Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-10-09
Says He Repudiates Attempt of
Planters to Conceal De-
veIopment

wi II> hu tIIUI' wi Inv DdIl OIL lnt
planters ''to conceal every develop.
ment which they make" He also dis
Cu>Nc< the need for organization
among the small farmers of the terri.
tory and for governmental assistance
+ t. help them get Il fair start.
ThurstOn: | have had some expert
cnce in the Olaa Sugar Company. We
took up some land there doing a
! thousand acres at a time with picked
men. with a donkey engine and steam
, pIOws. and it cost them $ll0 an acre TO
get that land cleared ready to pillow
| don't suppose that the mainland
! farmer has to pay that.
! Fisher: | think you are quite COR
rect. was talking about the time
| when was comparing the position of
! the mainland farmer with the position
of the Hawaiian homesteader on land
which belongs to the government and
ton of cane perhaps ten or fifteen
years-What about that kind of land ?
Not Enough Land.
ThurstOn: AS to that class of land
there are only about $500 acres of
land, that would only make room for
few hundred farmers
Fisher: | suppose you are entirely
right. What we are discussing is why
the hOmesteading you have tried has
failed - in other words, the explana
ton you have given of the failure OF
the homesteader does not seem to
meet the case of the homesteader who
has entered these cane lands and
tried to cultivate them. All right. Let
us dispose of them so far as we have
gone. In the first place, so far as the
hOmesteader on the mainland is con-
cerned, he has to wait just as long as
does the hOmesteader on cultivated
land on Hawaii.
ThurstOn: | may have been misled
by the glowing literature concerning
the Imperial valley and its returns of
practically fortunes at the end of the
first year - of what has gone on in
Oregon and Washington. happened
to go through Canada, where the Ca
madam railroad is opening up 1,O0O,
600 acres.
Fisher: What | want to call your
dIISllOlOl " 10 lCilIu vi lllC OIuCI hlAu
that has been taken up and success
fully homeSteaded under cirCum-
stances that present, so far as ] can
see, substantially all of the difficult
ties that you have here, but involving
the same fundamental principle and
certainly they involve the question of
delay for the crop, certainly they in
volve the question of having a limited
market, certainly they involve the
question of the middleman. You
know that the middleman successful
ly controlled the situation until the
farmers formed cooperative assoCia-
tons.
Need OF Farmers Organization.
Thurston: Before taking up the
cultivation of sugar cane on the clear
ed lands here. may | just add another
item in regard to my observation of
the attempts to market any kind Of
produce on the mainland and the re-
peated attempts which have been
made among the more intelligent pro-
OuCers to get a combination of fruit
growers and their utter. failure to do
so | believe it a case where We have
tn take leaf out OF the experience Of
New Zealand and Australia and have
the Government take over that mat
ter 1t was recognized here yeala ago
that that was what must be done here.
! drafted and have down on my desk
still a proposition for local producers
getting together on precisely the Cali
fCrnia lines. 1t was a total failure
even among the pineapple people VINO
ere the most intelligent Of the small
producers for this reason: the organ
fZatiOn and working together neCeS-
states a certain amount of familiarity.
certain amount Of good faith be-
tween one farmer and another. The
difficulty here is that. there are so
r.any nationalities who can scarcely
Lake each other understOod-the fact
is that the bulk of the production is
carried on by Japanese. by Portuguese
rv Hawaians in d small way, and
smattering of Otner natiOnaltieS, and
while We get along here we'll enough,
as a matter of fact, when it gets down
to business and signing up a contract.
it has not been found pos sible | spent
months working on that pineapple
proposition with a committee appoint
eG from the organization here. and
drafted up paper after paper trying to
get down to an agreed basis, and fin
"lN threw il UP IN despair. NOhOdv
get cent out of it. have hopes that
iris will some day be resTSCitated. |
feel that the government ShOuO Jake
it up as public measure. not for tno
benefit of those planters. but 1Or the