that the ability of Honolulu to house
strangers has about reached it's limit;
that If many more people come, as we
all hope and expect them to do, there
will be no place to put them unless
more houses are built; and that at such
a time houses may be rented so as to
assure a twenty per cent investment
The Advertisers critic objects strenu-
ously to the twenty per cent clause and
says that eight per cent is the best that
can be expected. Perhaps he is an
authority, but consider the following:
A cottage with two rooms and a bath,
stands in the heart of the town on
land that cost the owner twenty years
ago about 800. 1t has secondhand
furnishings worth $3.50 and the cottage
cost about $500 to build. The whole in
vestment, not counting the present
value of the immediate site, 20x15,
amounts to $3.50. We will add $1,000 to
represent the present value of the little
back lot plat. Now this house rents for
| $3.50 per year which is more than twen-
| ty per cent. Another shanty of three
| rooms in the Punahou neighborhood
! made of rough lumber and lined inside
with cheese cloth, rents for $45 simply
| furnished. We admit that better houses
| held on lease, rent for less; but in
! treating of general run of twenty per
! cent investments we dealt to some ex-
| tent in futures meaning an inevitable
rise in rents if people again flock here
| as they did just before the plague. That
would make a veritable boom. whether
| we like booms or not, and we should
| probably experience the same rapid adj
vance in rentals that was observed in
san Diego and Los Angeles in 1865
when people were coming faster than
| shelter could be provided for them.
Now a word about booms To a GER
tain extent every experienced looker-on
| at such phenomena believes in them
They are good or bad according to their
basis; but even where the basis is bad
they do measurable amount of gem
eral good. The original San Diego
boom was built upon the belief that the
possession of a fine harbor would com.
pei prosperity whether the countr,
back of the maritime entrepot produced
anything or not. That was a wrong
foundation yet there was built upon il
a thriving city, with every modern inn
provement, a 500 per cent increase OF
| population and worldwide climatic
fame. San Diego was a village before
, the boom; it has been a handsome city
ever since. If it had possessed such ag-
ricultural and commercial resources as
Honolulu, it would now be vastly big
ger and there would have been few
} boom victims to bewail lost money
And so we say that there might be
many worse things than boom for the
| metropolis of Hawaii
The Advertiser believes 1t is doing
; this city service by urging it to pro-
; vide more shelter for tourists and
; homeseekers. Clearly there is no sense
, in asking people to come here without
giving them houses to live in and II
they do not come how are we going tc
grow? 1t would be slow business wait.
; ing on natural increase.