The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-23


prairie: itu-takes considerable to get
his first csSp started here.
1T is a regular part Of the banking
business on the mainland to assist
agriculturists and banks make a bust
ness Of carrying the farmers Such
methods should become more common
here among banks and even among the
sugar agencies.
In time capital viii accumulate
here and it Will probably TO a large
extent seek investment in the assist
ance of small farmers. or it should.
Connection with the New York money
market might assist until the time
comes when capital accumulates here.
Our sugar industry should have this
in mind; it will have to be considered
sooner or later.
Another difficulty is the limited
area of land in these Islands fit for
cultivation and the necessity of max
ing sure that would-be settlers are
bona tide. Economic conditions will
sooner or later require the cutting up
of sugar plantations and cattle
ranches. But, for the present, land
suitable for the small farmer is very
limited and the difficulty is not going
to be so much with the sugar PLAN
tation as with the small proprietors,
for the planters can be made to see the
situation while the small proprietors
are likely to chafe because the land.
is not thrown open at once. The sugar
planters realize that the small pro-
prietor is an institution that is bound
to come and that the settled policy
fo - bxfr .
recklessly.
"Some thought that true American
| ism should require the throwing open
of all the public lands in 160-acre Sec
tions fer free settlement as soon as
we had become annexed, but fortunate
ly that was not done, and wisely, for
! if it had the lands would by now have
all been in the hands of corporations.
Now we have law drawn with
great care and not without ability. but
conditions have changed to great ex-
tent. Under his law are many and
various ways of acquiring land, some
of them good ones. There is the 999
year lease. for the Hawaiian, good so
far as it goes, but limited in operation.
BY the right of purchase lease land may
be acquired by a supposed settler and,
after the title is perfected through his
living up to conditions imposed, can be
turned over to a sugar plantation. We
find. often, that those who have taken
land from the government under this
are employees of the sugar plantations.
Sometimes these purchasers never
went near their lands at all, leasing
the lands to the plantations. Thus
they get revenue from the lands
until the time has expired and then
it is found that they have not fulfilled
any of the requirements of the settler
but the payment of the purchase price.
Now the law provides that when land
is sold for nonfulf1llment of conditions
the settler shall get the actual value
of the improvements he has made and
as the land is worth three and four
times what has been paid he gets all
the repurchase money, making good,
fat thing out of it and the land goes
to a plantation.
Under the cash freehold and right
of purchase system, what happens. A
purchaser may get piece of land
covered with timber. He strips this
+ off and then clears out. Or the man
| buys at SIS an acre. when the land is
worth from $50 to s65 an acre. He rents
it to a plantation. pays his rent to the
government and pockets the rest.
Through the plantation work his con-
ditions of cultivation are fulfilled and
he then sells out at from $50 to. So an
acre
THE worst of all is the settlement
| association Through this the menu
bers get land without bidding it in at
auction, dirt cheap, as the saying is.
Some persons form these associations
and instead of bringing in persons
with mutual interests. as was the in
tention, persons having no affinity are
invited, sometimes charged an admis-
sion fee The promoter is after this
! fee sometimes; sometimes he wants to
open a store among the settlers and
such things. The system. as 1t has
worked out has ali the disadvantages
of the cash freehold and the right of
purchase and more.
We've got to be very careful how
we dispose of land to small settlers
and be sure that their intentions are
bona fide The law will have to be
amended. although some do not want
to open the question by amending the
law But we can safely do so. There
is no danger of getting anything worse
than we have got. We should charge
the full pricesof the land to the set
tiers and make stricter conditions or
residence and cultivation, then allow
deductions in the price for every year
that the conditions are lived up to. say
for ten years, then giving the land for
very small balance remaining.
Let US give the settlers the land
for almost nothing, but make sure that
he is a bona fide settler"