The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-11-27

shareholders are requested to De
present i'm person or to fill out and re-
turn to the Secretary the following
proxy viz:
PROXY.
authorized to vote my shares in the
Ookala Sugar Plantation Co. at the
Special meeting of said Company call
ed to he held on December IA. 1907,
or any adjournment thereof.
...................
DATED ........ ................
Leases ON many oNher tracts Of
public lands will expire during next
year, and already the government has
taken up the matter of dealing with
the lands. Acting Governor Mott
Smith. is about to visit Laupahoenoe,
where he will look over some tracts on
that plantation on which the leases
| are about to expire. In all these cases,
| the problem is one of considerable diff
| ficulty, and this land question is one
of the matters most discussed by Frear
since he took office 1t is regarded as
probable that this is one of the mat
ters he will discuss while in Wash
ington
According to certain unauthorized
reports the LaupahoehOe Plantation
Company of Hawaii and the Territory
have not been able to arrive at an
amicable agreement regarding a re
newal of the lease Of some 5000 acres
Of land on which the company has been
operating and which expires next
spring 1t is in order to get at this
matter that Acting Governor Mott
Smith expected to go to Laupahoehoe
this week, and will go within a week
or two
The report had it that the govern
ment had asked the company a rental
of Sc an acre per year and had re-
duced this price to S. IS. which how
ever, was still excessive and that un-
less the Executive Department would
be reasonable, the company would be
forced out of business entirely.
Land Commissioner j. w. Pratt,
when asked about the matter this
morning stated emphatically that no
such price as Sc per acre had ever
been asked the company on its hold
ings That instead he had had a
careful appraisement of the entire tract
of land made by competent men, will
a result that a value of S25 to SIS pei
acre had been fixed, which is conser
vative for cane land On this basi
n had been asked, which put the pric
considerably less than SO SO per acre
At the present time the price paiC
on this land Is 40 cents. This price
Mr.. Pratt states that the records shov
was obtained from a successive admin
N istration, after l.. A. Thurston Minis
ter of the Interior had asked So pc
N acre, and refused to lower the amount
Acting Governor Mott-Smith state
this morning that the policy of tn
administration was always to leas
land with the interests of the peopl
as a whole in mind. This welfare wa
10 not always to be secured by holdin
- out for excessively high prices, even Z
SO high as might be paid to private il
dividuals for like land, because IL
prosperity of the renters is necessary I
90 an extent to secure the welfare of Il
- Territory as a whole. While Commi
sioner Pratt has the responsibility
60 all these deals, as head of the land
s. partment, this matter in question hi
been before Governor Frear, and Il
method of fixing a rental price, vi
made with his full approval as bell
fair to all concerned
Commissioner Pratt stated furth
that adjoining land is renting from
W dividual owners for as high as 81 p
90 acre, and that one adjoining plantati,
- has standing proposition with L
900 Territory for land which may becoI
available at a rental of 8 per cent
an appraised valuation, the same
the Laupahoehoe people are object
OOO to.