The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-13
THE PARKS OF HONOLULU
SHOULD BE MUCH EXTENDED

mass projecting. What possibilities 1t
affords for adjoining the city. An
artist would depict what might be done
with it. We have water heads far
above it from whence, at small eX-
] pense. a sutficency of water could be
led in pipes around the rim of it and
this would compel the tuffa of which
the cone is composed to produce any
thing We might select to beautify the
sides of that remarkable hill. If the
reader will let his fancy run riot for
a few minutes he might see its sides
clothed with different shades of
bougainvilla vine and whose colored
leaves and flowers last for such
length of time The macadamized,
graded roads leading to the crater
could be arched with shade trees and
the interior would furnish a grand re-
creation ground wherein could be rails
ed innumera BILE fruit trees and many OF
the wonderful trees of Africa, India
and other tropical countries whose
brilliant foliage afford SO enhancing
a picture. What a resort the enclosed
park would be for the families of Ho-
nolulu. In kalakaua'S time some one,
I presume it was the King, took no.
ton TO plant the interior With trees.
They had great times and those en-
listed in the enterprise were very en-
thusiastic. Great crowds visited the
scene of the work and there was much
mirth and enjoyment amongst the
workers and their friends. Unfortu-
nately they began at the wrong end
of the work and irrigated the planted
trees with gin and the whole has either
persisted Or become a tangle of useless
kiawe trees which have choked out all
other. Had they secured small APP
preparation for water in the first in
stance the interior might today be
worth visiting.
Nature has done much for Honolulu
both in topography and climate and II
a united effort was made by the citi-
zens, say under the leadership of the
Civic Federation, to embellish the city
it would be as much a place to be
visited as Japan in the cherry blossom
season. Lying just within the tropics
all kinds of trees and plant-life lux
uriate. Every effort to search the
world for trees, shrubs, vines, plants
and flowers is rewarded by the facility
with which they will grow and propa-
gate. The visitor marvels at the wealth
of foliage about Honolulu and yet all
he sees is eXogenous. 1t is rarely one
notes a purely Hawaiian tree. The cost
of bringing the whole of these eXogens
from India, Manila and Australia was
trifling and yet they present a most
attractive appearance to the visitor
from northern lands, even if some of us
are cloyed with their beauty.
The first effort to add to the flora. of
the islands Except, perhaps when the
earliest inhabitants migrated from the
south,} was when DR.. Hillebrand was
sent on mission to India and the
East Indies and who brought back
i with him, as a side issue, many of the
seeds and STRIPS of the present visible
foliage The cost of that mission was
but a small sum and who of us does
not feel that we have returns a hum
| dred fold.
If Honolulu had municipal govern
! ment, a certain civic pride would be
aroused and we would feel more like
multiplying our parks and making our
city one of the most ornate of any
which the tourist would meet in his
globe trotting. A little devotion on
our part to conserving the storm waters
of the valleys IN the vicinity would
not only supply us with sufficiency
of the life-giving fluid to irrigate the
whole land from Eoko Head to Mo-
analua, but would afford electric power
sufficient to light our streets and homes
at a trifling expense.
My friend asks where will the money
come from to purchase park sites and
care for the parks after we have them.
AS to caring for them what more even
manner can money be raised than is
done by the Merchants Association
which levies a modicum on all freight
landed at the port, a part of which
might be profitably devoted to caring
for the parks.
AS to acquiring park sites there is
a resource which will appeal to many
How many of those who have made
fortunes in the land and have passed
over the river have left anything to-
wards identifying the land wherein
they amassed their wealth. If we look
back over the field very little way
we can recall the names of men who
have forgotten the land in which they
acquired their wealth. This is not
right. Every good farmer returns
something to the soil from which he
has reaped his crops. Men can carry
nothing with them when they are de-
parting for that other world, and. after |
making a suitable provision for their |
blood relatives it would show an ap-
probation of the land if they left a
modicum for the benefit of those who
are to succeed them. Better still if
some of our wealthy magnates would
purchase park sites and donate them
to the city and in their lifetime have
the enjoyment of witnessing the appre-
citation which their fellowmen would
display in caring for and enjoying
these breathing places. What more
enduring monument could a man leave
than public square? Suppose we took
a map of Honolulu and traced the pub
lie squares which had been donated to
it. Spreckels Square, Cooke Square,
Anterior Square, Damon Square, Hack
field Square, Castle Square. Davies