The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1920-03-26
SAVE HI SUGAR LANDS

lust how much land and how many possible homeSeaders are in
vohed in all this hulabaoo being raised over the subject?
Does anybody really know?
Well then, here you are.
On June 80, 1919 the toal area of cane lands owned by the Terri
tory was 25659l9 acres. Subdivded into lots of only so acres it
would supply but 500 applicants with homesteads.
From the noise made one might suppose that at least 10 times that
amount of land and as many people were involved; and the chances
are that most persons imagine that the public domain is vastly more ex-
tenSiVe than it actually is
Five hundred of the best and most intelligent farmers in the whole
world could not be expected to make any great impression on our popu-
Aion of $4,000, particularly when they must be so scattered all over
the territory that cooperation between them would be impossible.
public clamor induced by a very real land-hunger will force the adj
mnstraion to open to settlement within the next few years the small
remaining remnants of the public domain that is fit for anything except
scenery. Also we are just as certain that in another few years the
land will have passed actually or virtually into the hands of the cor
poratons where they will remain.
And the land hunger will in 10 whit be appeased.
What are we going to do about that andhunger, anyway?
Most of the older countries of Europe at M time or another
either peacefully or violently, have been forced to take heed of this
inherent demand of the land hungry. The stability of France in her
last great crisis is frankly accorded to the fact that her sons were &C
tualy fighting for their own farms and fresides. The subdivision of
France into small holdings came out of the terrible French revolution
in 1899. AT one time Denmark was owned by Is men. Today almost
every farmer in Denmark is the owner of the land he cutivates. In
New Zealand the government in the past decade has condemned and
bought up many thousands of acres of lands in the form of estates, and
subdivided them into small areas which have been sold to men and
women wanting homes.
In the United States the menace of landlordism is beginning to
cause uneasness in many sections of the country. In some of the
agricultural states of the middle west as high as 20 percent of the land
is tarmed by tenants. The problem is rapidly becoming a live issue in a
number of states.
This territory is not over populated. 1t could sustain without strain
~ times the present quarter of a million population we now have. But
long before that time comes some method of dealing with the ageod
hunger OF the human animal for a hold upon the soil must have been
satisfactorily worked out. How it is to be done no one knows. But it
is not too soon to be thinking about it for sooner or later it must be met.
Yes, the demand for homesteading of the public lands is based on
a real need. But it is also based on a lot of transformation. To turn
thlsh limited area over on a fee simple basis to a few hundred individuals
were worse than useless under present conditions. The time will doubt
less come when this should be done, but that time is not yet.