62 



FORESTRY AT THE SUGAR PEAXTERS' MEETING. 



At the annual meeting of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Asso- 

 ciation, held in Honolulu, December 4 to 7, 1911, more than usual 

 attention was paid to the subject of forestry. On December 5, 

 the chairman of the Committee on Forestry, Mr. Albert Horner, 

 of Kukaiau, Hawaii, presented a report calling on' the Associa- 

 tion to take definite action in forest matters and recommending 

 that certain specific projects be given the moral and financial sup- 

 port of the Association. These recommendations were later em- 

 bodied in a resolution, which was unanimously adopted. 



Mr. Ralph S. Hosmer, Territorial Forester, also addressed 

 the meeting, emphasizing further the points brought out in Mr. 

 Horner's report. As usual the report of the Committee on For- 

 estry was distributed in ])rinted form at the time of the meeting. 

 Following are the remarks of Mr. Flosmer and the resolution 

 adopted by the Association : 



Members of the Haivaiiaii Sugar Planters' Association. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : — Arguments in favor of for- 

 estry and statements of reasons why such work ought to be done 

 in Hawaii have been made so often before this Association that 

 the subject is one familiar to you all. I do not come here today to 

 re-thrash the old straw. But there are certain things that for 

 the good of the Territory must continue to be said until the public 

 seniment that unquestionably exists here is crystalizcd into definite 

 and positive action. 



No speakers could ask for a more appreciative audience than 

 is this association but, gentlemen, what is needed now is no longer 

 mere polite attention and the formal approval of recommendations. 

 It is high time that every plantation here represented should, in 

 the terms of the street, "get busy" with forest work, and that at 

 once. 



The sole reason why this demand can be made here is that such 

 work will pay. The plantation companies are long term corpora- 

 tions. They should and can afiford to look well into the future. 

 P>y the practise of forestry they will benefit llieniselves in many 

 particulars. 



This whole matter is purely a business pro])Ositi(Mi. Tlie only 

 excuse for the existence of forestry at all is that it is good busi- 

 ness to use part of the land for raising trees. That it is good 

 business .so to do is proved by the experience of many nations, 

 ancient and modem, so that indeed the degree to which forestry 

 is practised has become a sort of yard stick by which (he relative 

 advancement of nations can be measured. 



Here in Hawaii as elsewhere, wood and water are at the foun- 

 dation of all our prosjierity. We have given nnich attention of 

 late to the right use of water, and properly so. Mr. Martin, the 

 hydrographer, by dropping his current meter into your ditches 



