The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-08-15
NUTS To CRACK
IN LAND OFFICE
Why Should Intending Settlers
Be Subjected to Price
Competition?

a merchant to stock his warehous,
with goods, hang out his sign, publist
his card and await customers. TIL,
customers come slowly, but finally on,
presents himself, selects a piece OF
goods and inquiries the price. For an
swer, he gets this:
''Our upset price is so much, but you
will have to wait thirty days While We
publish the fact that you wish this
piece of goods, and then you will have
| to contest with other bidders who may
present themselves, and in the end you
may not be able to secure this parti-
| cular piece of goods, or in fact any
other piece. That will depend on the
amount you are able or willing to bid
But" protests the would be GUS
| toner, "T don't want to wait. I am
here, and I have selected my goods.
There has been ample time; your card
has been out for weeks; first come
ought surely to be first served Name
your price. impose your conditions as
TO continued possession if you will,
but don't keep me waiting for an un-
certainty that hides within itself a
large element of liability to failure"
Mr.. Editor, there are all kinds Of
men who are subject to all kinds of
conditions. Many will wait if per-
force they must. Some may be able
and even willing to wait; others cam
not wait. But in the main, what would
be thought of the merchant who es-
sayed to conduct his business on the
lines above indicated, and what kind
of success could he expect to achieve?
Yet will not every reader of the fore
going lines Immediately recognize In
them the portrait of our Territorial
land laws? Let me not be unjustly
catalogued as an invidious critic of
the government. Doubtless it was diff
ficult to devise a law which should
provide all the safeguards intended
against avaricious land grabbers. and
not at some point infiict hardship, on
bona fide aspirant to a reasonable
real estate possession that he might
call his own. And doubtless it could
not be expected that the legislators,
whose duty it became to consider the
proposed law and pass it, could detect
at once all it's flaws, nor even be able
to provide a perfect remedy for such
as were detected. But after some
years of practical trial, is the law not
now capable of some improvement?
To the questions, How about the
government? How could they ar
rive at a just appraisement for raw
lands?" may be put the counter ques-
tions, How did they arrive at just
appraisement when, years ago, they
sold the best of agricultural lands at
the price of S1.00 per acre? How did
they arrive at a just appraisement
when they offered the Molokans the
best of improved" cane lands at
merely nominal figure? How did they
arrive at an appraisement when they
offered colonist settlers the best of
unimproved lands at reasonable rates?
Is it more difficult to decide upon a
price that shall be considered reason
able for the individual, would-be, pur-
chaser, than for these others? The
government claim to want, not so
much immediate cash, as it wants set
tiers who shall, by improving their
and becoming producers, in
sure to the public Golfers largely aug
mented incomes, not of twofold or
even of tenfold but of hundreds OF
folds, in the form of taxes. Now,
then, when such a would-be settler
comes along and selects bit of land
thau suits him, or even when denizen
whose business requirements prevent
his assuming a continuous residence
on a given piece of land. selects a bit
that he would like to call his own,
why may not the law be so framed as
4. Fafv a SaT7ant of its
value, and impose conditions of con-
tinued ownership if it will, but let the
applicant have the piece of his own
selection? AS the merchant, after ad-
his wares, serves first him
who comes first; and as the agent |
orders goods, not to be competed for
after a given date, but solely for the
customer who applied for them, and |
with the least possible delay, why may
NOT the government serve their solf-
cited customers on the same princi- |
uIes? Why repel them with delays |
and uncertainties?
The aim to secure permanent set
tiers and to obstruct speculation, con- |
templated by the present law. could |
be. in the naure Of things, but par
TALLY. successful, as illustrated by Olaa |
and Wahiawa. The failure in the first |
case appears to have been due to q
failure of the crops to materialize, and
in the second case, in some degree, to |
the desire to realize unearned profits
through the process of promoting.
In the latter case, lands for which the
received comparatively
little in cash. are offered at prices
prohibitory to all but the
wealthy. the extremely optimistic, or
the over eager for a home at any |
price. To the man of limited means !
who must rely on the produce of the |
soil in large measure for support, the |
situation presents a closed door, and |
capital is not eager to help him open |
il. The speculator by intent may find |
il profitable Ito labor and to wait for |
even ten years. before securing title |
and realizing profits by promotion or |