The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-06-13
ROMESTEADERS BEING
INVESTIGATED AGAIN
MANY PLACES FOUND DEsERTED
r IN KAuNANIANo = REPORT
Is SUBMITTED.
CNtai Special to The Advertiser.)

(Mail Special to The Advcrtiscr.)
H1LO, June TO- - Deputy Attorney.
General Smith came to Hilo this week
aud is now busy gathering data with
regard TO the Kslwih Third and the
Opea Peleau homesteads These home.
steads, which are located In the neigh
borhood of Hahalau, are at present
much in the public eye, as they, as well
as the Kaunamano settlements in Kau,
which was the fort of the famous
| Thompson settlement association, form
I basis for the new attitude which the
Governor has taken in regard to cane
lands.
In the case of the Hakalau lands, q
petition was sent to the Legislature ask
! ing that patents be issued to the home
steaders, who claimed that they had
! fulfilled all the conditions and that
their time for securing patents had
long since passed. As result reso
luton was passed by the legislature
directing. the authorities to issue the
patents forthwith.
Mr.. Smith explains that the matter
had been submitted to the attorney
generals department some time before
the legislative session began, and the
attorney general in person had taken
up the examination of the various
patents, as he was familiar with the
lands. The idea was to ascertain
whether the settlers had fulfilled all
the conditions which must be fulfilled
before they could become entitled to
patents, and this took considerable
time, as there were many details to be
looked into.
Before the work had been completed
the legislature went into session, and
while this was on the attorney gen
eral s department was too busy assist
ing the legislators to handle the home
stead matter. The passage of the reso-
luton, said Mr.. Smith, did not affect
the attitude of the department. The
work would have been taken up at this
time in every case.
The investigation of the Kaunamano
homesteads was finished by Mr.. Smith
a week or two ago, and he has just
submitted his report thereon to the de-
partment. In taking up the Kaiwili
and the Opea- Peleau homestead matter,
said Mr.. Smith, he was solely trying
to secure the facts of the case at first
hand. 1t was not his intention to try
to make a case one way or another,
but merely to secure all the data pos,
sible.
With this end in view be had gone
all over the homestead tracts and had
interviewed all the hOmcsteaders who
were still on the land. 1t was also his
intention TO have an interview with
Manager Ross-of the Hakalau planta-
ton. Whether the Kaunamano or the
Hakalau homestead matters would fin
ally find their way into the courts, he
could not say. His intention at lpres-
ent was merely to gather data.
Mr.. Smith had found that about four
fifths of the settlers, had already left
their holdings. In every case where
the settlers had left the cultivation
of the house lots had ceased and many
of the trees which had to be planted
according to law, were now being
choked out by weeds, indicating that
the tree-planting phase of the agree
ments had in such cases been failure.
The houses We're in nearly all cases
small, apparently in most cases no
larger than was absolutely necessary to
provide shelter during the years in
which residence was compulsory.
On the other hand there was nothing
in the law to compel settlers to build
larger houses, and the fact that the
settlers had moved away might or
might not have legal bearing on the
matter. On the whole, said Mr.. Smith,
it might well be said that there were
two sides to the question, and the home
steaders certainly had good argument
in their favor in the state of the road,
which was almost impossible.