The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-05-21

| to make money from the sale of their
| pineapples TO the canneries or in con-
Quoting the business of canning and
exporting The land which they orig
inally procured at five dollars an acre
| or less is now selling for over two
nists were Americans, were enterpris-
| ing, persevering and industrious. and
their great success is, / think, attribu-
table largely to these qualities. Colo
nists of a different class might even
tually have reached a similar success,
but would have taken a longer time
to do it, Although this experience is not
likely to be exactly duplicated in other
parts of the Islands, yet there are
available at the present time consider
able areas of fertile soil within practi-
| cable reach of the public roads, where
American farmers could raise all of the
usual American farm crops and pro-
duce substantially everything required
for their own use except dry goods,
hardware, flour and some of the gro
ceries.
cannot be grown profitably as the flour
produced is inferior to American -four.
Substantially all of the forage crops
can be successfully raised.
The farmer needs a money revenue,
however, and what this shall be would
depend somewhat on the locality of his
farm. Coffee has long been profitably
raised. Tobacco has been experiment.
ed with and promises to be a most
profitable crop. Rubber is being
grown with every promise of success.
Sisal is being produced and manufac-
tured of fine quality and does well in
localities where the rainfall is COM
paratively slight. Bananas have long
been proftably exported to the main
land 1t is probable that such farms
as will be conveniently within reach of
the large seaports will be able to do a
profitable business in raising and ship
ping vegetables and fruits to the Pa
cific Coast during their winter months,
when the home supply is at a stand
still.
Colonel Hepburn, of the House of
Representatives, who spent some
months in the Territory last year in
going around the Island of Oahu, was
much impressed with the appearance
of the land in the neighborhood of the
Wahiawa Colony referred to above. 1t
impressed him as land upon which his
neighbors in Iowa would be able to
make a better living than at home, and
stated, as am informed, that the far
mers of Iowa, or in his neighborhood
in Iowa, lid not net more than seven
or eight dollors an acre per annum-
probably meaning in addition to what
they themselves consumed on their
farms. People in these Islands en-
gagged in agriculture would consider
that such profits were not far removed
from failure.
From a business standpoint the set
tlement of American farmers in this
country is most important in that, as
compared with settlers of other races.
they are greater consumers and more
largely patronize the mercantile estab-
lishments of the place. Agricultural
lumber, dry goods, gro
ceries, -four furniture and many other
things are required by them, and the
colony, like the one referred to, is of
no small value to the business of its
nearest city.
Even greater than this is the i'm
portance of such an addition to our
population to the political condition in
these Islands, where voters of the Ang-
lo-Saxon race are comparatively few.
as shown by other papers in this num-
Der. Japanese and Chinese children,
as well as those of other races, are be-
coming a large element in the schools
of the Territory. The majority of
them have been born here, and there
fore the boys on coming Of age will be
entitled to the franchise. Although these |
boys going through the course of edu-
cation in the schools Of the Territory,
public and private, and associating In |
the schoolroom and on the playground |
with the pupils of the other nationals |
ties, will be, as rule, good American |
yet with their own race ira
and their attachment to their |
own people in the home land, it is evil |
dent that a strong and numerous ele-
ment of boys and girls from American
families is indispensable for the con-
tinuous and best growth of American
sentiment. Socially this American ele-
ment is no less important as furnishing |
a powerful influence in favor of Anglo
Saxon ideas of family life and social
customs and precedents. Five hun
1red American families contentedly liv-
ing on farms owned by them would go |
far toward safeguarding the social and
political future of this community, and |
)ne thousand Of such families would be
I most satisfactory guarantee for the
future development and progress Of the
pest element of American citizenship. |
Fortunately after annexation the i
Federal administration very definitely
ndorsed the existing policy in favor of
the settlement of the public lands, so |
FAR as practical, by those who should
own and cultivate the lands occupied
oy them. This makes the work of the
Territory in this direction compare
lively easy, for it has always behind 1t
the backing and insistent desire of the
Federal administration that such poll
icy shall be energetically continued and
1uced is inferior to American flour. |
II...SI..l.a a,..aiiar, LILA n6s