The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-11-16
OUR FORESTS.


The saving of the Awini forest in
North Kohala is due to the people of
Kohala themselves. They saw the
danger the moment attention was call
ed to it in The Star, and went to work
in a practical manner. The land had
been secured from the government by
spectators during the coffee boom.
The coffee boom slumped and the spe
culators were out. Then came the brill
liant idea that by cutting $4,000 cords of
firewood, out of the forest, very fair
return upon the investment might be
made.
This was quite a brilliant idea. Fire
wood in Honolulu fetches from $12 to
SIS cord. To the owners of the forest
the wood is probably worth from S. to
Sc cord. Taking the lowest figure
$4,000 cords of wood would bring in
$125,OO0 and that is a sum by no means
to be considered a trife.
However the Kohala land owners did
not propose to have their water supply
injured to a most serious extent for
The sake of putting money into the
pockets of spectators who, having fail
ed in their main object, were prepared
TO denude their land no matter how
others might suffer There was no law
TO appeal to, so the landowners and
large cultivators of KoIiala dug into
their pockets and brought up, not the
entire interest, but a controlling in
terest in the estate. Then the proposal
to destroy the forest for the sake of
picking up wind fall of $685. 900 came
TO summary end.
This incident should not be forgotten
when the Legislature meets. There is
at present no law which restraints an
owner from destroying a forest if he
has a mind to. But the presence Of
forest land is something which does not
only concern the owner but it concerns
all the owners in his vicinity. 1t does
not even concern the present generation
only. but it concerns generation yet un-
born When the preservation of such
a thing affects the rights of so many.
the Individual right has to give way to
the right of the people, and laws should
be enacted to keep that right intact
Before definite action takes place in
the Legislature it is to be hoped that a
proper forest expert from the mainland
VIII have visited us and gone over the
ground. If we are to have a law upon
forest preservation let us have an up to
GATE law We do not want any amateur
law. Upon the scientific principles of
forest preservation every fairly read
man has an opinion and some smatter-
ing knowledge. But we want something
very much better than that. We don't
want smattering knowledge. we want
absolutely accurate knowledge. and
men who possess this KNOWLEDGE are to
De found on the mainland. in France
in Germany, in British India and aIsa
"here' Ihese men are fighting the de-
mon of destruction and the demon of
greed and the demon of Ignorance
backed by the enlightened laws of lepis-
Iators who know what they are about
On these islands we have to fight
poth Ignorance and greed. These two
attributes have destroyed our sandal
wood forests. They have denuded orr
plains and they have stripped our
mountain sides. Every man who is
making his miserable pile of dollars
- 'AiN INSTRUCTION OF forests is will
ing to stake his reputation that it is
not what he is doing which results in
injury. He is ready to fly to some nm
known cause. And yet one must nitv
the ignorant man. His lack of know
ledge and his lack of research should
not be treasured up against him. He is
SIMPLY a fool, and to argue with a foo,
is to waste ones time.
now Forests are destroyed and what
destroys them are as incontrovertibly
known as that the earth goes round the
sum- and the sun itself is swinging in
space around some central mower IN
the constellation or Hercules. For anv
pody to deny the cause is only TO show
lack Of knowledge and lack of ordinary
intelligence or utter recklessness OF
future consequences. To prevent these
consequences should be the work of the
next Legislature.