The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-26
40 81 IL ss ~ - 81 81 -
Kama's Water Right
By Wade Thayer The Cavalier for October 1909
Fr u" ~ ~ " ~

and fish from the sea and the little
rents the Chinese pay me. I cannot
take your money. Aloha oukou."
He bowed courteously to Wilson ant
| the notary. and left the room. Milians
followed slowly, with many backward
glance at the shining heap of gold upor
| the table. Wilson was speeches. witt
! gage and ehagrin, and not until the
departing pair were halfway across the
lawn did he find his voice.
"T'u MAKE you sorry for this, yor
! fooll'' he shouted after them. L
get the water in spite of you, AND
your darn taro patches will dry up arc
your rice wither where it grows. -
Kama went on as though he did not
hear. He shuffed down the road,
bulky, pathetic figure, with his tap
! ping hat and patched dungarees. Be
hind him trudged Miliana, upbraiding
him.
Early next morning a party Of engi-
neers passed Kama's house on their
way up to the head of the valley. Mi
Llama. on her knees by the brook wash
ing the clothes, stopped her work and
sat back. watching their progress up
the narrow trail through the lantana
bushes. She called to Kama, in the taro
patches across the stream.
There the foreigners CO., she said
triumphantly "They II take the water,
Just as I told you, and what viii be-
come of us thens You were a fool not
to take their money when it was offer
ed YOU
Kama wiped the mud from his fingers
slowly, and shading his eyes with his
hand, followed the course of the stran-
gers far up the mountainside.
ttI do not wish their money! he
said. "And I will not sell the land. -
''Lot of good the land viii be, with
the water turned over into the cane
fields =
"They cannot take my water rights
from me- said Kama obstinately. 81
own the land and the use of the water
when my taro patches need it. That
is the ancient law"
fsThe lawl'' said Miliana scornfu1ly.
What do the foreigners care for the
law7 They'll take the water in spite
of you. And if the law says they can
not. they viii get smart lawyer in
Honolulu to change the law
H.
Kama scarcely heard her last words,
for his eyes were fixed upon the engi-
neering party far up the valley. Could
it be possible that Wilson would be as
good as his words That the plantation
would take the water in spite of his re-
fusal to SELF
e
Without water for his taro he could
not live at Waihee. The patches would
dry up, and the rice would wither, Just
as Wilson had said. And where could
he and Miliana go7 To Honolulu, to
live in a noisy wooden tenement and
work on the wharvesf His soul re-
VOTED at the idea.
All his life he had lived in this smil-
ing little valley, with the merry chat
ter of the brook always in his ears, and
the trade wind forever singing among
the mango trees, and the showers blow.
ing down from the hills night and morn
ing, leaving all things green and fresh
and thriving.
Most of the other Hawaiians in the
valley had long since sold out their
holdings to the plantation and moved
to Honolulu. But Kama had elung to
his old home.
A sharp dash of water in the face
brought him out of his reverie with a
shock.
Don t stand there like a loio, -
cried Miiiana, as she resumed her scrub
bing of the laundry upon the rough
lava rocks of the stream. SEQ look
after your taro patches. You will not
have any in few more weeks. Better
see that they are weed clear and well
grown up before the foreigners turn
off the water into their canefelds.''
Kama opened his lips to reply, but
thought better of it and turned away
to his labor in the taro.
In the following weeks gangs of Japa-
nese laborers passed up the valley and