The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-05-06
THEODORE wOREs ON THE WAL
XXI ROAD.
Thinks Honolulu's Beauties Are Being
Eliminated and It's Attractiveness to
Tourists Spoiled.


pond at Waikiki and the other vandal-
isms, as they are called, which are
gradually eliminating auy character
from Honolulu.
Gradual changes accustom the resi-
dent to pass the alterations of city by
unnnoticed and the opinions of a ira
veler artist upon the lost attractiveness
of the city may not prove uninteresting
Mr.. WoTes speaks as follows:
IF it is desirable to attract to Hawaii
visitors and tourists and if it is also de-
sirable to send these visitors away we'll
pleased with their trip to Hawaii then
the exactly opposite effect is being Sc
cured by the action of the authorities in
deliberately eliminating everything that
is characteristic of Hawaii in and about
the city.
Tourists and visitors come here with
precOnceived notions of something diff
ferent down here in surroundings and
customs they come here for change and
after crossing blue water for a week to
the country of the beauties of which
Stevenson and Mark Twain sang so
sweetly and effectively, find few indica-
tiOns of the tropics and those rapidly
diminishing, nothing but a semblance
of the cities they have left behind, type
of third class American town. There
are few things left that are paintable
terms are synonymous. There are glo-
rious mountain effects and scapes of
forest and sea, it is true, but they are
not at hand and it is not the natural
surroundings of a place that form the
chief attraction to the tourist. There
must be something else in which the
hand and thought of man has taken
part.
Take Japan for example with the
crowds of tourists that throng to her
shores. 1t is the temples, the toriis tea
gardens, bridges with their wistaria
canopies, the quaint architecture, Gus
toms and clothing, the human note that
rounds off the whole into one harmo-
NOUS picture. Take any of the great
show places of the earth, Egypt, India
Everywhere it is the temples, the pyra-
mids, the works of man that attract.
Take my own first impressions for
example. 1 must confess that / was
disappointed at first sight. I had heard
so much of Waikiki and found, a beau
tiful beach indeed a brilliantly colored
sea and few palms that gave the place
semi tropical appearance, but there
was nothing prominently character
istic, nothing that painted would stamp
the lanscape as typical of the Southern
seas or indeed of any place particularly
worth painting.
II remember the delight with which
| saw the lily pond which they are now
. contemplating the destruction of. 1t
was the first paintable thing l had seen
and l got out of the carriage with the
sensation that here at last was some
thing, characteristic, tropical, almost
perfect The sloping palm trees, the
grassy banks, the lilies and the gold
fish in the shady pond. 1t wah an ideal
bit, combination which had been ar
ranged by man and aided by Nature
until there are few spots in the islands,
none so public and near at hand that
can compare with it. Tourists seize up
on it as a subject for their cameras and
there is no doubt about it's beatuy. Yet
the sapient powers would eliminate
with the remark that there are other
palm trees There are other beautiful
places in the islands near Honolulu that
/ l have found and painted but they are
| not where they can produce general inn
/ pressions and the tourist is impressed
with first appearances and indeed has
sometimes but a few hours in which to
scan the city with a view to a possible
/ return. Take the hundreds of globe
( trotters who pass through here on a
steamer with a few hours to spare
Many of them pass the bulk of their
time in travelling and rush ashore al
/ Honolulu to see the beauties they have
! heard so much about and may perhaps
visit and enjoy at their leisute some
future day. What is there for them to
see that will reward them?
There was one beautiful little Bit
here that had been left and which
myself have often pointed out as one OF
the beauties of the town and indeed
intended to paint. mean the date
palms outside the cathedral Governor
Cleghorn told me that he remembered
those palms for fifty years, they were
landmarks aside from the picturesque,
ness. They invested the plain lines OF
the cathedral with dignity and beauty
but because they were a foot or so ii
the way of a side walk and i'm the way
| of nothing else, they were cut down
! You have no plazas here look al
Thomas square for park in a tropica
city where plant life is supposed to bC
luXuriant and rife. Everywhere there
has been chance to cut down a tree
down II has come. The old Arlington
grounds, royal palms that were on the
| sidewalks have all gone and there has
been no absolute necessity for 1t. IT
other tropical cities the palms would
have been preserved in a narrow garden
strip outside the stores. Trade would
not have been deferred but encouraged
! by the added beauty of the town.
Then when you plant avenues
instead of planting characteristic trees
you seem to endeaVOr to see what
foreign trees you can successfully in
troduce In Samoa there is a mango
avenue which is beautiful with it's dark
glossy foliage and the fruit hanging
from the boughs. Look at your pOin-
cianas and monkey pods, typical and
beautiful Those are the ideal trees tC
line your avenues with, but instead
ironWoods, looking eminently out OF
place, struggling and stunted in Leaf
and limb, and algerobas with theiI
sameness of tone are planted and look
like the efforts of some town bordering
on a desert instead of the reign of tro.
lpical luXuriance.
Straight roads are an abominatior
where picturesqueness is concerned. The
beauties of curve in a roadway, lead
ing up to unsuspected Vistas are the
main features of an artistic boulevard
The idea seems to be however to Gu
down all the surroundings Of the pre-
CONTINUED on page five)