Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-10-11
HAWAII AND THE INVESTIGATION

I
to prescribe for her. He told her tina,
il would have h"aA b.rrrr had SINE
physician prescribed for her ancr>-
tors several generations before This
incident comes all uHhidden 70 the
writer. when thinking Of Mr.. Fisher 5
Investigations into the charges
! brought bv Delegate kuhiO AGAINST
Governor f'rtar.
! The investigation Seemed 70 turn
upon the acknowledged fact that most
things here. built up by capital. I'M
mense energy. and superior thOuglt
| and management are all wrong. Per-
haps they are. but, if wrong no doubt.
| Governor Trear, in his Weil-chOspn
words at the close of the inNestiga-
zion, and had that been the proper
| place and occasion, could kave told
| Mr. Fisher that, for the wrong things
here, he is in a very small degree re-
| sponsible. Those things, supposed 10
| be out of Joint, are rot OF sudden
emergence, but OF long and painful
| growth No doubt the Governor could
have said that had they needed
changing, the changes should have
! begun, by executive and Legislative
action, before he was GOvernOr-evcn
before he was born.
AS an observer of events in Hawaii,
| for some thirty years, the writer of
| this article has always supposed that
We are a cOmplaiSant, happy. and
prosperous lot of people as live any
where True, We bicker little
! among ourselves, just for the fun Of
| it. but let a stranger come here and
criticize our ways and manners, and
| Immediately We all, taphOriCally,
hop on him and make things fly, as
an old mother hen does to strange
chicken invading the precincts of her
brood. said We are prosperous, each
according to his own standard of life,
and happy according to his moods
All these things strike the stranger
| from the mainland, or other parts of
the world, very pleasantly.
Much came out in Mr.. Fishers in
quiry concerning small farming" |
think, to an observant person, having
! lived here for many years, and having
seen many experiments in small farm
ing, that about all there could have
been done in this direction has been
done.
Truth to tell, think it is generally
admitted that the only possibility for
small farming has been induced by
the plantation system. l have been
told that some of the Portuguese, and
others, that have succeeded in getting
small pieces of land in close contact
with the plantations have succeeded
at least partially. Being close to the
plantation, any spare time the home
steader may have can be utilized for
wages on the plantation. Thus, the
small farmer can develop his few
acres part of the time, and earn mon
ey the rest of the time.
The writer of this article, in years
past, rode over the land whereon Ho-
nolulu and Maxwell plantations now
are. Both these lands, especially in
the summer, were tenanted by dead
kekania and klu bushes, and the red
dust blowing where it listeth.
Had a thousand acres of this dry
land been given to a small farmer, he
could not have supported a family
or that amount-it is even, doubtful
whether it would have supported, the
year round, one hundred billy goats.
1t is not certain that any other sys-
tenn than the plantation one, had it
been pursued in that past would have
developed these islands, both indus
trially and commercially, as has been
done under the past system. 1t is a
dehatable question whether, had any
changes begun long ago, that we
should now be in as substantial a
place in development and capital as
we are today.
The Delegate himself, who brought
the complaints against the Governor,
acknowledged that he thought there is
something wrong in the land, but that
he cannot say what is wrong. 1t would
appear to an impartial critic, that he
should not have caused all the dis
turbance unless he had been ready to
put his finger on some one wrong.
This he failed to do.
The fact is that, perhaps, there has
been an u1intentional use of words.
Instead of calling things wrong,
would it not be better to say that
matters here are not exactly as we
would have them? But this is true Of
nearlr every country. Indeed, far more
true in older countries tan here.
Ideally, it would be better to have a
homogeneous population, settled on,
and owning their own lands, but that
it not tie fact. because matters have
grown up differently. do not believe
that any amount OF foresight in the
past could have developed this cOun-
try in any way, very different from
the way in which it has been devel-
oped.
Will the present system continue?
So long as prosperity continues out of
the present system, | doubt whether
any important change will lie maze.
However. no more Chinese can come
here; no more Japanese are coming;
labor Will become S"Grter. dividends