The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1917-11-02
SEVERITY OF LONG /
DROUGHT ON HAWAII
Being MIT|GATED
Break Is Coming But Slowly and
It win Take Considerable Time
For Conditions 70 Become Nor
NAL u ~ III
DRY SPELL HAS DONE e.
ENORMOUS DAMAGE


Hundreds Of Acres Of Cane Are
Dead and Must Be Replanted,
Report From Big Island
Indications that the severity of the
protracted dry spell on the Island Of
Hawaii has been mitigating and tn VI
the drought is actually breaking, are
being received. Reports show, how.
ever, that the break Is coming slowly
and gradually and that il win take
time for conditions to return TO the
normal The loss has been enormous
though II Is impossible to put il into
definite figures until December crop es-
Inmates come in when they can be com
pared with the estimates of the 1918
crop that were contained in the annual
reports Of the various companies. Then
simple matter Of subtractons and
multiplications will put the figures Of
the losses into tons and dollars. nj
No sudden downpour marks the end.
ing Of the drought on the Island of Ha-
wall and no big rains are reported. The
government weather reports tell of in.
creases in the precipitated moisture up
to Thursday of last week and reports
Of the various plantation agencies tell
of further and better rains on Satur.
day. While, by comparison with the
rain fall of the preceding month, the
reports received by the government
bureau Indicate great improvement,
the precipitation at most stations in
HamakUS, North Kohala and North
Hilo WIS still below the normal At
Honokaa there fell 0.43 inch of rain,
while in the four preceding weeks the
total was only 0.l0 inch. But less
than half an inch for week cannot be
called bountiful rainfall Other
Hamakua, North Kohala and North
Hilo stations showed the week s mois-
ture to have been equal to the total
for the four preceding weeks or to
have exceeded il by various proper.
tons up to four times as great. 3D..
Not Enough For PLUMBING
/ Pepeekeo had fairly good rainfall
up to Thursday, 0.99 as against none
whatever the week before and still
more fell on Saturday. Olaa had an
inch and half Of rain Saturday and
| other similar reports have been re-
ceived from plantation agencies.
Resumption of grinding by the plan
tations that have been unable to fume
cane to the mills cannot be expected
at once. In the case Of Olaa there was,
after the Saturday rains, six and q
half inches of water IN the fumes as
against three inches previously. AT
the agency Of the company it was said
this is only half what is needed AZ q
foot flow, at least, is required to fume
cane to the mill "ar j
Maui Still Dry W.. -. .,
From Maui there were only two re,
ports received from weather bureau sta:
tions. At Haiku the rainfall was small
while at Waikiki there was only q
trace Of rain. Conditions there are still
serious, though the loss has not been
so bad, proportiOnately, as in the three
dry Hawaii districts because of the
greater area of irrigated lands. In
loss in tonnage of crops, however, the
Mad loss is apt to be greater than
thatton Hawaii. e.
Replanting Is Necessary an..
Hundreds of acres of cane will have
to be plowed up and replanted on Ha.
wa!i, according to the Herald which
paints a disheartening picture In the
| following article;
Although rumors of the bad state
of affairs along the Hamakua coast
line have reached Hilo from time to
time il takes trip along that line
to bring fully to anybody's mind the
| true Significance of the terrible
drought and its effect on the cane at
many Of the plantations. VT
Sight u Psinful Ga... "a s.s. a.
| h'From Papaaloa to KukuihaeIe the
scene is painful one. The first named
plantation does not look in such very
| bad condition. The cane IS burnt some.
what but there is plenty of green Ia
be seen. At Ookala it is about the
| same but, from that place Cd, the loss
| is'terrible. Cane that is located above
the irrigation ditch is dead. Not shriv.
eled and dry looking, but dead and
done. Hundreds Of acres of cane have
been destroyed and not a pound OF
sugar VIII come next year from those
acres. There is no possibility of the
cane being revived, even if tremendous
rains fell. This refers to many see,
tions of the Plantations along the hne.
The makai fields are all right because
OF the irrigation but the mauka cane
is pau. .. &&,y
"The sight is very painful one to
| even outsiders. AS, to what the man.
ayers, stockholders and employees of the
plantations think, the least said the
better. 1t is heartbreaking and that II
all there is to il. -, - i's' s,t
"The Hamakua has suffered the
most severe drought since cane was
first planted out that way and the loss
Will be very heavy. Cane that was in.
tended for next years crop is being
harvested now. That will save some.
thing but a tremendous amount of the
cane is not nearly ready to cut and this
is dead or dying. '&ns .f4'.F@
"The sight cannot be duplicated
anywhere and men who have been in
touch with cane growing in many parts
of the world declare that they do not
believe that anything of the Kind has
ever happened elsewhere," 2 ~ ~