The Hawaiian gazette., 1901-12-20
LAND LAW is
DANGEROUS
WilCox's Bill Does
Not Meet With
Favor.
ITS rid.Culous!"


asked to express his opinion on the land
hill introduced in Congress by Delegate
wilcox of Hawaii.
"A land law such as was introduced
by Delegate Wilcox, patterned after the
general land laws of the United States,
will bring about exactly the conditions in
Hawaii which President Roosevelt wishes
to avoid" continued Mr.. Boyd.
Il am not opposed to turning over these
lands to the Commissioner of the General
Land Office In Washington, but the en-
forcement of any such law should be left
to an official in the Territory, who is ac-
Quainted with conditions as they exist.
i can't understand how Wilcox could in
troduce such a bill. after the CONVERSE
ton We had just prior to his departure,
for this law will not only be injurious to
the country as whole, but also to the
native Hawaiians. 1t will simply open
up the country to the land-grabbcrs, not
those who intend to make their homes on
the land, but who will sell out to the
sugar plantations or try to hold them ur
for large amounts. Without water rights
the greater portion of the public lands in
the Territory are unavailable, and /
doubt If the American farmer will care
10 settle on such land, when he can get
what he wants in the United States,
where he can grow corn, wheat and
enough vegetables to live upon.
IF we could only get few Yankee
farmers to come here and settle and
take up homestead lands. 1t would be
good thing for the country; but past ex-
perience has not demonstrated the sue
cess of this proposition. Or IL We could
get farmers to come down here and work
in harmony with the sugar planters the
problem might be solved. The planters
would like nothing better than to have
white men take up small tracts of land
near their mills and cultivate cane upon
it. sss
1T has been demonstrated that small
farming is successful here, and we have
several good colonies of such men. The
one trouble Is that they have no mar
ket for the vegetables and fruits they
raise, or could raise. If they found sale
for 1t. It's the hardest thing for these
men to get rid of the produce after 1t
has been harvested. They have grown
just as fine onions on Hawaii as are i'm
ported from the States, yet they sell
way below what the imported product
brings. The reason for this Is that 1t Is
said that merchants here are working
on an exchange basis, and are shipping
pineapples and bananas to California and
getting their products in return, acting
as agents for these outside people. Mr..
Bucholtz grows as fine celery as Is
raised anywhere, yet when he tries to
sell 1t, four cents Is the, most It will
bring. A farmer comes here from the
States and sees Bucholtz's fine farm, and
takes up homestead probably as near
AS ne can get. He builds a house for a
few thousand dollars, then clears the
land. at cost of from fifty to sixty dol
lars an acre. His crop is planted, and
probably all his spare cash is gone Do
you think for a moment he could Dor
row money on the expected crop to pro-
vide his family with necessaries until
IL is marketed? I think not: bankers
here are not willing to lend money on
farm mortgages. In the States 1t Is Il
regular business and a certain invest
ment. but II is entirely different in Ha-
wall
There is another reason for laying the
authority with a local commiss ioner-the
great distance Hawaii is from Washing
ton. In case of disputes the rich man
only will be able to take his case be-
fore the Bureau at Washington, while
the poor man would be compelled to sub
init. because of his inability to do this.
The division of lands into three classes
should not be made arbitrary. but 1t
should be with a view to conditions now
existing. and by man acquainted with
the land
There are large tracts of land which
cannot be used as homesteads, and which
would not be taken up except for spec
land would be of no benefit without
water and a small farmer could not util-
ixe II unless he had means of securing
n water supply. This would be imposs-
BILE under the general United States land
system. and such tracts could only be
used by men with capital enough to de-
velop the water supply. The bill does
not prevent those plantations from secur-
ing lands that are willing to pay for IL,
for under this act the land Is given out
right to the homesteader, and ne can
easily dispose of 1t to the company will
ing TO pay his price. In many cases
spectators would get control of II. and
hold up the plantations for what they
could. The clause In the organic act
limiting the holdings of one corporation
TO one thousand acres may he evaded by
having individual stockholders put sec
tons of plantations in their names. In
this way the very end which the law
seeks TO accomplish would be overthrow.
And what could be done with the thou
sands of acres of lava rock, and the
mountain lands which get no water? The
law would simply mean that thousands
of acres which are now under cultiva-
ton in cane would have to be abandoned,
snd the government lose the revenue now
derived from these lands.
THE question is a serious one. and the
uncertainty of land legislation is already
causing trouble on the plantations which
have government leased lands under cul-
tivation. On Maui, where / visited last
week, one result is already apparent in
the unwillingness of the plantation man
ayers to make permanent improvements.
They do not feel like going ahead and
expanding large sums for pumping ma
chinery, when in a few years they may
lose the government leased land now an
der cultivation.
The Hamoa plantation on Maui will
be abandoned. and preparations are al
ready being made to dismantle 1t. be-
cause the lease now held is about to ex-
pire. The manager of Olowalu plantation
on Maui told me that they intended to
make no further improvements of a per-
manent nature. until certain that the
present land system will not be disturb
ed. They have six years lease on their