The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-05-25
ROADS MAKE THE COUNTRY
OBSERVATIONS or J. w. GfRvIN
on HAWAII
kona Has Been Developed TIL IL Com
tains More Houses Than # Ever Did
in its History.

James W. Girvin has just returned
from trip I'm connection with the ar
rangements for taking the federal cen
sus, that took him all over Maui and
Hawaii. He did not go to a place that
he has not been to before, but IL hap
pens that he has not been i'm many Of
the regions he has just visited for many
years, in some instances, twenty, so
that he was able to appreciate and give
a just estimate of the changes and inn
provements that have been wrought.
Everywhere, he says, the strenuous
life has been getting in its work. and
the natural resources of the lands Is be-
ing touched by the wand of industry till
it blossoms into the profusion of ma
terial wealth.
on Hawaii, he says, the most strik
ing thing to him is the system of its
roads its development and the wonder
full changes it has worked Years ago
when he was on the big island, no man
thought of going any distance except on
horseback, because no man could. But
now one can go almost all over the Is
land without going on horseback at all,
| so excellent and numerous are the
/ roads.
And not only have the roads made
! travel easier and more convenient but
! they have deceloped the country. Wher-
! ever roads have been built the country
| is settling up and being improved. In
| the Konas especially, is this effect
! strikingly visible. The Government
roads, well built and macadamized,
wind for miles through the Konas, and
wherever they wend the landscape is
dotted with houses on either side Kai-
| lua, he thinks, is a wonderfully wide
awake village. From the wharf a vista
of twenty-five miles of seacoast, rising
to the apex of the mountain rests and
refreshes the eye, and grows in beauty
on the mind. Kailua itself extends
along a fine road that is almost an ave-
nue., and where it passes beyond the
village, it leads through a country green
aud beautiful with houses at frequent
intervals on both sides. There are more
houses in Kona now, he believes, thar
there ever were at any time, ancient OF
modern. They are occupied largely by
japanese, who raise coffee and Vegeta-
bles, and are engaged in every useful
occupation for which there is need
They have come to stay, he thinks, and
in many ways are improving the coun-
try and advancing it's material develop
ment.
Hilo is destined to become an impor-
tant city. Its bay, entered at night
with the electric lights of the town seer
at intervals around it's graceful curves
make it a rival in beauty of the Bay OF
Naples. It is capable of improvement
that will make it a safe and commo-
dious harbor. But it is not it's harboi
that will make it the important place
he believes it is bound to become, but
the fact that the whole windward coast
is one green, waving field of cane, the
product Of which, when the railroad
now in progress is built, must neces-
/ sarily go to Hilo.
The Volcano road, he considers one Of
the finest drives in the world. 1t has
been built since he was in HilO before
and it's excellence appears with both thC
force of newness and comparison. II
Kau the Japanese are carrying on the
cultivation of cane up to elevations o
$500 feet. The plantation contracts
with them to buy the cane they raise
and they go right out and raise it a
independent farmers.
In one feature of plantation develop
ment Mr.. Girvin found on Hawaii thu
most marked contrast between the ole
methods and the new. On some of thu
Kohala plantations he found them still
hauling cane by means of bullock carts
At Kukaiau he found the system of wire
troneys in use by which the cane was
carried by gravity and at the most trif
ling cost, from the fields over gulche'
and places that would cost immense
sums to build roads, right to the mill
He thinks this wire trolley system mus
inevitably come into general use.