Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1907-05-01
Territory
Got Full
a|ue

The Public Lands Committee of the
House, which has been investigating
the exchange of the Government
lands on the Island of Lanai for Ho-
nolulu property, is satisfied that the
Government has received full value
for its Lanai lands.
That is the sum and substance of
the lengthy report made by the com
mittee to the House this morning.
And that is all the Investigations
amount to, for even if the commit
tee had not been satisfied that full
value was received by the Govern
ment in the exchange, the Legislature
could do nothing about it. The com
imttee says: Under the Organic Act
all matters pertaining to public lands
are placed in the hands of the Gov
ernor and Commissioner of Public
Lands, and their actions are not re-
versible by the legislative body"
The committee further finds as fol-
lows:
In regard to the lands conveyed
to the Government by Mr. Gitfard,
your committee considers them val
liable addition to the lands now in
use by the Department of Education
1t also gives this Department a valu-
able piece of property for the erection
of High School for the advanced ed
ucation of the children of this Terri
tory, and the Territory the ownership
of the forest land of Kalawahine,
hich has cost the government OF
Hawaii considerable money to forest
From the evidence that your com
rIittee has before it and from its own
personal investigation, it is satisfied
that the Government has received full
value for it's Lanai lands.
In this particular case the facts,
circumstances and evidence have per-
.haps justified the exchange of large
areas of public lands for other lands
held by private parties, but your COM
mittee strongly urges and submits
that it cannot be accepted and adopt
ed as precedent for the future dis
posa of the public domain of this
| Territory The conditions are appli-
cable only to the matter under con
sideration and cannot and should not
| he used in the future as a justifica'
| ton for a similar transaction. You
committee feels that the best inter
ests and the future development OF
| this Territory demand that the pub
! lie land hereafter to be disposed Of
should be divided into small holdings
or parcels in order that the man o.
limited means may be in position tC
acquire them"
The report made by the committee
is very lengthy one, comprising 81
pages of typewriter matter 1t goes
| into minute detail, into all the events
and transactions leading up to the
exchange of Lanai, and into the
events, protests and court proceed
ings following that exchange. The
fell report of the appraisers is in
Guided in the text of the report. The
full proceedings Of the committee
with the evidence given before it il
regard to the exchange and to La
mai, as taken down by the stenogra,
pher, is also given, together with al
account of the trip to Lanai taker
by the committee A copy of Jared
&. Smiths report on the Government
lands of Lanai is appended.
Mr. Smith finds that the total val.
ue of the then Government lands OF
Lanai was 100000, and of the wa.
tershed at least 100000, making the
total value not less than 100000
He estimates that the annual rain.
| fall amounts to 2,500,000,0 gal.
! Ions of water. The conservation oil
per cent. of the total rainfall on
the mountain range would give an
annual supply of about 40,000,00C
gallons of water available for agri-
cultural and domestic purposes.
Mr. Smith is of the opinion that
the agricultural and grazing lands oil
the Island of Lanai could be made tC
support a population of at least 1000
people.