The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-05-08
CABLE PEOPLE MUST
FORM AMERICAN COLONY
For the Pacific Cable Cannot Be laid to
Midway Except Under the Stars
and Stripes.

1 bothered with the fortified ton. The
Midway Islands have been put under
the jurisdiction of the Navy Depart
ment. and such terrifying as they may
need will be attended TO by the Sec
rotary of the Navy.
The laying of the Honolulu Manila
section of the cable will begin early
in May. The cable ship will sail from
London early in April, and as soon as
/ it gets to Manila the work of laying
/ that section of the cable will begin.
The section from Manila to Guam will
be put down first, thence the cable
ship will proceed to sand Island and
from there to Honolulu. About the
same time that the cable ship sails
| from London co1onizing party, so to
put it, viii leave San Francisco for
Sand Island. The party will be made
up of about fifteen men, including the
superintendent of the Sand Island sta
ton, three or four telegraph opera
tors, some electricians, few laborers,
doctor and a small hospital staff.
The expedition of the colonists will
be much more formidable in its outfit
than that of the cable ship. They win
carry with them a quantity of canned
goods, medicines, bandages, surgical
appliances and general hospital stores,
together with tents for temporary use
and the materials for building per-
manent cable station and houses for the
crew. The Government reports have
it that water, character and constitu-
ency not very well established, has
been found on Sand Island by digging
ten or fifteen feet below the surface.
1t is suspected that this water is sweet
water, but that is not definitely known.
The colonists will take with them a
xxyn1I - aV~Nr av-e1.
phernalia to equip a few drive wells. 1t
is not believed, however, that the well
digger will be able to take any such
liberties with the bowels of Sand ISL
and as he might take with the bowels
of the earth in the United States. An
artesian well, 80 or 100 feet deep in this
country, is just a plain, ordinary, ev-
eryday kind of a well. 1t is feared that
if they undertake, on Sand Island, to
push a well point very far toward the
center of the earth, they viii strike
the Pacific Ocean before they have
pushed great way, and get instead Of
sweet water an uphow of old ocean.
Not only is this possibility feared, !
but it is also believed that water which |
can be found so near the surface as
ten or twelve feet will become easily |
If that be true, then it /
wouldn't take many wells, sunk into |
an island half a mile wide and three
quarters of a mile long. to exhaust the /
water supply. In that event, of course, /
fresh water would be either a matter
of Importation, or it would have to be
obtained by the distillation of sea wa
ter.
The company has already plenty of |
for its first station crew for
Sand Island. How long they will be
willing to stay and whether there viii /
be any great amount of difficulty in /
getting a relay for the first crew are
problems for the future, and the COM
pany is quite willing. under the circum-
stances, to let the future take care of it,
Unless, however, Sand Island is past
all redemption it is quite within the
possibilities that within a few years it
may have become one of the loveliest 1
spot in the southern Pacific. AS soon
as the first cable crew has established I
itself, the company intends to begin the Il
mporta ton to the island of the best 4
soil to be found in all that region of II
the Pacific. If anybody out Sand Is
and way has three quarters of a square
mile of A No. L soil for sale at reason
able terms, he ought to get into COM
with Mr.. Mackay or Mr..
dose of soil tonic will be followed by
another and yet another, until the ma
tive soil has become vigorous enough
to support any old kind of vegetation.
The company is determined, before it
gets through with Sand Island, that the
desert shall blossom as the rose.