The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-02-09


maps made OF AN the islands, excepting
only the few islets of little or mo- Inn
portaucc; that good district maps of
AN the islands have been prepared
showing the public and private owner
Ship that the records of the office,
growing constantly more complete,
Ihave become of inestimable value. and
Iare resOrted Co by all classes Of the
community as their first and most nee
essary reference i'm all land matters;
that all transactions as to public lands
may be made with a knowledge of true
conditions to the general benefit Of the
whole community.
Such i'm brief has been the result Of
the work of the Survey Office, and
while no work of this nature can hope
to be above criticism, it is a satisfac-
| ton to know that the warmest com
mendation of the work has been from
| visitors of high scientific attachments,
and from those Of this Territory whose
! knowledge of the work make criticism
valuable.
! At the present time the most impor-
! taut work Of this office is the laying
out of lands for settlement under the
! existing land laws, and the locating
marking, mapping and describing Of
the boundaries of the public lands and
forest reservations.
While the general policy as to the
disposition of public lands is directly
in the province of the Commissioner Of
Public Lands, the connection of the
Survey Department with the details of
the work, and its knowledge Of the sit
uation is such that it seems proper to
make here some comment on the mat
ter, more particularly as to the appli-
cation of the u! S. Land Laws and sur
veying methods to the public lands of
! Hawaii, an application that is not in
frequently recommended by persons
who have limited knowledge of the
situation.
The area of the public land in Hawaii
is about 100000 acres. Of this only a
limited portion will come under any
form Of cultivation, and a large portion
Of this depends on the construction Of
expensive roads and the success Of new
agricultural enterprises yet to be prov
en-. This area is too small to warrant
the liberal allotments made under the
u. $. General Land Laws, and in view
of the productiveness of Hawaiian
lands Of good quality such allotmcnts
are in general unnecessary
: Much of the cream" and most of the
accessible portions Of the public lands
We're disposed Of many years ago; there
is still considerable public land of val
ne, but a larger part is almost worth
less such as the great lava flow regions
and the preciptous, rugged nature of
{ many mountain tracts, making occupa-
ton impracticable.
: In the rainy districts, expensive maca.
t damized roads must be built for any
I proper development of the lands, and ir
f many sections, graded roads at heavy
r expense are Indispensable to reach thu
. elevations at which very much of tn,
4 remaining public lands lie, and OWNS
: to the comingling of public and private
lands such roads must in most case
cut through and acpOss private land
thereby greatly complicating the situa
ton.
The expense attending the building
Of these roads, without which the set
|
and the limited area suited to settle
ment, require a careful limit of thu
area allotted in order to meet the needs
of as many as possible.
The u. S. system of division into rec.
tangular blocks could be applied to any
useful purpose in only few places and
unfortunately those places are for the
most part the inhospitable barren local
tiles unfit for settlement. Where the
rectangular system can be applied,
however the Survey Department is on
ly too happy to adopt II.
Many valuable pieces of public lands
are remnants of such size, shape and
location, that 1t would be simply inn
possible to apply the U. S. Survey sys-
tenn. Any consideration of Hawaiian
land maps will show this. For instance
a tract Of 1000 acres has nine-tenths of
its value represented by less than 100
acres at a low elevation, even this 10C
acres lying in scattered remnants. II
would be impossible to apply the u. S.
? rectangular system to these remnants
below. AS to the region above, even
casual observation will show, that II
divided at all, it must be I'm some con-
, formity with the topography, if the alb
surdity would be avoided of having one
|. lot on the top of an almost inaccessible
peak while another lot would capture
the greater part on all of the land OF
= real value. Cases Of equal difficulty
would be the rule, rather than the ex-
ception.
/ Owing to the great differences in eIe-
) walton, the marked disparity of rain
! fall, the differences in nature of the
! lava flows which have in the remote
p past covered great areas, and i'm al
p manner Of inequalities, it is impossible
to assign uniform values to land. With
D in the area of a small lot may be founc
% land varying from almost nominal val
e ue to several hundred dollars per acre
The native Hawaiian rarely culri'
70 Yates over half an acre of land; thi.
81 ana small area for pasturage meets
{ his apparent needs. Many POrtugur Sc
nov American citizens. who make gooC
Y set Tiers are well satisfied with from n