The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-05-08
CABLE PEOPLE MUST
FORM AMERICAN COLONY

I 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 n colonizing party, so to
put 1t, will 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, a few 10 oorers,
a 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 will
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
1t that water character and constitu-
ency not very we'll established. has
been found on Sand Island by digging
ten or fifteen feet below the surface.
It Is suspected that this water is sweet
water, but that Is not definitely known.
The colonists will take with them q
we'll digger and the necessary para
phernalia to equip 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 we'll, so or 100 feet deep in this
country. is just a plain. ordinary. ev-
eryday kind of we'll. 1t is feared that
IL they undertake, on Sand Island, to
push a we'll point very far toward the
center of the earth. they will strike
the Pacific Ocean before they have
pushed a great way. and get instead Of
sweet water an upflow 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
exhausted. 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
volunteers for it's first station crew for
Sand Island. How long they will be
willing to stay and whether there will
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
possibilities that within a few years it
may have become one of the loveliest
spot in the southern Pacific. AS soon
as the first cable crew has established
itself the company intends to begin the
importation to the island of the best
soil to be found in all that region of
the Pacific. If anybody out Sand Is
land way has three-quarters of square
mile of A No. l soil for sale at reason
able terms, he ought to get into COM
munication with Mr.. Mackay or Mr.
Ward as soon as possible. The first
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.