The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1900-09-14


rise Is an uniovely one at the present
item. a stretch of bare brown hillside,
not tree in sight, nothing but brown
earth and dust and great red boulders
a long low bungalow-like house which
will be the mems club house, a trim
little Office building and two great ce-
ment foundations where the smoke
stacks for the new mills are to stand.
! piles on piles of boiler iron: these are
| all that exist OF the new town but bit
| by bit, building after building will be
removed from Spreckelsvllle until the
present bare hill side 10 crowned with
smokestacks and great new mill
arises and trees are planted and the
new town of Kahului springs into ex-
| istence.
The plan of abandoning Spreckels-
vile and moving all of It that is worth
| moving to the new site is one of the pet
schemes of Manager w. ]. Lowrie.
With the growth of the plantation the
unsuitableness of Spreckelsville as q
| site for the mills and the center of 40
| tivities of the plantation has long been
apparent. 1t Is situated at almost the
| northeastern extremity OF the planta-
| ton. To get the cane to the mill from
| the fields on the Kihe side of the island
was haul of ten miles or near 1t. And
| then there Is the wind. For eight or
| nine months in the year the trade winds
| blow across the neck of land which
| joins Haleakala crater and I-ahaina
crater constantly from the northeast
1t is at the northeasterly extremity OF
| this neck of land that Spreckesville
stands, and to haul the cane against
| those sweeping winds all the way in the
face of the fierce gales became matter
that was no joke. A little two-foot
gauge railroad runs all through the
plantation, and there are nearly a hun
dred miles of it altogether. The engines
| were stout little things, wheels close to-
| gether like q broncho about to jump,
and only too often when hauling a load
of cars around curve In the teeth of
| the wind the breeze would catch ear
and overturn it bodily. and one by one,
like a row of domnoes, the cars would
go over and half the train would be
ditched before the crew could do
thing but look out for themselves. Be-
sides that Spreckelsville was over FIVE
| miles from Kahului, the port whence
came all supplies and whittier the I'm
ished sugar was sent for shipment.
So all things considered it was decid
| to move the whole headquarters from
Spreckelsville to the site selected by
Mr.. Lowrie as the most available for
the mills and offices. The new site is
prac t,cally in the center of the planta-
tion. The haul from the slopes of Ha-
leakala is all down hill from Kihei 1t
is level straightaway stretch about
five miles in all, from SpreckelsvilIe It
tc Hua nrt wit ha iy,l ne
the back, to Kahului 1t is less than o
mile and all down hill.
1t Is likely that most of the present
mill will not be moved from the present
site. Much of the machinery is nearly
twenty years of age and out Of date,
and 1t will be replaced by new and ul
to date works. Some of the newer
parts will be sent over to the other site,
the immense engines for instance. But
the new mill will in reality be q new
mill and it's capacity will far exceed
that of the present one. With the mill
will go the central offices and the store
and warehouses and blacksmith and
repair shops. All that will remain of
Spreckelsville will be the managers
residence and those of some of the 9TH
er higher officers the row of laborerS
cottages in the rear known as Camp
One" and the stables. When the new
site becomes less barren wilderness
than at present 1t is likely that all these
will be also removed and Spreckelsvtlle
will be in very truth a deserted village.
Besides the removal of the headquar-
ters and the erection of the new mill
Manager Lowrie has another large
scheme on foot-the widening of the
gauge of the plantation railway. Al
present the small track is entirely in
adequate for the needs of the plantA-
ton. The gauge of the Kahului road
is three feet and up to a short time ago
all the plantation supplies that went
beyond Spreckelsville had to be trans
shipped from the Kahului road to that
of the plantation at a large additional
cost. But for some time past the work l
of widening the gauge has been going
on and few more months will see the Z
last mile of narrow track removed and
the wider gauge with heavy rails run
ming throughout the plantation. AL
ready several miles of track have been
laid and it is possible to go to the far
ther limits of the plantation at the Ki-
hei boundary on the new track. The
work is proceeding rapidly under the
direction of Superintendent Adams and !.
will soon be completed.
Still another projected Improvement
is the substitution of electric power
for steam power. At Kailua where the
Lowrie and Haiku bitches have their
heads there is splendid water power
that needs only to be harnessed to fur
nish all that would be necessary to run
the mills and even to draw the loaded
cane cars here and there over the plan
tation. Up in famous lao Valley to the
westward the Hawaiian Commercial
and Sugar Company owns water rights
that would enable them to build power
houses and develop power for the plan
tation. The two places would together
furnish all the power that the pianta-
ton would need for all purposes and
would as we'll give electric lights to all II