Z72 



CONSERVATION 



the territor}-, the only wise course is to pro- 

 tect the forest cover on all the streams that 

 are or may be needed for economic use. The 

 preservation of the forest saves the waters. 

 The assurance of a dependable supply makes 

 possible the development of land that could 

 not otherwise be turned to useful account. 

 In Hawaii, lands, waters and forests are 

 interdependent, so that a policy of conserva- 

 tion is essential. 



"The Hawaiian forest is easily damaged 

 from fire, cattle, and from other causes, and 

 it is essential in order to get the best re- 

 sults that the forests be protected. That the 

 forests may be better protected and more 

 easily handled to the end that the waters 

 they safeguard may be used in economic 

 ways, forest reserves have been created and 

 will continue to be set apart. 



"There have now been established sixteen 

 forest reserves on the four main islands of 

 the group with a total area of 444,116 acres. 

 Of this sixty-one per cent, is Government 

 land. It is probable that the creation of for- 

 est reserves will go on until eventually about 

 three-fourths of a million acres will be so 

 included, and these forests should be main- 

 tained and kept intact so that the water from 

 their streams may be turned constantly to 

 human account. 



"At this point I may say that the relation 

 of the forests to the streams is essentially the 

 feature of Hawaiian forestry and that wher- 

 ever there are streams, the forests should be 

 protected. In some of the leeward districts 

 there are forests which may be treated from 

 a commercial standpoint, because in those lo- 

 calities there are no running streams and 

 only a few springs to be conserved. But 

 far and away the most important use of the 

 Hawaiian forest is that it protects the 

 streams. Wherever there is a water which 

 may be turned to account this is the chief 

 value of the forest. * * * "Y\xq Federal 

 Government, through the Forest Service, has 

 this year given the sum of $2,000 for experi- 

 mental work in planting pines, spruces, and 

 firs at high elevations on Mauna Kea and 

 Haleakala. Inclosures are now being made 

 in which experimental lots of these trees 

 will be set out. This is a step that should 

 lead in time to the afforestation of those 

 mountains. 



"The relation of forests, waters, and lands 

 is of peculiar importance and interest in 

 Hawaii. These three natural resources are 

 interdependent. The essential need at the 

 present time is for the careful study and 

 investigation of the local water problems by 

 trained men — the experts of the United 

 States Geological Survey at Washington — as 

 a preliminarv' step to the extension to Hawaii 

 of the Reclamation Service." 



Dr. Jared G. Smith said: 



"The actual amount of water that falls in 

 that Kona forest — and that forest is on the 

 dry side of the island — amounts in the course 

 of a year to 400,000 billion gallons of 

 water, an amount that is absolutelv bevond 



comprehension. And yet no effort has been 

 made to conserve that water. We have just 

 had a drought affecting the whole dry side 

 of the Island of Hawaii. We had to buy 

 water, but during years past and for all time 

 there has been this enormous quantity of 

 water that could have been, much of it, con- 

 served for the benefit of agriculture, not only 

 in the Kona district, but elsewhere on the 

 island. Not one per cent., I think not one- 

 tenth of one per cent., of the water supplied 

 b}' the rainfall is now preserved for use by 

 the plantations or by the farmers. It is a 

 money proposition; it is a business proposi- 

 tion. * * * 



"Without the forest to retard the run-off, 

 there follows flood and destruction. We 

 have all of us seen the ocean reddened for 

 miles from the land with the surface soils 

 from our cultivated fields. We have seen 

 fields, the entire surface, swept into the 

 ocean. This loss is not simply a loss to 

 the individual plantation or the individual 

 farmer affected, but it is a loss to the terri- 

 tory — it is taking away from the natural re- 

 sources of the territory some of its capital. 

 Besides the actual conservation of water, in 

 order that we may use it, besides the actual 

 preservation of forest in order that we may 

 use it, and besides, well, besides both these, 

 we must conserve both the forest and the 

 water in order to save our soils. Water is 

 necessary for the growth of plants, it is nec- 

 essary for our domestic stock. If any one of 

 us discovers that he has a hole in his money 

 pocket, he mends it ; it seems to me that the 

 territory has a hole in its money pocket, and 

 the legislature should see that there is a hole 

 there and try to stop it, in order that loss of 

 actual property resources shall no longer con- 

 tinue." 



Judge Sanford B. Dole said : 



"It is, I believe, ascertained that the air 

 from forests is cooler than the air from 

 lands devoid of vegetation, and this is one 

 reason why clouds appear above forests and 

 not over surrounding regions that are devoid 

 of vegetation and where the air above them 

 is saturated, is full of moisture; the cooling 

 air is more likely to produce showers than 

 the air from other regions which are bare of 

 vegetation. It may be said, perhaps more 

 correctly, not that forests create showers 

 or produce them, but rather that they allow 

 the showers to come down. * * * 



"I say that the question of the protection 

 of rainfall is something to be considered in 

 view of the interests of the small land- 

 holders; that if possible the droughts 

 which sometimes occur and drive them away 

 from their homes, which make water an 

 article to be supplied by the quart for drink- 

 ing purposes and sometimes not obtainable 

 even then, should be lessened — that the con- 

 servation of forests there in that region 

 reaching from North to South Kona, iKau 

 and in the Puna district, is something to be 

 considered from the standpoint of the small 

 landowner. The same condition exists in 



