The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-01-13


in his absence and without his knoWl
edge to build "a church OF wood, because
the grass churches are so easily dcs
troycd by wind and had raised y25e al
ready lie said
THAT seems rdiculously little money
for several hundred converted natives
to subscribe. but remember that they
have but one means of making money
tine sale of copra. To get the copra
they must climb the cocoanut palms,
thirty to fifty feet, without a branch
or knot or any irregularity Of form
that might permit of rest throw down
the nuts. descend break them open,
spread the contents on the sand for
several days to dry, gather up the dried
copra carry il on their backs TO the
shore, canoe it through the surf to the
| ship and receive pay at the rate Of 6
bits thousand conoanuts.
Much less impressive. but much pref
tier-no such ladylike adjective in any
degree of comparison would ever be
suggested by a cocoanut paints the
date palm, lowgrowing, prolific, per
fectly symmetrical The dates grown
here are Of poor quality and are not
gathered, except by schoolboys to pelt
each other with, but the trees in great
numbers are grown for ornamental pur-
poses. Proper care and breeding
would doubtless result in good returns
of fruit. but in Hawaii everything that
grows is neglected but sugar cane, cof-
fee and pineapples, and, aside from
them, only suchthings do well as are
Indifferent TO cultivation. Where there
is such riotous abundance and the
nearest market 1000 miles away, fruit
culture has no spur and makes no pro
gress.
The travellers palm is very curious
in appearance and potentially very i'm
portant 1t rises from a short stalk
only a. few feet high, in huge radiating
feathelike branches, the whole tree
looking like an enormous screen. 1t
bears no fruit. but stores at the juno
| ton of it's ribs, near the ground re-
servoir. many reservoirs, of pure clear
| cool water, always to be had by simply
pricking the stem.
Even more interesting is the pan
ranus or screw pine. 1t is a kind OF
rival of the coocanut palm, in from
tiering on volcanic islands, very hardy
and persistent, but quite without the
| t,.f,r If hof ct
tropical trees 1t is from the tough
fibres of it's long, swordlike leaves that
the wonderful fine mats are made, and
the wood-the little there is of it's
very hard and tough and beautifully
grained 1t is well known among my
friends that l am a kind of idolater at
the shrine of handsome woods and the
result is that l am accommodating a
perfect museum of walking sticks, eX-
quisitely worked out from these rare
trees and given me for souvenirs.
have friend here, an expert wood
| turner, whose name is Ralph Turner.
an enthusiast about wood and an expert
in forestry and woodworking. His shop
is my avocation. No place in Honolulu
| is so attractive to me as his shop where
l find him barricaded with stumps and
roots and old piles cast up by the
sea. He is never too busy to drop his
work and revel with me in the rare,
rough riches of the place. Yesterday
as l passed he called to me and said:
Come in. See, ! have found you
| enough of the black palm for a cane"
After we had spent an hour digging
among his treasures, said, Goodness
alive. | must go, you are wasting this
afternoon, you must go to work." and
he replied with kind of solemn twin
kle in his voice. "Ah, well, it doesn't
matter. WhenI fell in love with wood
and quit studying law | lost my
chance to get rich"
The pandanus is a hypochondriac
tree, hardy, touch, persistent, but al
ways putting out an anchor to wind
ward. Its chief popularity is its habit
of dropping guy roots from its branch
es to prop them and tie them to the
rocks and earth. The tree grows to
height of twenty to thirty feet and
meanwhile anchors itself with these
aerial roots. something as the banyAn
does; but it does not travel and spread
as the banyan.
But of fruit trees the heartiest,
friendliest, most charming tree is the
familiar banana. 1t grows everywhere
and is a native. The traveller sees it
mostly in places more or less exposed,
with it's wonderful leaves whipped into
ribbons fly the trade winds. But in
sheltered places where the rain falls
frequently banana tree is certainly a
thing of beauty and a joy for about
eighteen months, when its one bunch
of fruit is ready to be eaten; then it
dies, or rather is cut down to the
grounds to begin again as a sucker
from its own root The punches grow
wrong side up. At home they hang
in the fruit stores by the blossom end