Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-09-14

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i that was thereafter made. to the eff.
feet that lease could be made for
| Is years, but restriction was placed
upon that which provided that should
| the lands be desired for homestead
ing purposes. they could be taken
j over by the government at any time
! and opened up for homesteading pur.
! poses. That made a mans leace q
tenancy at will The subject was then
brought up as to whether or not we
] would consider provision that any
% citizens who applied for the open
i ing of the land for honestea ding par
poses could force the government TO
l SO open the lands That would force
/ the hand OF the government 10 open
j the lands and would nullify the whole
scheme as far as we were concerned.
i Our idea was that this iuAdeYeloped
land Should be developed ana sold IL
/ p6ssible; and that every -endear0f
!. should be made TO develop THAT land;
and second, after 1t was developed
j and ali taken up, then II there were
further Inquiries, then to go upon the
cane lands; but that the cane lands
i should not be developed first. Now,
as result of this Is citizen proFi.
i sion, which has since gone into efs
!, feet in the amendments to the Or
ganie Act, the hand Of the adminisi
/ tfation has been forced; and Allsslahd
Iof a highly developed character can
/ be thrown upon, the market for the
i benefit of the Territory: And that
situation, as far as a number OF us
/ are concerned, should not be brought
/ about, immediately. For instance,
You had system known here as 8
Reserve system: II that was to be
Il changed the change should not be
brought about rapidly, but by pro-
cess Of evolution: that is.ftie Govern
ment would have the opportunity Of
opening up these cane lands from
4 time to time, and not throw them
open as q whole without an assufety
THAT they were to be fafned properly
and given out in any bona fide man
ner So much for that side.i
] Question Of Bona Fides.
There is another question which
has always been a debatable ground.
4 The main question is, are you going
to test the bona fides? You want to
tie him up with all sorts of restric-
i lions? In fact, a man whom you
would want as settler might not
care to take up the homestead owing
j to the restrictions which you enforce:
/ Thereby you thwart your. object by
making the conditions SO hard that
he is not able to comply with them.
( / would say that until a man received
his, title any conditions which the
government might see fit to make;
which would test the bona fides, were
advisable provided they were not too
stringent; but after he got his title
III think the restrictions ought to be
relaxed somewhat. might say that
after our report was filed, the law
was drafted and a great many changes
j were placed in it. This idea Of striy-
/ ing to put restriction on the home
4 steader who desires to sell his land
after he acquires title-either to go
out of the Territory or to go into an
other line of business-by not allow
4 ing him to sell to a corporation or
i to a man who with the land sold him
n will own more than. 80 acres, acts
both ways. Is that an attractive prop
osition to the homesteader? There is
the problem. / admit that you want
to keep the lands out of corporate
i hands, but it is big problem. On
i the other hand, those hemesteaders
might want to form Independent cor
porations. 1t might be advisable that
I after they get their patents they
might want to form little associa-
II lions whereby they could dispose of
their products to better advantage,
and in this way be able to secure adj
vances.
Fisher: There would be no reason
to put the land in to acquire that,
would there?
/ Lewis: There might be.
! Lewis: So far for that theory |
1 think there was one other proposition
and that is this: as far as the unde-
, veloped lands are concerned, that the
price should be made very low The
man who takes up these lands has a
value to create;\ and if the home
steader creates that value then he is
Il entitled to that land at a low figure
i Second, when you come to sell devel-
oped land such as cane land, you are
making an error if those lands are
sold at low figures, because then you
get two elements: first, those lands
for a number of years have been out
at low rentals and the government is
now in a position to reap the benefits
Of having the lands developed; and,
second, if you place low appraised
value on the lands then there is the
element of speculation which will
:; come in no matter what your reStric-
tons are. Some of the speculative
i class are bound to get in there-it