46 



of the wood and its handsome color lend themselves admirably. 

 The waste from the Ohia mills (slabs, etc.) is sold for firewood, 

 not a little of it being shipped to Honolulu. 



Another company, Cant & Bolte, Limited, is also operating 

 in Puna, on privately owned forest lands. This company also 

 sells its product both for ties and for lumber. 



The latter firm is also conducting logging operations on private- 

 ly owned lands in South Kona. These, it is expected, will later 

 assume much more important proportions than they have at 

 present. 



FOREST FIRES. 



The Territory has been extremely fortunate in the last two 

 years in not having had any forest fires of sufficient importance 

 to justify more than passing mention here. 



At the same time it has been evident in several instances that 

 it was a good thing to have a strict forest fire law on the statute 

 books, for while there have been no active prosecutions, the moral 

 effect of the law has more than once been felt. 



That the absence of forest fires in this period may not create 

 a sense of fancied security from danger, it must again be pointed 

 out that at present there exists no fund from which expenses 

 can be paid for fighting fires on unleased government lands. 

 Under the present law the Government can compel its lessees and 

 also private owners to take proper precautions as to the use of 

 fire, on penalty of fines and damage suits, should fires originating 

 on a given tract spread and do damage. But on its own unleased 

 lands and most of the lands in the forest reserves are now in 

 this class the Government is powerless to take effective steps to 

 stop or to control fires that may start from one or another cause. 

 The remedy lies in a provision whereby money for fighting forest 

 fires shall be made available for use in case of necessity. This 

 item could well be included with others, as in an appropriation 

 for "fencing forest reserves and protecting them from forest fire." 

 Such an emergency forest fire fund should amount to at least 

 $5,000. It is devoutly to be hoped that the need for it may never 

 again arise in Hawaii, but as in other forms of insurance, the 

 wise course is to be fore-armed. 



THE DISTRICT FORESTERS. 



REPORTS OF DISTRICT FORESTERS. 



Following the custom of former years, opportunity was 

 given each of the District Foresters to submit notes of forest 

 happenings in their respective districts or recommendations 

 in regard to forest work. The following extracts are taken 

 from the reports received: 



