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

ailment, once asked the poet, Wit. and
philosopher, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
to prescribe for her. He told her that
it would have been better had some
physician prescribed for her ances-
itors several generations before. This
incident comes all unbidden to the
writer, when thinking of Mr.. Fishers
investigations into the charges
brought by Delegate Kuhio against
lGovernor Frear.
! The investigation seemed to turn
upon the acknowledged fact that most
things here, built up by capital, i'm
mense energy, and superior thought
and management are all wrong. Per-
lhaps they are, but, if wrong, no doubt,
Governor Frear, in his well-chosen
words at the close of the investiga
ton, and had that been the proper
place and occasion, could have told
Mr.. Fisher that, for the wrong things
here, he is in very small degree re-
Isponsible. Those things, supposed to
be out of Joint, are not 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
1 begun, by executive and legislative
action, before he was Governor-even
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 a little
among ourselves, just for the fun of
it, but let stranger come here and
criticize our ways and manners, and
Immediately we all, metaphorically,
hop on him and make things fly, as
an old mother hen does to a strange
chicken invading the precincts of her
brood. l 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" Il
| think, to an obseryant 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 systemS / 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
tacres part of the time, aAd 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
dehatable question whether, had any
changes begun dong 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. It 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 unintentional 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 |
nearly 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 the fact, because matters have |
grown up differently. l 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, l doubt whether :,
any important change will be made. .
However, no more Chinese can come :,
here, no more japanese are coming;
labor will become scarCer, dividends