The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-03-27
A PLEA FOR PARKS.

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! The question of setting aside certain
| public lands in and near Honolulu, for
public parks, is now before the Legis-
| lature
The city of Honolulu is decidedly
behind the times in its park facilities
Kapiolani Park is the only attempt
that has been made to establish a park
| worthy of the name, and until recently
| that has been allowed to develop as
Topsy dfd-it has lest growed.'
Honolulu has sat by and seen its
public lands on the water front, on
the plains. in the valleys, at the beach
and in the mountains sold to private
parties, until it is now faced with the
fact that a citizen cannot put foot in
salt water, except from a wharf or
road. from Diamond Head to Moana-
lua, without the permission of pri-
vate owner. This fact has been brought
home to the community this past week
by the announcement of the Hotel An
on the hotel lawn or beach except upon
payment of an admission fee of ten
cents This privilege has heretofore
been free. There is no fault to be
The property is theirs to do with as
they think best; but how about the
community which has sat by and seen
its entire beach front absorbed with
out so much as a protest?
The same condition of affairs is
threatened in connection with the
mountains back of Honolulu. The only
native forest accessible to Honolulu
is that at Tantalus. Here the koa, the
kuI1ui. the wild ginger and a luxuriant
growth of ferns and tropical jungle are
to be found. A good carriage road
has been built thereto and an average
horse can draw a carriage there in
from an hour TO an hour and half.
Walkers easily make the distance in
an hour and half by the more di-
rect trails. Hundreds of school chill
dren go there every week, and it is
one of the beauty spots of Honolulu.
Most of the desirable outlook spots
and the places fiat enough for picnic
grounds, have been sold off as private
and are now occupied as
such. a few are left and it is proposed
to set them and the beautiful tree and
fern-clad valleys, which are too steep
for any practical purpose, apart as a
reserve for the use of the public. If
t is not done, and the policy of selling
off the few remaining lots is pursued,
It will be very short time before the
public will be excluded entirely from
the woods, even more effectually than
hey now are from the sea.
The, only reason urged against set
ting the remaining lands at Tantaius
apart as a park reserve, is that the
Treasury needs the money. By the
same token Kapiolani Park, Thomas
Square and Aala Park had better be
cut up and sold out.
The Treasury will lose a few dollars
if Tantalus is reserved as a public
park, but the Treasury is the property
of the people, and the loss to the peo-
pie if they are shut out from Tanta-
1us entirely, will be far greater than
the few dollars which they will thereby
fail to collect.
The widest limits of the proposed
reservation include only the upper ma
tive forest portion of the land. None
of the planted area, nor of the large
open section around Sugar Loaf and
Round Top, is included. There are st1I
a hundred or more acres of public land
available for sale as lots in the locau-
ties named.
The overwhelming public interest
calls for the setting aside of both Tan
talus and the remaining Kapiolani
Park beach lots, as park reserves, while
the SUBMITS and upper slopes of
Punchbowl and Diamond Head should
be reserved before the hand of the
utilitarian or the vandal reaches out
for them.
In the same final report wherein the
Mani GRAND iurv recommend +ba re