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

H stretches waterway tnat ls Nn'
largest In all Hawaii. and is one
of the most notable engineering feats IN
the Western world. From Kailua to
Spreckelsville Il extends, distance OF
something over twenty-one miles, and In
that distance It crosses gorge after gorge
of great dep,h, burrows through tremen-
dous hills and skirts along frightful
precipices ana winds around vast valleys'
Taking it's waters from far up the wooded
slopes Of the rain belt of the mountain
where all roads end and the jungle ls
thick and dark and rushing streams roar
in every gulch, 1t leads them by gehtle
ways out into the sunshine and iight OIL
the bare brown up'ands TO the west ana
irstead of rushing madly by helter-skelter
course to the sea to be lost usolessly,
they are made to heed the behests of man
and to enrich and make green with grow
ing cane those sun baked hlllsdes.
THE WORK COMPLETED.
Last Thursday morning the last spade
fui of earth was flung from this new
waterway the last great pipe was tested
and found sound. the last tunnel was COM
pleted, and from far Mt its head there
came a rush of water, brown and thick
at first licking along the bottom of the
way that had been prepared for 1t, pick
ing up clods of light earth here or bit
of plank there, and ever rushing on, swell
ing as II grew, roaring down into huge
siphons, to come up again, creamlng WIN
foam, and well out into the ditch again,
dash through long. dark, dripping tunnels
slide swiftly through fumes and at last
to come slipping and sliding, and bab-
bling down through alleys of waving
green cane into the great reservoir that
had been made ready for 1t, and thence
to be turned by the twist of n wheel TINS
way or that to water the lands to satisfy
whose thirst ii had been gathered at such
expense of time and of labor and OF
money.
In the language Of the people of East
Maui II is known as the new ditch"
and in the official plans it is described
as the "Lowrie Irrigation Ditch,' aiter
Mr. William j. Lowrie, its inceptor ana
the manager of the Hawaiian CONNER
cial and Sugar Company's plantation and
mills at SpreCkosyille, but 1t might much
better be termed n canal, for such 1t is
i'm reality with is eleven feet of width ana
four of depth throughout those twenty
one and more niles. 1t Is big enough
anywhere. except of course, through the
numerous siphons, to float boat; despite
its gradual grade-four feet in the mile
it's current is so mighty that a man can
scarce stand against it. In a single day
1t will supply the plantation with OO,uOO,-
GOO gallons of water! Sixty million gal
Ions is no small quantity when you re-
member that 1t will furnish all the water
for drinking cooking, washing, street and
lawn sprinkling for four cities the size
OF San Francisco or perhaps ten cities of
the population of Honolulu!
THIRTEEN MONTHS WORK. 4,t
Such is the great canal that has just
been completed and opened for the
Spreckelsvile plantation on Maui. For
thirteen months past the work has been
going on, for thirteen months it has
been the matter of greatest anxiety for
Manager Lowrie, early and late, night
and day, he has watched over Its growth.
now after these weary months of work
as a father over that of his first born, and
and worry and eternal vigilance 1t Is done
and the brown flood rolls smoothly along
the foothills and ready foy the great
work of reclaiming those acres OF upland
and making them green and fat with the
tall cane.
Nearly a quarter of a million dollars
II has cost the company and 1t has added
many a grey hair to Mr.. Lowrie's head.
And what has been gained? Along those
upper slopes of the mountain was a
stretch of hare land. mile and half In
width. and six miles and q half long;
from the boundaries of the Paia planta-
ton around to those of Kihei, looking
southwesterly over Maalaea bay and the
sea toward misty Kahoolawe. Waste
land" 1t was called. for 1t was far above
the line of other uitches and II was so
faced to the ocean and cut off by the east
ern ridges of Haeakala that rain fell
but seldom and len In such torrents that
II swept over the land and washed 1t clean
without doing IL good The trade winds
n.
surface and swept along, bearing clouds
of red dust until from afar, with the sun
glinting through. 1t seemed as though the
whole slope was afire, or that Pele had
wakened from her long sleep In the great
cloud capped crater above and had burst
forth for dance along its lower rims.
But as you rode over 1t 1t seemed
thousand pities that II could not be
brought to some use. Your horses feet
fell softly, with pad pad" like the
camel on the desert Red and rich and
loamy 1t was. with scarce n rock or n
boulder in hundred yards in any direc-
ton. But II was dry. Not n drop of wa
ter was to be had for irrigating it and
so 1t remained bare and even tho hardy
lantana had hard struggle for existence
and II remained barren and useless and
waste, the haunt of dust storms, bearing
always over II the fiery cloudy pillar"
which marked Its whereabouts while the
iailus beloW Drought iOTln elSnl 10 Twelve
tens of sugar per acre and netted the
stockholders in the plantation thousands
of dollars.
INCEPTION OF PLAN.
Then one day as Mr.. Lowrie rode over
it, coughing the red dust from his lungs
and wipng 1t from his eyes. he resolved
to reclaim 1t. Six thousand acres of good
land was there and once the water could
be found to cover 1t, It could be made
as good as or better than any other In
the 5000 acres an more In the planta-
ton. All that was needed was the water,
OF that there was enough and more than
enough at Kailua, twenty miles to east
ward and In all the thousand OF Jungle
masked glens and gorges of the rain belt
beyond. The problem was to get II to the
land. On the face of II II looked simple
enough for at its highest point the land
was but 457 feet above sea level while at
Kaiiua twenty years before old Claus