The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-07-09
ACROSS THE
LAVA BEDS
Kona's Rich Resources
MANY Rare Trees
Flourish.
By Sol. N. Sheridan.

nae, Hawaii, June 30.-Since [ have
seen it, the wonder has grown upon me
that more has not been made of the
the mainland, it seems to me that the
kona coast should be to these Islands.
1t is land of unsurpassed fertility, of
rainfall enough to insure crops, of the
most delightful climate in the world.
All nature smiles there, and anything
that grows under the sun will thrive
Yet kona has done littIe--or man
has done little with Kona-and one of
the few sugar plantations that has
failed has been that of Kona. Why?
Ask the sugar men who have taken the
plantation in hand, and who are pre-
pairing now to build a railroad to go
with it. They say that they will make
ii success of it-and I'll warrant you
that they will. Indeed, the whole de-
veIopment of Kona is now more prom
Using than at any time in its history,
because it will be development along
modern lines. Kona is going to take
advantage of the experience of other
sections, profiting by their successes
and by their failures. too
A LAND OF RICHNESS.
But it is not in sugar alone that
Kona will thrive. The Bruner pineap
pie cannery, at Napoopoo, has begun
work for the season, and the crop pros
poets are most promising. !
- have sold the product of the can |
merry three times,' said Mr.. Bruner,
when asked about his prosperity. +
81 do not mean that / have been
paid for it three times he fastened !
TO say, when the laugh went against
him 'FI L mean that / have orders for
three times as many pines as [ can put
up
That is a different thing, of course
Also, they are making a success of va
nilla, in Kona, and of tobacco, and
there is in prospect the erection of a
great okOlehao distillery, which will
manufacture the pure liquor of the Ha
vaiians and put it on the market in at
tractive shape. However, it will be
equally potent, in any shape-a drink,
thee drains whereof will make a man
rob his own trunk.
OF course our party visited Captain
Cook IS monument, at kealakekua Bay,
and then it was TO horse again for the
long ride around through Kona to the
|
That was one of the most notable of all
rides that we took on the Island of
Hawaii 1t was gallop, for the most
part, with freshened horses over the
smooth road along the heights Of Kona,
overlooking the sea, and after we had
passed the Mcguire place, and the sun
was beginning to decline, we came out
upon the old lava flow of 1901.
WONDERFUL LAVA FLOW.
Also. but on the next day, we crossed
the lava flow of 1859, by a macadamized
road, and that is an entirely different
thing from crossing it by trail that
seems to lead out into the unknown.
1t was before we came to this that we
rode across the lava flow that in 1901
came frcm the small mountain of Hua-
lalai. That is one of the most remark
able flows on this island, if not the
most remarkable. To begin with, 1t
broke out from two places on the noun j
tain. Just below the Mcguire place, to- Il
ward the sea. there is a great hill of o
rough lava piled up in the plain, and e
little above this thick group of trees n
is pointed out where the lava came a
boiling out of the ground unexpectedly, q
and ran down in a food to the ocean u
the while it was coming in greater tor o.
rents from the summit of the mountain -
to cool in tremendous river that Is IL
scanned with great gorges ana
tunnels. showing marks of more tre- st
mendous force than is seen IN any I'll
other fow in Hawaii. The sides of the n
lava gorges are of varied colors, and II
the great arches show how strong and &C
swift must have Eeen the torrents OF
ire that burned their way through the IN
mass of the flow that moved slowly Is
while these fast currents were running IN
On this slope of Hualalai we passed Io
through a forest of Hawaiian trees, the nt
Ike of which is to be found nowhere "i
Use. Not less tnan twenty-seven varle-
les of trees were seen and named here, OF
md of these at least one was a tree ha
ba+ bae Loor sa;d N no extinct-the cl:
lhiuhi. to wit 1t is straight grow d
ng tree, the wood very hard, and we IN
gathered seed pods from 1T, ana an
'rought them to Honolulu to be planted no
N TantaIus There were groves of the co
hiuhi sh
FOREST OF RARE TREES. i"
Still another rare tree was the kaulla, laI
rom which the old time Hawalans
lade their spear handles, and there was
he ohe. which was not bamboo, and
pecimen of the kokio. or native mos fo'
US, covered with large red flowers, ana th'
lenty Of sandalwOod. indeed Ihis 10
as the second forest of sandaiwood to'
lat we had seen. see
Here is a list of the trees, seen from
le road, made out by Eben Low, who he
lid that there were many more Varle-