The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-06-12
BIG KOHALA DITCH
IS A SUCCESS.
Continued from page one)

Mahukona last night arriving at about
midnight and boarding the Mauna Loa
which had "A splendid smooth trip down
Nevertheless, as far as the ditch excur-
sion is concerned, she landed a tired
dusty crowd, some of whom had done
much walking and riding and little
sleeping since leaving Honolulu But
all who visited either the wonderful
tunnel high in the mountains or the
Incompatible scenery through which
it winds unseen, were agreed that the
trip was worth ten times the hardship.
MORE TUNNEL THAN DITCH.
Only those who have seen the Ko-
hala ditch-more tunnel than ditch
can thoroughly appreciate the magni-
tude of the enterprise. The crowd
which saw Mrs Campbell Parker pull
a pretty ribbon and lift gates so that
water might run from Halawa valley
to the Hind plantation could see little
to impress them with the science and
labor that had brought the water from
the heights to Halawa, by long wind
ing tunnels bored through the noun
tains. The so-callcd ditch begins i'm
the Kohala mountains, where it taps
Honokane stream and takes a little bit
of the water that Hilo passengers see
falling into the ocean, in scores of wa
/ terfalls along the Windward coast
From where the ditch starts it keeps its
chosen level, a fall of about five feet
to the mile, through the mountains to
where the plantations begin and for
miles there is nothing to be seen of it
/ except now ana then an opening on the
side of some precipitous slope. Enter
| ing such an opening one may progress
| along Il smooth and even cemented
Icoursc in an almost round cement
lined tunnel way in pitch darkness. 1t
is only during the last few miles that
! the ditch ceases to be a tunnel and be-
comes an open Waterway real ditch.
PLANTERS INCREDULOUS.
a flow of twenty million gallons ev-
cry twenty-four hours was started
/ yesterday over the ditch and only one
of the five plantations was ready for it
hone of the others had believed it
possible TO complete the work in time
for water yesterday, and so many dol
lars worth of water per day is going
to utter waste, while plantations are
ing fumes for it. They contracted to
receive and pay for it June 1 and have
to pay for the nineteen millions day
now being wasted. Hawi plantation, of
which Hind, the head of the ditch com
pany, is the principal owner, was the
only plantation ready, and it was pre-
pared to take only a million gallons "a
day, instead of between six and seven
millions, which it will eventually take.
TO BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE
The Kohala ditch will supply 10000
600 gallons of water per day when fin
ished Besides irrigating thirteen
thousand acres of land now IN cane
and increasing the output two, three or
/ four tons per acre, it will make posi-
BILE the profitable cultivation of thou
sands of acres more of fine land now
merely a fair waste. There are ten
/ thousand acres of such land now
is impossible to estimate the area of
the lands which will finally be made
available for profitable settlement or
use when the whole ditch is finished.
NO TIDAL WAVE.
When Mrs. Parker first pulled the
ribbon the middle gate of the three in
the flume rose a few inches and the
damned up water raced under it into
the dark hole in the mountain. The en-
gineers in charge didn't want a big
rushing tidal wave along the ditch and
so opened the gates by degrees, AZ
the openings We're increased the water
fall diminished and when they were
all open it had ceased to eXist--the wa
ter was all silently coursing along the
conduit, now I'm the open and now
through long stretches of rock There
are A tunnels in the Kohala ditch as II
now is, and the longest of them is 231O
feet in length. They are totally dark,
but swift current of cold air circu
lates through them from opening ia
opening They are seven feet high, sin
and half feet wide at the bottom and
eight feet wide at the height Of 1--WE
feet the top being arched.
AN IMPRESSIVE FEAT
The boring of these tunnels is an
impressive feat' The openings in some
places are almost inaccessible now and
most of them We're nearly so until
trails were carved out of the mountain
sides. Six men were killed and many
mules, by falling down these preci-
pices. The workmen needed no rail
roads to cart away the tons Of mate
rial they bored oHt,--they simply dump
ed it on the mountain side and 1t tore
its way like a small avalanche TO the
depths below. In many places wide
swaths in the forest and other vegeta-
ton show where it was dumped a.
went tumbling and roaring to some in
visible place below. AS was remarked
by one OF the party who visited the
upper lands of the conduit the day be-
fore the opening, it is Grand Canyon
scenery" Little is to be seen of the
conduit. 1t is under the forests, wind.
ing its way I'm the courses best suited
to the levels calculated by the engi'