The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-25
WHAT ABOUT PROPOSED
KAUAI LAND SQUANDER?

the Land Laws of acquiring any more.
but if he has already got ten thou
sand acres. all he has to do is to apply
for the coveted tract of land. when il
win be put up at auction, and under
the ''unwritten" rule prevailing here al
these auction sales, there is not likely
to be any bidding against him, so that
generally he gets the land at a nominal
rate above the upset price put upon ii
by the government.
There is a great flourish that $4,000
will be spent in improving this land.
Great Scott!-the enormous sum Of SIS
per acre Why, every settler in the
wahiawa colony spent $50 per acre be-
fore he got his title, ands more than
800 per acre before he had been there
FIVE years, and no man that has any
/ legitimate use for land expects 70
spend less than those sums in that pc
Rod of time. Portions Of these Kauai
lands are now growing aIgaroba for
| est and no doubt the balance of them
viii grow this tree. as it win grow
anywhere at low altitude on the lee
ward sides of these islands that sisal
will, and any man who has an acre OF
good aIgaroba forest should be sent to
a lunatic asylum if he should clear il
| TO plant sisal, for it viii return more
revenue, acre for acre, if properly han
died than sisaI ever Will, besides con-
verting desert lands into tropical jun
gle. while sisal only accentuates the
| desert conditions.
| Il is time a halt was called on the
policy of this government putting VI
large areas of. land at auction under
| the guise of their being worthless, as
was done with the so-ealled bad
/ lands" of waianae. when several thou
| sand acres were sold to L. L McCand-
| less and others, who are getting good
| incomes from the forest growth with
| out spending a dollar. except to cut
| the wood: the rental of these lands
/ for bee ranges alone win pay good
| interest on the price realized by the
| government, and this whole district
| has been turned over to "A half dozen
/ or less of men who will never open
| 1T or develop IL TO it's fun possible
| ties, while every forty acres Of il
would have made a Portuguese family
a prosperous and happy home, had il
/ been offered TO them under right Of
| purchase leases in 40-acre tracts. Sim
| liar lands out MoiIiili way and below
| KaTihi. so rocky that they were con-
I sidered useless a few years ago, are
/ now growing fine aIgaroba trees, in
/ terspersed with mangoes. papayas, ALI
| gator pears, grapes, etc.
II would be interesting reading, Mr..
| Editor. 10 have a list of lands disposed
| Of during the past five or six years
| to whom. and under what manner they
| were offered by the government Then
/ il would be interesting. to say the
| least, to investigate the present own
/ ership, 10 what use the various tracts
/ are being put. and the present value
/ the owners place on their respective
/ holdings.
! All this talk about Americanizing
| these islands and getting small farms
| by the Hawaiian government, and by
/ the majority Of the people of the IS
| lands. reminds me Of the hobo look
| ing for work and hoping he viii not
| find II. Yours truly,
ANERICAN-HAWA ALAN.