The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-10-15
souANDERING NATURES CAPITAL

LAS we approached the arid shores OF
Oahu" is a passage in THE Wrecker
which has, doubtless, surprised thou
sands of readers whose knowledge of
these Islands came from the pages OF
Stoddard or Mark Twain or from rea-
sonable Interpretation of the phrase
THE Paradise of the Pacific. ARD
shores when one expected a tropical
luxuriance of shade and color; the
starved TANKS of desert uplands rather
than a riot of vegetation over feast
of fat soil! God forbid! and yet the
word "arid" precisely describes the look
of Oahu from the decks of an approach
ing vessel.
| These shores were not always bare
and grey and the mountain forests
were not always shrinking from sight
into upland valleys or posing on utter
most ridges as If they were ready to
leap over them at the approach of the
axman. Native tradition is full OF
arboreaI pictures; of forests crowding
down upon the foothills and sending
advance columns of trees to the shore
where they cast their shadows on the
tide. Those were the days of flashing
cascades and full-banked streams and
of a super redundant rainfall. Then
came the traders after sandal wood and
the chiefs sent hundreds of men into
the country to bring the fragrant wood
to market. In a few years the sandal
wood groves were nearly gone. Cattle.
hogs and goats ran wild and multiplied
to the fatal damage of young trees
and shrubs. Finally vast upland tracts
| -. -
dentally burnt over. Then came clear
ing for cane. The earlier sugar mills
used forest fuel and tens of thousands
Of cords went up the .smokestacks. On
Oahu the original trees were driven
back as in later years they have been
from the shores of certain parts of the
volcano island; until now they cluster
timidly on the highest points-and Oahu
begins to suffer the unhappiness of
periodical drouths. One does not often
nor for long see the Manoa cascades;
the normal artesian level is decreasing;
there are places at Kalihi and farther
Waikiki and near the Waianae noun
tains where a downpour is a rarity.
But for the dooryard verdure and the
blooms of exotic trees in Honolulu and
its environs-growths that come of per-
sonal care and of the facilities for irri-
gation-this would often seem like a
desert spot indeed, save for the green
of rice and cane.
Some day. unless the ounce of pre-
vention is applied, Oahu and all the ISL
ands will be verdureless as so many of
the bird islands are, or like isIets of the
frozen north. Clear an island of all it's
tTReS-that ia N
Standard it stands to reason that
two things viii happen to keep the wa
ter that falls from the clouds from do
ing the land any good. In the first
place the rain, which, Is now held cap
tive by millions of leaves, by moss. and
by the spongy woodland earth, would
now rapidly away in mountain streams
carrying the arabic soil with it or be
licked up on the stark table lands by
the process of evaporation. 1t is the
province of forests to not only attract
rain but to hold 1t, gradually letting the
water run to where 1t is needed and
giving springs and artesian reservoirs
their due supply. 1t is, on the other
hand, the province of the treeless coun-
tries to endure drouths and a high and
poignant degree of heat On the Am
erican prairies, now fairly well planted
to trees, the rainfall has increased from
twenty to forty per cent; on the. an
cient forest plateaus Of Spain, long
since denuded Of their trees. fertility
has vanished; for when 1t sometimes
rains the water all runs Off in roaring
floods. taking good soil to the sea, and
there are months when no rain comes |
at all. In Shantung where the Boxers |
rose we have the same phenomena.
These are plain lessons for Hawaii, |
but what Is being done to profit by |
them? Last month We heard Of a big |
'orest fire on the slopes Of Haleakala;
low comes the story of e. contemplated |
clearance OF one thousand wooded |
lcres; public forests are auctioned of
or farming purposes; goats and wild
lila xaflx fhoix. fsfi