The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-02
LAND-OWNING IN HAWAII VIEWED
BY RAY STANDARD BAKER

There could scarcely be a better II.
lustration than this of the way in
which leisure class may be built zip
by holding a grip on the land. and
getting someone else to do the hard
work in improving and developing that
land.
This story of James Campbell has
been repeated in slightly variant
forms hundreds of times in Hawaii.
Several different classes of people
have profited by the system. Much
government land is leased under very
low rentals 10 the great plantation
corporations; one Of them pays $1,000
a year under an old lease for $4,000
acres of land This plantation has
been enormously profitable to its own.
ers. Much other government Land is
similarly held at absurdlv low rentals.
pire the planters are interposing the
utmost opposition to the reasonable
readiustment of their rentals. or to
the use of the land for small farms.
Many of the best opportunities for
getting hold of the land naturally
went to the old missionaries and their
families. They were Not only the first
on the ground. but they we're a pru-
dent far-seeing group of men, Being
News Englanders, the instinct OF the
trader was scarcely secondary to that
of the religious enthusiast. and if it
did not come vigorously to the sur
face in the first generation It usually
did in the second or third. The most
powerful influences in business in the
islands today are the old missionary
amilies-Baldwin Alexander Castle,
Cooke, Damon, Wilcox, and many
others.
OF course, the opportunities came to
various men in various ways, but they
have succeeded in one way or another
in getting and holding land in larger
or smaller tracts. A single minor ex-
dluIlt Will llluolld lt uON lItot lulISS
came about. One of the early and
earnest missionaries was Dr. Bond Of
Kohala in the Island Of Hawaii A
generation or more ago he received a
legacy of $400O-and Immediately
bought a large tract of land Of the Ha-
waiians. A few years later, when the
sugar industray began to spread, a
corporation bought DR.. Bonds land.
giving him paid-up stock in payment.
The years went on Before Dr. Bond
died he had received as a result of his
investment of $4,000 in land, between
$3.50, 900 and 100000 IN dividends. OF
course he never turned hand in earn
ing any Of this money. although when
it began to come in I'm such amounts
he distributed much of it in various
good causes lie paid back to the
American Board of Missions every
cent paid him in salary and many
thousands of dollars besides, and he
continued his missionary work as long
as ne was dDle. tie also COulTlDuIS'
literally to educate the disappearing
Hawaiians. especially to the Kohala
girls school of which he was a trus
tee. And yet. when he died, his es
tate was worth over 100000, or some
seventy-five times as much money as
he invested originally.
But the missionary families are by
no means the only residents who have
profited by keeping their hands on the
land. Other white men, early traders
and German and English settlers, have
also used their opportunities to good
advantage, and finally many Hawaii
ans, either owing to chance, or tC
good advice, or to an unusual streak OF
native caution, have refused to part
with their lands and as a result, where
these lands happened to be valuable
they are now living in modest idle