190 



Kona and Na Pali Districts. The goats are doing much dam- 

 age by destroying the scanty vegetation on the steep canyon 

 sides and exposed ridges, thus aUowing erosion to go on more 

 rapidly, with the result that more debris falls into the valleys 

 and that the side gulches work back faster into the upland. 

 At different times in the past there have been goat hunts and 

 as occasion nov/ offers a few goats are killed but as it is no^v 

 carried on this work does little toward checking the increase 

 of this pest. Systematic and continued hunting by well 

 trained mountaineers seems to be the only effective way of 

 getting rid of the goats. It is hoped that. later, work of this 

 sort can be undertaken as a part of the administration of the 

 reserve. 



Fire. 



The Waimea Upland has been remarkably free from forest 

 fires. On the Gay and Robinson lands this is doubtless due 

 in large part to the policy of that firm in fining the person who 

 lets the fire start, the fine so collected going into a fund out of 

 which every one who helps put out the fire is liberally paid. 

 It thus becomes an object to respond promptly when the alarm 

 comes. Consequently few lires spread over any considerable 

 area. A system of this sort can of 'course be made effective 

 only where all the people of a given section are in the employ 

 of a single interest. 



PRIVATE RESERVES. 



The action of the Knudsen Brothers and ^Messrs. Gay and 

 Robinson in protecting the forest from fire, in getting out the 

 wild cattle and in keeping their ranch stock outside the boun- 

 daries of the forest has resulted in fact, though not in name, 

 that the area now proposed to be officially set apart has for 

 some years been a private forest reserve. 



The creation of the Na Pali-Kona Forest Reserve wdll of- 

 ficially recognize the reservation and give permanence, on the 

 government land, to an arrangement that less far sighted 

 lessees might not see fit to continue. The control of the gov- 

 ernment land during the term of the existing leases and of 

 course that of the fee simple property vests in the present 

 lessees or owners, unless some agreement as to forest manage- 

 ment is voluntarily entered into with the Government. It s 

 the intention of both the firms named to continue to manage 

 the forest lands under their ownership or control as they have 

 been doing in the past few years. This puts the matter on a 

 satisfactory basis and is a program that at this time the Gov- 

 ernment is not prepared to improve on. 



