The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-11

nj lie most notable eiBlHeeilhs AN0N "
sAe Western world. From kailua 10
srr-rkelsville IL extends, a distance oil
ssur..hing over twenty-one miles, ana III
tsnt distance 1t crosses gorge after gorge
rd .-ea. depth burrows through trenen-
aeass bills and skirts along tfrightfui
,r,r--,res and winds around vast valleys
rrkks. It's waters from far up the wooded
,soDes OF the rain belt of the mountain |
.Arrs ALI roads end and the jungle is :
ghisA aud dark and rushing streams roar
In ssEyrY gulch, ii leads them by gentle J
SAYS cut into the sunshine and light OF
N. A@os brown uplands TO the west. ana
lrssnxs Of rushing madly by helter-skelter
so<-e TO the sea to be lost uselessiy'
sS.x are made TO heed the behests of man
.r1 10 enrich and make green with grow
ing cane those sun baked hillsides
THE WORK COMPLETED.
Lot Thursday morning the last spade
sns az earth was flung from this new
waterway. the last great pipe was tested
and found sound the last tunnel was COM
plsssd- and from far at its head there
-aaie a rush of water, brown and thick
NJ arst licking along the bottom of the
nay that had been prepared for 1t, pick
srr 40 clods of light earth here or bit
81 rlank there. and ever rushing on swell
ne as It grew, roaring down into huge
sirsiBaus 10 come up again, Dreaming with
rcHrn. and well out into the ditch again,
dash through long. dark. dripping tunnels,
ssIts swiftly through fumes and at last
70 come slipping and sliding. and bah
susE 6oan through alleys of waving
rrS-en cane into the great reservoir that
haS been made ready for it, and thence
20 ~ turned by the twist of a wheel this
NY ~ that to water the lands to satisfy
whose thirst 1t had been gathered at such
~apenss Of time and of labor and of
rnoney-
sn the language of the people of East
Nzzl Il is known as the new ditch"
AMI In the official plans it is described
- the ''LOwrie Irrigation Ditch" after
mr. William j. Lowrie, its inceptor and
the manager OF the Hawaiian CONNER
r1A1 and Sugar Company's plantation and
mills at SpreckelsvilIe, but il might much
Better be termed canal. for such 1t is
N reality with It's eleven feet of width and
four OF depth throughout those twenty
0ns and more mines. IL is big enough
anywhere. except OF course. through the
NUMEROUS siphons. TO float "A boat; despite
tts gradual grade-four feet in the mile
Prs current is so mighty that man can
scarEe stand against it. In a single day
Il viii supply the plantation with 60OO,-
80 gallons Of wateri Sixty million gal
Sona IL no small quantity when you re-
N<rsnser that II will furnish all the water
Ter drinking. cooking, washing, street and
lawn spFinkling for four cities the size
r.Fg ms ton aifi Of
ahe population of Honolulu!
THIRTEEN MONTHS WORK.
such is the great canal that has just
been completed and opened for the
SpreckelsviIle plantation on Maui. For
thIrteea months past the work has been
going on. for thirteen months II has
: hae- the matter of greatest anxiety for
Manager Lowrie: early and late, night
and day. he has watched over its growth.
nov after these weary months of work
rs = father over that of his first born, and
za4 worry and eternal vigilance 1t is done
: ana the brown flood rolls smoothly along
The foothills and is ready for the great
ssrk Of retaining those acres of upland
and making them green and fat with the
ESu cane.
Nearly a quarter of a million dollars
Il has cost the company and 1t has added
many grey hair to Mr.. Lowrie's head.
And what has been gained? Along those
1pper slopes OF the mountain was a
stretch of bare land a mile and half In
width, and six miles and a half long;
from the boundaries of the Paia planta-
rfon aroand to those of Kihei, looking
southwesterly over Maalaea bay and the
ssA toward misty Kahoolawe. Waste
land IL was called for il was far above
she line Of other bitches and il was 50
faced TO the ocean and cut off by the east
err ridges Of Haleakala that rain fell
e.ttf ma IL, .
q swept over the land and washed IL clean
without doing il good. The trade winds
Kew over IL harshly and lifted it's powdery
surface and swept along bearing clouds
81 red dust until from afar. with the sun
g.hnting. through, Ii seemed as though the
whole slope was afire. or that Pele had
sakened from her long sleep in the great
cloud capped crater above and had burst
iorth for dance along its lower rims.
Bsi as yoU rode over IL it seemed a
thousand pities that II could not be
Brought To some use. Your horses feet
feH softly. with a pad pad like the
eamei on the desert Red and rich and
ioAray u was. with scarce a rock or a
boulder In a hundred yards in any dlrec-
hon But IL was dry. Not a drop of wa
- ter was TO De had for irrigating IL and
- II remained bare and even the hard,
Antdna had hard struggle for existence
and it remained barren and useless and
waste. the haunt OF dust storms bearing
always over IL the fiery cloudy pillar
which marked its whereabouts. while tn,
lands below brought forth eight to lively,
tens OF sugar per acre and Melted tn,
stockholders In the plantation thousand.
AZ dollars.
INCEPTION OF PLAN.
Then one day "a Mr.. Lowrie rode ovel
4. coughing the red dust from his lung,
and wiping II from his eyes, he resolve,
10 reclaim IL. Six thousand acres of goot
land Was there and once the water coul,
be found to cover 1t, IL could be mad,
as good or better than any other il
the BOW acres an more I'm the planta
ton All that was needed was the water
w that there was enough and more thar
enough at kailua. twenty miles to east
ward and in all the thousand of jungle
nasked slens and gorges of the rain bel
beyond The problem was TO get II to III,
and ON the face Of II IL looked simpl,
enough FOR at its highest point the Ian,
~ vas DUE fJI feet above sea level, while a
kairua twenty years before old eau.
spreckels had taken out a ditch OF " i lei
At height of upyya Y-fIs Of -nn TO. 80. 49,,