The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-19
ALLAN HERBERT'S VIEWS.

ALLAN HERBERT'S VIEWS.
Editor Advertiser: Now that we have
Jared Smith with us to establish an ex-
pertinent stauon to teach our natives
and others how to plant and what to
plant" it is of Importance that we
should find suitable and available land
to plant thereon cabbages and turnip-
tops; or to put our landless people in
possession of their legitimate rights.
1t is of Importance to this Island that
the truth should be told, and as honest
men we should not be afraid to tell it,
as to the opportunities for small indus
tries of diversified agriculture.
Small holdings of land for horticulture
viticulture and agriculture is certainly a
matter we are interested in and upon
which the future of this Island depends
il we desire Statehood.
Were / not from habit OF writing and
want of education quite united for
writing for the press and public, L might
do myself and the subject justice; but
this is a subject that would almost make
the dumb speak.
l shall therefore have to content myself
with stating a few facts as they have
come under our observation.
In calling public attention to this home
stead matter l desire that it should be
known that 1 lave no private aims to
be affected thereby, nor have I any ami
mus whatever, as 1 have passed three
score and ten and am amply provided
for. My only object is to do what little
good / can on my way. 1 am particular
ly anxious to do what little good l can
for the natives. 1 have nothing but the
happiest remembrances of aloha and
kindness from the high and low during
the thirty years I have lived among
them.
1 have for all these years taken live
ly, and I hope practical, interest both as
a citizen and as Government Commission
er of Agriculture and Forestry, and have
introduced and cultivated tropical trees
and plants in ample variety. I have
worked to improve and conserve the nat
ural forest and streams o. these Islands.
Having labored for years in this matter,
l naturally protest against the wanton
destruction of our forest by fire. ak and
the indiscrimfnate pasturing of cattle
desire TO make one more appeal to our
people and Legisla ture-one more cry in
the wilderness-for if something is not
done at once to preserve the small rem
nants of our once beautiful and noble
forest, it will not be long before it will
share the same fate as the poor natives
who once lived in the fertile valleys and
sea shore of the Islands!
L have been a successful cultivator of
the soil in these Islands for the past
twenty-five years, and, having had les-
ure and opportunity for extended person.
al observation as we'll as my enthusiastic
delight in the subject itself, which has
Eghtened my labors in exploring our ma
tive forests, 1 may also be permitted to
say that I am quite familiar with almost
every tract Of Government land on the
Islands, and will from time to time try
to describe them, their location, climatic
conditions and their suitability for va
rious products.
Waianae District, Oahu-We have
three tracts of Government or crown
lands containing an area of 41,455 acres;
one of these tracts called 'Lualualei,
contains area of 14,772 acres. The
present lease expires in August, 1901, or
in less than four months
AS the present lessee has had this land
since 1851, or for fifty years, for less than
three cents per acre, there can be no
injustice in having this lano divided up
into small holdings for our homeless peo-
pie.
This tract, without exception, is one
of the most valuable of Government
lands on Oahu, and surpasses any other
for richness and fertility of soil Ten
thousand acres of this land should be
Government forest reservation. and
the other 4,773 acres divided up into
small homesteads of from ten to twenty
five acres each. On this land there are
now five or six hundred acres under
sugar cane, where the yield is said to
be enormous. On the remaining portions
would grow almost anything. Surface
water can be had now that the small
gasolene engine is so inexpensive and
-, To-, ols 4,..
the Eva side and has frontage on the
sea of five and one-half miles. The rail-
road, Government wagon road and tele-
phone line run through this land 1t is
one hour or less from Honolulu by rail:
the sea bathing is grand. we hundred
thousand cocoanut trees could be plant
ed in the sand on the west side of the
railroad which could produce in, say
six years. 81 each in nuts. That is what
Linderman on Kauai receives from
his cocoanuts at five years old. The
stony ridges can be planted with sisal,
aloes and other fiber plants.
1 have no time or space to describe
the other tract, but It is hoped that
enough has been said to form an inteli-
gent interest. What county Waianae
would make. If Wahiawa has popula-
ton of, say 100, on 1,40O acres, Waianae
county ought TO have larger white
population than Honolulu.
1t was the writer's good fortune to
to spend few days with Harry Won Holt
at Palehua in the Waianae hills, above
Eva mills, at an elevation of about 900
feet. Won Holt has comfortable little
lodge and about 1000 acres of the land
well fenced. Imagine my delight when
in our wanderings on this Enclosure out
Of the reach of cattle and horses, we
found hundreds of young sandalwood.
koa. lehua and other valuable native
trees springing up and some of them as
tall at one years growth as Norries'
walking-stick. This land adjoints the A.
az acres of Lualualei and NanakulI.
(To be Continued.)